Bible Strands
Numbers 20:3
The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished with our brothers before the LORD!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites speak to Moses and Aaron during a wilderness water shortage, immediately after gathering in opposition to them in Numbers 20:2.
The words — וַיָּרֶב (va.ya.rev) literally means "and it quarreled," denoting a hostile dispute. גָוַעְנוּ (ga.va.nu) translates as "we had died," recording the people's direct wish for death.
The thread — This dispute over water and the threat of death reappears in Exodus 17:2 and mirrors the congregation's weeping in Numbers 14:1.
Why it lands — The text records a direct wish for death amid deprivation, requiring readers to trace how scarcity fuels rebellion against appointed leadership. It demands acknowledgment of the tension between human desperation and the conditions of the covenant journey.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!
Cross-references
- Exodus 17:2 So the people contended with Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why do you contend with me?” Moses replied. “Why do you test the LORD?”
- Numbers 14:1 Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept.
- Numbers 16:31 As soon as Moses had finished saying all this, the ground beneath them split open,
- Exodus 16:2 And there in the desert the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
- Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.
- Numbers 11:33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a severe plague.
- Numbers 16:49 But those who died from the plague numbered 14,700, in addition to those who had died on account of Korah.
- Numbers 14:36 So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land—
- Job 3:10 For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
- Lamentations 4:9 Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.