3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord!
3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!
3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!
3 They attacked Moses: "We wish we'd died when the rest of our brothers died before God.
3 And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: "If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!
3 The people blamed Moses and said, "If only we had died in the Lord 's presence with our brothers!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 20:3
Commentary on Numbers 20:1-13
(Read Numbers 20:1-13)
After thirty-eight years' tedious abode in the wilderness, the armies of Israel advanced towards Canaan again. There was no water for the congregation. We live in a wanting world, and wherever we are, must expect to meet with something to put us out. It is a great mercy to have plenty of water, a mercy which, if we found the want of, we should more own the worth of. Hereupon they murmured against Moses and Aaron. They spake the same absurd and brutish language their fathers had done. It made their crime the worse, that they had smarted so long for the discontent and distrusts of their fathers, yet they venture in the same steps. Moses must again, in God's name, command water out of a rock for them; God is as able as ever to supply his people with what is needful for them. But Moses and Aaron acted wrong. They took much of the glory of this work of wonder to themselves; "Must we fetch water?" As if it were done by some power or worthiness of their own. They were to speak to the rock, but they smote it. Therefore it is charged upon them, that they did not sanctify God, that is, they did not give to him alone that glory of this miracle which was due unto his name. And being provoked by the people, Moses spake unadvisedly with his lips. The same pride of man would still usurp the office of the appointed Mediator; and become to ourselves wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Such a state of sinful independence, such a rebellion of the soul against its Saviour, the voice of God condemns in every page of the gospel.