Numbers 21:5

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁴Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey ⁵and spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!"⁶So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died. ⁷Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD to take the snakes away from us." So Moses interceded for the people. ⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live." ⁹So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze serpent, he would recover.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

spake: Numbers 11:1-6, Numbers 14:1-4, Numbers 16:13, Numbers 16:14, Numbers 16:41, Numbers 17:12, Exodus 14:11, Exodus 15:24, Exodus 16:2, Exodus 16:3, Exodus 16:7, Exodus 16:8, Exodus 17:2, Exodus 17:3, Psalms 68:6, Psalms 78:19

and our soul: Numbers 11:6-9, Exodus 16:15, Exodus 16:31, Psalms 78:24, Psalms 78:25, Proverbs 27:7

Reciprocal: Exodus 7:18 - shall loathe Numbers 11:10 - weep throughout Numbers 11:20 - and it Numbers 20:2 - gathered Numbers 24:8 - God Deuteronomy 1:27 - The Lord hated us Deuteronomy 6:16 - tempted him Deuteronomy 9:7 - from the day 2 Kings 3:9 - no water Psalms 107:17 - because Ezekiel 20:21 - the children Acts 7:39 - and in 1 Corinthians 10:9 - tempt

Cross-References

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.

Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?"

Romans 4:19
Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah's womb.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the people spake against God,.... Who went before them in the pillar of cloud and fire, for leading them in such a way; that is, against Christ, as the apostle has taught us to interpret it,

1 Corinthians 10:9, and is no inconsiderable proof of the deity of Christ; and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,

"and the people thought in their heart, and spake against the Word of the Lord,''

the essential Word and Son of God:

and against Moses; his servant, for obeying the orders of the Lord, and leading and guiding the people as he directed him:

wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? ascribing this equally to God and to Moses; using a strange word, as Aben Ezra calls it, being in a great passion, and not considering well what they said; showing great ingratitude for such a mercy, and representing it in a wrong light, as if the intent of bringing them from thence was to slay them in the wilderness:

for [there] is no bread; no bread corn, nothing in the wilderness to make bread of; nothing that they called and accounted bread, otherwise they had manna, as is presently owned:

neither [is there] any water; any fresh water fit to drink, otherwise they were near the sea; what they had from the rock, lately, perhaps was now spent, and it did not follow them as the other rock had:

and our soul loatheth this light bread; the manna; this very light, this exceeding light bread, the radicals of the word q used being doubled, which increases the signification: if to be understood of light and easy digestion, it was the more to be valued; but perhaps they meant, it had but little substance and virtue in it, and was not filling and satisfying; or rather that it was exceeding vile, mean, and despicable; so they called the bread of heaven, angel's food, this wonderful gift of Providence; in like manner is Christ, the hidden manna, treated, and his Gospel, and the precious truths of it, by unregenerate men and carnal professors, 1 Corinthians 1:23.

q הקלקל "levissime", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Fagius, Vatablus; "vilissimi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This light bread - i. e. “this vile, contemptible bread.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 21:5. This light bread. — הקלקל hakkelokel, a word of excessive scorn; as if they had said, This innutritive, unsubstantial, cheat - stomach stuff.