Numbers 11:15

15 "Is this how you are going to treat me? If you are pleased with me, just put me to death right now. Don't let me live if I have to see myself destroyed anyway."

Numbers 11:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 11:15

And if thou deal thus with me
Let the whole weight of government lie upon me, and leave the alone to bear it:

kill me, I pray thee, out of hand;
take me out of the world at once, or "kill me now, in killing" F14; dispatch me immediately, and make a thorough end of me directly:

if I have found favour in thy sight;
if thou hast any love for me, or art willing to show me a kindness, to remove me by death, I shall take as one:

and let me not see my wretchedness;
or live to be the unhappy man I shall be; pressed with such a weight of government, affected and afflicted with the wants of a people I cannot relieve, or seeing them bore down with judgments and punishments inflicted on them for their sins and transgressions I am not able to prevail upon them to abstain from: so the Targum of Jerusalem,

``that I may not see their evil, who are thy people;''

so Abendana, and in the margin of some Hebrew copies, it is read,

``this is one of the eighteen words, the correction of the scribes;''

who, instead of "my wretchedness" or evil, corrected it, "their wretchedness" or evil; but Aben Ezra says there is no need of this correction.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 (grh an yngrh) "occide me nunc occidendo", Drusius; "occide me jam, occide", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Numbers 11:15 In-Context

13 "Where can I get meat for all of these people? They keep crying out to me. They say, 'Give us meat to eat!'
14 I can't carry all of these people by myself. The load is too heavy for me.
15 "Is this how you are going to treat me? If you are pleased with me, just put me to death right now. Don't let me live if I have to see myself destroyed anyway."
16 The LORD said to Moses, "Bring me 70 of Israel's elders. Bring men that you know are leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting. I want them to stand there with you.
17 I will come down. I will speak with you there. I will take some of my Spirit that is on you. And I will put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the people's load. Then you will not have to carry it alone.
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