Numbers Chapter 20 verse 3 Holy Bible

ASV Numbers 20:3

And the people strove with Moses, and spake, saying, Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah!
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BBE Numbers 20:3

And the people were angry with Moses and said, If only death had overtaken us when our brothers came to their death before the Lord!
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DARBY Numbers 20:3

And the people contended with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah!
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KJV Numbers 20:3

And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
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WBT Numbers 20:3

And the people chid with Moses, and spoke, saying, O that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
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WEB Numbers 20:3

The people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh!
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YLT Numbers 20:3

and the people strive with Moses, and speak, saying, `And oh that we had expired when our brethren expired before Jehovah!
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - And the people abode with Moses. As their fathers had done in similar circumstances, as recorded in Exodus 17. Would God that we had died. See on Numbers 14:2. When our brethren died before the Lord. This is difficult, because the visitations of God at Kibroth-hattaavah (Numbers 11:34) and at Kadesh (Numbers 14:37) had overtaken not their brethren, but their fathers, some thirty-eight years before. On the other hand, the daily mortality which had carried off their brethren is clearly excluded by the phrase, "before the Lord." It may he that the rebellion of Korah happened towards the end of the period of wandering, and that the reference is to the plague which followed it; or it may be that the formula of complaint had become stereotyped, as those of children often do, and was employed from time to time without variation and without definite reference. The latter supposition is strongly supported by the character of the words which follow.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) Would God that we had died . . . --The reference seems to be to the plague which broke out after the insurrection of Korah. The language of the murmurers is very similar to that which is recorded in Numbers 16:14, and the word gava (die, or expire), which is twice used in this verse, and which occurs in Numbers 16:26; Numbers 16:28, in connection with the history of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, is found only in one other place throughout the last four books of the Pentateuch--viz., Numbers 20:29. The probability that that plague was of comparatively recent occurrence, and not separated from the present murmuring by a period of nearly forty years, has been inferred from the use of the word brethren in this verse. The generation which was contemporary with those who perished in the plague which followed the rebellion of Korah is supposed by some to have been almost extinct at the time to which the events recorded in this chapter are commonly referred, and the word fathers, it is alleged, would, in that case, have been more applicable to those who perished than brethren. It may be observed, further, that the inquiry, "Wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt?" is more natural when regarded as the language of the generation which had come up out of Egypt as adults, and who looked back to the exodus as to a recent event, than when regarded as that of a generation of which a large number had been born in the wilderness, and the rest had left Egypt nearly forty years previously. These considerations, however, do not appear to be entitled to much weight. The older portion of the congregation, who would naturally be the spokesmen, would speak of those who perished in the insurrection of Korah as their brethren, whether the event itself was of recent occurrence or not; and the words which are rendered "Why have ye brought up, &c.?" may, with equal propriety, be rendered "Why did ye bring up, &c.?"(Comp. Numbers 20:16 and Note).