Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
Parallel translations
- WEB Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
- BSB They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?
- NKJV Yes, they spoke against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
- NASB Then they spoke against God; They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
- NLT They even spoke against God himself, saying, “God can’t give us food in the wilderness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people openly questioned whether God could even set a table in the desert. Their sarcastic doubt insulted the One who had already redeemed them.
Overview
Speaking against God, Israel challenged His ability to provide in the wilderness. The taunt 'Can God prepare a table?' reveals hearts that had forgotten the Exodus miracles. Ironically God does spread tables for His people, supremely in the Lord's Supper, where Christ feeds believers in the wilderness of this world.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Num 21:5And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
- Num 11:4And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
- Exod 16:3And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
- Ps 23:5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
- Exod 16:8–10And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
- Num 11:13Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.
- Num 20:3And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
- Job 34:37For he addeth rebellion unto his sin, he clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth his words against God.
- 2 Chr 32:19And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.
- Rev 13:6And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
- Rom 9:20Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 78:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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