Numbers 20:3

20:3 The people contended ¹  with Moses, saying, ²  “If only ³  we had died when our brothers died before the Lord!

Numbers 17:12-13

17:12 The Israelites said to Moses, “We are bound to die! ⁴  We perish, we all perish! 17:13 (17:28) ⁵  Anyone who even comes close to the tabernacle of the Lord will die! Are we all to die?” ⁶ 

Numbers 20:29

20:29 When all the community saw that Aaron was dead, the whole house of Israel mourned for Aaron thirty days.

[20:3]  ¹ tn The verb is רִיב (riv); it is often used in the Bible for a legal complaint, a law suit, at least in form. But it can also describe a quarrel, or strife, like that between Abram’s men and Lot’s men in Genesis 13. It will be the main verb behind the commemorative name Meribah, the place where the people strove with God. It is a far more serious thing than grumbling – it is directed, intentional, and well-argued. For further discussion, see J. Limburg, “The Root ‘rib’ and the Prophetic Lawsuit Speeches,” JBL 88 (1969): 291-304.

[20:3]  ² tn Heb “and they said, saying.”

[20:3]  ³ tn The particle לוּ (lu) indicates the optative nuance of the line – the wishing or longing for death. It is certainly an absurdity to want to have died, but God took them at their word and they died in the wilderness.

[17:12]  ⁴ tn The use of הֵן (hen) and the perfect tense in the nuance of a prophetic perfect expresses their conviction that they were bound to die – it was certain (see GKC 312-13 §106.n).

[17:13]  ⁷ sn Num 17:13 in the English Bible is 17:28 in the Hebrew text (BHS). See also the note on 16:36.

[17:13]  ⁸ tn The verse stresses the completeness of their death: “will we be consumed by dying” (הַאִם תַּמְנוּ לִגְוֹעַ, ha’im tamnu ligvoa’).