Exodus 16:3

“The Lord should've killed us back in Egypt!” the Israelites told them. “At least there we could sit down beside stewpots of meat and eat bread until we were full. But you had to bring all of us out here in the desert to starve us all to death!”

Free Bible Version

In The King James Version

And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

In Context

2There in the desert they complained to Moses and Aaron.

4The Lord told Moses, “Just watch! I'm going to rain down bread from heaven for you! Each day the people are to go out and collect enough for that day. I'm going to test them by this to find out whether they'll follow my instructions or not.

Read all of Exodus 16

Cross References

Exodus 2:23Years later, the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites were still groaning under their hard labor. Their cries for help because of their hardship reached God.

Exodus 14:11They complained to Moses, “Were there no graves in Egypt that you had to bring us out here in the desert to die? What have you done to us by making us leave Egypt?

Numbers 11:4A group of troublemakers among them had such intense food cravings they affected the Israelites who started crying again, asking “Who's going to get us some meat to eat?

Numbers 11:15If this is the way you're going to treat me, then please just kill me now so I don't have to face how depressed I've become. Please grant me this one request.”

Numbers 14:2All the Israelites went and complained to Moses and Aaron, telling them, “If only we'd died in Egypt, or here in this desert!

Numbers 16:41The next day all the Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord's people!”

Matthew Henry on Exodus 16:2-13

The Israelites Murmur for Bread. ( b. c. 1491.) 1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,… Read the whole commentary →

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Study Exodus 16:3