Numbers 20:3 - Exposition

And the people abode with Moses. As their fathers had done in similar circumstances, as recorded in Exodus 17:1-16 . Would God that we had died. See on Numbers 14:2 . When our brethren died before the Lord. This is difficult, because the visitations of God at Kibroth-hattaavah ( Numbers 11:34 ) and at Kadesh ( Numbers 14:37 ) had overtaken not their brethren, but their fathers, some thirty-eight years before. On the other hand, the daily mortality which had carried off their brethren is clearly excluded by the phrase, "before the Lord." It may he that the rebellion of Korah happened towards the end of the period of wandering, and that the reference is to the plague which followed it; or it may be that the formula of complaint had become stereotyped, as those of children often do, and was employed from time to time without variation and without definite reference. The latter supposition is strongly supported by the character of the words which follow.