Numbers 14:3

3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land--just to have us die in battle? Our wives and children will be taken as prisoners of war! Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?"

Numbers 14:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:3

Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land
Unto the borders of it: their murmuring did not cease at Moses and Aaron, the instruments, but proceeded against God himself, who had done such wonderful things for them, not only in bringing them out of Egypt, but since they had been in the wilderness; and yet so ungrateful to complain of him and argue with him about favours bestowed on them, as if they were injuries done to them; and particularly as if God had no other intention in bringing them out of Egypt to the place where they were, but

to fall by the sword:
the sword of the Canaanites, as the Targum of Jonathan adds:

that our wives and our children shall be a prey?
to the same people; they supposed they should be killed, their wives abused, and their children made slaves of:

were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
and so escape the hands of the inhabitants of Canaan, of whom they had terrible apprehensions from the report made of them.

Numbers 14:3 In-Context

1 Then all the people in the Israelite community raised their voices and cried out loud all that night.

2 They complained to Moses and Aaron, "If only we had died in Egypt or this desert!

3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land--just to have us die in battle? Our wives and children will be taken as prisoners of war! Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?"

4 They said to each other, "Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt."

5 Immediately, Moses and Aaron bowed with their faces touching the ground in front of the whole community of Israel assembled there.