Numbers 20:5

5 And why have ye made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in unto this evil place? It is not a place to plant seed or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates; there is not even any water to drink.

Numbers 20:5 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 20:5

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt
They represent that affair in such a light, as if they were forced out of Egypt by Moses and Aaron against their wills; or at least were overpersuaded by them to do what they had no inclination to, namely, to come out of Egypt; though they were in the utmost bondage and slavery, and their lives were made bitter by it, and they cried by reason of their oppression, and the hardships they endured; but this was all forgot. Aben Ezra says, it is a strange word which is here used, which shows the confusion they were in:

to bring us unto this evil place;
dry and barren, where there were neither food nor drink, as follows:

it is no place of seed;
or fit for sowing, as the Targum of Jonathan, any sort of seed, as wheat, barley, rye, rice

or of figs, or vines, or pomegranates;
it is not a soil fit to plant such trees in, nor would they grow were they planted:

neither is there any water to drink;
for them and their cattle, and therefore must be a miserable place for so large a body of people to subsist in.

Numbers 20:5 In-Context

3 And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, Oh, that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
4 And why have ye caused the congregation of the LORD to come into this wilderness that we and our beasts should die here?
5 And why have ye made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in unto this evil place? It is not a place to plant seed or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates; there is not even any water to drink.
6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the congregation unto the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and they fell upon their faces; and the glory of the LORD appeared upon them.
7 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010