New English Translation
Numbers 20:4
4Why have you brought up the Lord’s community into this wilderness? So that we and our cattle should die here?
Numbers 20:4 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
- New International Version (NIV)Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here?
- English Standard Version (ESV)Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle?
- New King James Version (NKJV)Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here?
Context of Numbers 20:4
2And there was no water for the community, and so they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron. 3The people contended with Moses, saying, “If only we had died when our brothers died before the Lord! Why have you brought up the Lord’s community into this wilderness? So that we and our cattle should die here? 5Why have you brought us up from Egypt only to bring us to this dreadful place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink!” 6So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting. They then threw themselves down with their faces to the ground, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
Read all of Numbers 20Numbers 20:4 word by word
וְלָמָ֤ה הֲבֵאתֶם֙ אֶת־קְהַ֣ל יְהוָ֔ה אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּ֖ר הַזֶּ֑ה לָמ֣וּת שָׁ֔ם אֲנַ֖חְנוּ וּבְעִירֵֽנוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Numbers 20:4
- Numbers 11:5We remember the fish we used to eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
- Exodus 5:21and they said to them, “May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants, so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!”
- Exodus 17:3But the people were very thirsty there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?”
- Psalms 106:21They rejected the God who delivered them, the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
- Acts 7:35This same Moses they had rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ God sent as both ruler and deliverer through the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
- Numbers 16:13Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land that flows with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? Now do you want to make yourself a prince over us?
- Exodus 14:11and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert? What in the world have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
- Exodus 16:3The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger!”
Commentaries on Numbers 20:4
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2-6Verses 2-6 The language of the murmurers is noteworthy. It has the air of a traditional remonstrance handed down from the last generation. Compare marginal references.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 2-13The people of Israel complained again about not having water and food (compare 11:4–35; 21:4–5; Exodus 15:22–25). So, Moses and Aaron disobeyed the Lord. As a result, they lost the privilege of entering the promised land.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2-132-13. there was no water for the congregation--There was at Kadesh a fountain, En-Mishpat (Ge 14:7), and at the first encampment of the Israelites there was no want of water. It was then either partially dried up by the heat of the season, or had been exhausted by the demands of so vast a multitude.Read the comment
Topics related to Numbers 20:4
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Numbers 20
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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Commentaries