Bamidbar 14:2

2 And Kol Bnei Yisroel murmured against Moshe and against Aharon: and the Kol HaEdah said unto them, If only we had died in Eretz Mitzrayim! Or if only we had died in this midbar!

Bamidbar 14:2 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:2

And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses, and
against Aaron
They being the instruments of bringing them out of Egypt, and conducting them hither:

and the whole congregation said unto them;
some of them, the rest assenting to it by their cries and tears and gestures;

would God we had died in the land of Egypt;
and then what they left behind they thought might have come into the hands of their children or relations; but now they concluded it would become a prey to the Canaanites:

or would God we had died in this wilderness;
the wilderness of Paran, at Taberah, where many of them had been destroyed by fire, ( Numbers 11:1-3 ) , and now they wish they had perished with them.

Bamidbar 14:2 In-Context

1 4 And Kol HaEdah lifted up their voice, and cried; and HaAm wept that night.

2 And Kol Bnei Yisroel murmured against Moshe and against Aharon: and the Kol HaEdah said unto them, If only we had died in Eretz Mitzrayim! Or if only we had died in this midbar!

3 And why hath Hashem brought us unto this land, to fall by the cherev, that nasheinu (our wives) and our children should be as plunder? Were it not better for us to go back unto Mitzrayim?

4 And they said one to another, Let us make a Rosh (Leader), and let us go back unto Mitzrayim.

5 Then Moshe and Aharon fell on their faces before Kol Kehal Adat Bnei Yisroel.