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Read the Bible

New Century Version

Numbers 20:3

They argued with Moses and said, "We should have died in front of the Lord as our brothers did.

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 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!
English Revised Version
And the people strove with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died 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 In the first month all the people of Israel arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. 2 There was no water for the people, so they came together against Moses and Aaron. 3 They argued with Moses and said, "We should have died in front of the Lord as our brothers did. 4 Why did you bring the Lord 's people into this desert? Are we and our animals to die here? 5 Why did you bring us from Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain, figs, grapevines, or pomegranates, and there's no water to drink!" 6 So Moses and Aaron left the people and went to the entrance of the Meeting Tent. There they bowed facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 "Take your walking stick, and you and your brother Aaron should gather the people. Speak to that rock in front of them so that its water will flow from it. When you bring the water out from that rock, give it to the people and their animals." 9 So Moses took the stick from in front of the Lord , as he had said. 10 Moses and Aaron gathered the people in front of the rock, and Moses said, "Now listen to me, you who turn against God! Do you want us to bring 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
Abraham left Hebron and traveled to southern Canaan where he stayed awhile between Kadesh and Shur. When he moved to Gerar,
Genesis 20:7
Give Abraham his wife back. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will not die. But if you do not give Sarah back, you and all your family will surely die."
Genesis 20:12
And it is true that she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but she is not the daughter of my mother.
Genesis 20:13
When God told me to leave my father's house and wander in many different places, I told Sarah, ‘You must do a special favor for me. Everywhere we go tell people I am your brother.'"
Genesis 20:14
Then Abimelech gave Abraham some sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves. He also gave Sarah, Abraham's wife, back to him
Genesis 20:15
and said, "Look around you at my land. You may live anywhere you want."
Genesis 28:12
Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and he saw angels of God going up and coming down the ladder.
Genesis 31:24
That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Be careful! Do not say anything to Jacob, good or bad."
Genesis 37:5
One time Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.
Genesis 37:9
Then Joseph had another dream, and he told his brothers about it also. He said, "Listen, I had another dream. I saw the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down 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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