Bible Strands
Numbers 20:5
Why have you led us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates—and there is no water to drink!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites confront Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, demanding to know why they were brought out of Egypt to a barren location lacking water and crops.
The words — The Hebrew phrase הָרָע (ha-ra) literally means "the evil" or "the wretched," directly modifying the place they now occupy. The verb הֶעֱלִיתֻנוּ (he'elitunu) translates to "you have brought us up," framing their exodus as the direct cause of their current deprivation.
The thread — This complaint mirrors the earlier rebellion in Numbers 16:14, which contrasts their current starvation with the promised land flowing with milk and honey. The absence of water and provision also aligns with the wilderness conditions detailed in Deuteronomy 8:15 and the subsequent divine sustention recorded in Nehemiah 9:21.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to see how immediate physical lack can override historical memory of deliverance. It demands a clear-eyed assessment of whether present hardship justifies retrospective condemnation of past leadership.
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 wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
Cross-references
- Numbers 16:14 Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”
- Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
- Nehemiah 9:21 For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
- Jeremiah 2:2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
- Jeremiah 2:6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
- Ezekiel 20:36 Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord GOD.