Bible Strands
Numbers 20:4
Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites address Moses and Aaron during their desert transit, immediately after demanding water and wishing they had perished with their ancestors.
The words — The Hebrew וְלָמָה (ve-lamah) translates as "and why?" while הֲבֵאתֶם (ha-ve tem) means "you have brought," structuring the complaint as a direct challenge to the leader’s mission.
The thread — This accusation mirrors the water grumbling at Rephidim (Exodus 17:3), aligns with the psalmist’s observation of Israel forgetting God’s saving acts (Psalms 106:21), and repeats the taskmasters’ earlier charge against Moses (Exodus 5:21).
Why it lands — The text forces a reader to identify how immediate physical lack overrides recorded deliverance, requiring a clear-eyed examination of why present crisis triggers historical amnesia rather than renewed inquiry.
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 why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
Cross-references
- Exodus 17:3 But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
- Psalms 106:21 They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,
- Exodus 5:21 “May the LORD look upon you and judge you,” the foremen said, “for you have made us a stench before Pharaoh and his officials; you have placed in their hand a sword to kill us!”
- Exodus 14:11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
- Exodus 16:3 “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”
- Numbers 11:5 We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
- Numbers 16:13 Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Must you also appoint yourself as ruler over us?
- Numbers 16:41 The next day the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”
- Acts 7:35 This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
- Acts 7:39 But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.