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Read the Bible

English Revised Version

Numbers 20:3

And the people strove with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Israel;   Moses;   Murmuring;   Trouble;   Thompson Chain Reference - Content-Discontent;   Israel;   Murmuring;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Desert, Journey of Israel through the;   Rebellion against God;   Rocks;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Kadesh or Kadesh-Barnea;   Zin;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Kadesh-barnea;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Mourning;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Meribah;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Aaron;   Carts;   Kadesh Barnea;   Levi;   Meribah;   Numbers, the Book of;   Wilderness of the Wanderings;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Kadesh-Meribah;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Provocation;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Aaron;   Jephthah;   Massah and Meribah;   Moses;   Numbers, Book of;   Zin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Angels of the Seven Churches;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Kadesh, Kadeshbarnea ;   Wanderings of the Israelites;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Balaam;   Kadesh-barnea;   Levi;   Rebels;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Journeyings of israel from egypt to canaan;   Kadesh;   Meribali;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Moses;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - On to Canaan;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Criticism (the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis);   Massah and Meribah;   Moses;   Pentateuch;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Balak;   Exodus, Book of;   Kadesh;   Midrashim, Smaller;   Water;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
The people strove with Moshe, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brothers died before the LORD!
King James Version
And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord !
Lexham English Bible
And the people quarreled with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we died when our brothers were dying before Yahweh!
English Standard Version
And the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord !
New Century Version
They argued with Moses and said, "We should have died in front of the Lord as our brothers did.
New English Translation
The people contended with Moses, saying, "If only we had died when our brothers died before the Lord !
Amplified Bible
The people contended with Moses, and said, "If only we had perished when our brothers perished [in the plague] before the LORD!
New American Standard Bible
Then the people argued with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD!
Geneva Bible (1587)
And the people chode with Moses, & spake, saying, Would God we had perished, when our brethren died before the Lord.
Legacy Standard Bible
The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we had breathed our last when our brothers breathed their last before Yahweh!
Contemporary English Version
and complained, "Moses, we'd be better off if we had died along with the others in front of the Lord 's sacred tent.
Complete Jewish Bible
The people quarreled with Moshe and said, "We wish we had died when our brothers died before Adonai .
Darby Translation
And the people contended with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah!
Easy-to-Read Version
The people argued with Moses and said, "Maybe we should have died in front of the Lord like our brothers did.
George Lamsa Translation
And the people quarreled with Moses and with Aaron, saying, Would God that we had died with the death with which our brethren died before the LORD!
Good News Translation
and complained: "It would have been better if we had died in front of the Lord 's Tent along with the other Israelites.
Christian Standard Bible®
The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord.
Literal Translation
And the people contended with Moses, and spoke, saying, Oh that we had died when our brothers died before Jehovah!
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
& the people chode with Moses, & sayde: Wolde God yt we had perished, whan oure brethre perished before the LORDE.
American Standard Version
And the people strove with Moses, and spake, saying, Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah!
Bible in Basic English
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!
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the people chode with Moyses, and spake, saying: Woulde God that we had perished when our brethren dyed before the Lorde.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying: 'Would that we had perished when our brethren perished before the LORD!
King James Version (1611)
And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the people reviled Moses, saying, Would we had died in the destruction of our brethren before the Lord!
Berean Standard Bible
The people quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had perished when our brothers fell dead before the LORD!
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and seiden, We wolden that we hadden perischid among oure britheren bifor the Lord.
Young's Literal Translation
and the people strive with Moses, and speak, saying, `And oh that we had expired when our brethren expired before Jehovah!
Update Bible Version
And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying, Oh that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh!
Webster's Bible Translation
And the people chid with Moses, and spoke, saying, O that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
World English Bible
The people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh!
New King James Version
And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: "If only we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
New Living Translation
The people blamed Moses and said, "If only we had died in the Lord 's presence with our brothers!
New Life Bible
The people complained to Moses, saying, "If only we had died when our brothers died before the Lord!
New Revised Standard
The people quarreled with Moses and said, "Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord !
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And the people contended with Moses, - and spake saying, Would then we had died a when our brethren died, before Yahweh!
Douay-Rheims Bible
And making a sedition, they said: Would God we had perished among our brethren before the Lord.
Revised Standard Version
And the people contended with Moses, and said, "Would that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD!

Contextual Overview

1 And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. 2 And there was no water for the congregation: and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people strove with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD! 4 And why have ye brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our cattle? 5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. 6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tent of meeting, and fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them. 7 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 8 Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their cattle drink. 9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. 10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of this rock?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

God: Numbers 14:1, Numbers 14:2, Exodus 16:2, Exodus 16:3, Exodus 17:2, Job 3:10, Job 3:11

when: Numbers 11:1, Numbers 11:33, Numbers 11:34, Numbers 14:36, Numbers 14:37, Numbers 16:31-35, Numbers 16:49, Lamentations 4:9

Reciprocal: Numbers 16:13 - to kill Deuteronomy 6:16 - tempted him Jonah 4:3 - take

Cross-References

Genesis 20:1
And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the land of the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.
Genesis 20:7
Now therefore restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
Genesis 20:12
And moreover she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife:
Genesis 20:13
and it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
Genesis 20:14
And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and menservants and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
Genesis 20:15
And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.
Genesis 28:12
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Genesis 31:24
And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said unto him, Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
Genesis 37:5
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Genesis 37:9
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the people chode with Moses,.... Contended with him in a wrangling and litigious manner, showing no reverence nor respect unto his person on account of the dignity of his office, and the many favours they had received from him; and this at a time, when, instead of quarrelling with him, they should have condoled him on the loss of his sister, and bewailed their own loss also of one who had been a prophetess to them, and a leader of them, Micah 6:4

and spake, saying, would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord; either at Taberah by fire, or as Korah and his company in like manner, or as the fourteen thousand and seven hundred by a pestilence, Numbers 11:1 which they thought a much easier death, either of them, than to die of thirst: they might well call them brethren, not only because of the same nation, and nearly related to them, but because they were of the same temper and disposition, and indeed brethren in iniquity; and they seem to use this appellation, as being of the same sentiments with them, and in vindication of them, and adopt almost their very language; see Numbers 14:2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The language of the murmurers is noteworthy. It has the air of a traditional remonstrance handed down from the last generation. Compare marginal references.


 
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