Exodus 16:2-3

16:2 The entire company ¹  of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron in the desert. 16:3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died ²  by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by ³  the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, ⁴  for you have brought us out into this desert to kill ⁵  this whole assembly with hunger!”

Exodus 16:8

16:8 Moses said, “You will know this ⁶  when the Lord gives you ⁷  meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to satisfy you, because the Lord has heard your murmurings that you are murmuring against him. As for us, what are we? ⁸  Your murmurings are not against us, ⁹  but against the Lord.”

Numbers 16:11

16:11 Therefore you and all your company have assembled together against the Lord! And Aaron – what is he that you murmur against him?” ¹⁰ 

[16:2]  ¹ tn Or “community” or “assembly.”

[16:3]  ² tn The text reads: מִי־יִתֵּן מוּתֵנוּ (mi-yitten mutenu, “who will give our dying”) meaning “If only we had died.” מוּתֵנוּ is the Qal infinitive construct with the suffix. This is one way that Hebrew expresses the optative with an infinitive construct. See R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 91-92, §547.

[16:3]  ³ tn The form is a Qal infinitive construct used in a temporal clause, and the verb “when we ate” has the same structure.

[16:3]  ⁴ sn That the complaint leading up to the manna is unjustified can be seen from the record itself. They left Egypt with flocks and herds and very much cattle, and about 45 days later they are complaining that they are without food. Moses reminded them later that they lacked nothing (Deut 3:7; for the whole sermon on this passage, see 8:1-20). Moreover, the complaint is absurd because the food of work gangs was far more meager than they recall. The complaint was really against Moses. They crave the eating of meat and of bread and so God will meet that need; he will send bread from heaven and quail as well.

[16:3]  ⁵ tn לְהָמִית (lÿhamit) is the Hiphil infinitive construct showing purpose. The people do not trust the intentions or the plan of their leaders and charge Moses with bringing everyone out to kill them.

[16:8]  ⁶ tn “You will know this” has been added to make the line smooth. Because of the abruptness of the lines in the verse, and the repetition with v. 7, B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 273) thinks that v. 8 is merely a repetition by scribal error – even though the versions render it as the MT has it. But B. Jacob (Exodus, 447) suggests that the contrast with vv. 6 and 7 is important for another reason – there Moses and Aaron speak, and it is smooth and effective, but here only Moses speaks, and it is labored and clumsy. “We should realize that Moses had properly claimed to be no public speaker.”

[16:8]  ⁷ tn Here again is an infinitive construct with the preposition forming a temporal clause.

[16:8]  ⁸ tn The words “as for us” attempt to convey the force of the Hebrew word order, which puts emphasis on the pronoun: “and we – what?” The implied answer to the question is that Moses and Aaron are nothing, merely the messengers.

[16:8]  ⁹ tn The word order is “not against us [are] your murmurings.”

[16:11]  ¹⁰ sn The question indicates that they had been murmuring against Aaron, that is, expressing disloyalty and challenging his leadership. But it is actually against the Lord that they had been murmuring because the Lord had put Aaron in that position.