Exodus 15:24
in Exodus 15So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
KJV
And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
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This verse in Exodus 15
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThe people murmured - They were in a state of great mental degradation, owing to their long and oppressive vassalage, and had no firmness of character. See Clarke’s note on Exo 13:17.
This site's exposition
the people murmured against Moses
The word murmured occurs here for the first time in Scripture, three days after the first song. It comes twice more before Sinai, at 16:2 and at 17:3, and then at Numbers 14:2 where the same complaint meets a different answer. In Exodus God answers every murmur with water, bread, meat or a dry road, and at Kadesh the murmuring costs a whole generation the land.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Doubtless he wrote it by inspiration, and sang it on the spot. By this instance it appears that the singing of psalms, as an act of religious worship, was used in the church of Christ before the giving of the ceremonial law, therefore it is no part of it, nor abolished with it: singing is as much the language of holy joy, as praying is of holy desire.
And the people murmured against Moses,.... For bringing them into a wilderness where they could find no water fit to drink; saying: what shall we drink? what shall we do for drink? where can we drink? this water is not drinkable, and, unless we have something to drink, we, and our wives, and children, and servants, and cattle, must all perish.
Note, The greatest joys and hopes are soon turned into the greatest griefs and fears with those that live by sense only, and not by faith. Moses prayed: He cried unto the Lord,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
WHAT A SUDDEN CHANGE from the sound of the timbrel to the voice of murmuring! You saw the maidens dancing three days ago, and you little dreamed that they would make part of yonder clamorous throng who surround the servant of God, and cry, “What shall we drink?” Such are the changes of our outward conditions and of our inward feelings, so fickle and so mutable is man. What is there that can be rested upon in this mortal life? We say to-day, “My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved;” to-morrow, terra firma there is none, and we are tossed upon a stormy sea. Our life is like an April day, the sunshine alternates with the shower; or like each day of all the year, the morning and the evening are needful to complete it. Quick on the heels of light treads the darkness, followed with equal haste by light again. The sun’s rule, at this golden hour, is but temporary; he must abdicate in favor of the usurping stars, but they, in their turn, must give way before his lordly presence yet again. This world, which is our inn, owns to the sign of the “chequers”—the blacks and whites are everywhere. We can be sure of nothing between here and heaven of the things which are seen; but of this we may be certain, that underneath all the outward change there is the immutable love of God towards his people, and that, after all, the change lies only in the seeming things, not in the things which truly are; for the things which are not seen are eternal and changes come not there; it is but in the things which are seen that the change occurs. Let us set the less store by earth, because its fashion abides not. Let us prize heaven more, because it cannot fade. I. The text directs your attention, first of all, to THE EVILS OF THE WILDERNESS.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2301: “Marah Better Than Elim” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
AFTER I had fallen down at Mentone, and was grievously ill, a Brother in Christ called to me and said, "My dear Friend, you have now come to Marah." I replied, "Yes, and the waters are bitter." He then said, "But Marah is better than Elim, for in Elim the Israelites only drank of the water and ate of the fruit of the palm trees, and that was soon over. But at Marah we read that God, 'made for them a statute and an ordinance,' and that was never over.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2301: “Marah Better Than Elim” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
AFTER I had fallen down at Mentone, and was grievously ill, a Brother in Christ called to me and said, "My dear Friend, you have now come to Marah." I replied, "Yes, and the waters are bitter." He then said, "But Marah is better than Elim, for in Elim the Israelites only drank of the water and ate of the fruit of the palm trees, and that was soon over. But at Marah we read that God, 'made for them a statute and an ordinance,' and that was never over. That statute and ordinance stood fast and will stand fast for Israel as long as they are a nation. There is much more benefit to be reaped from Marah than from Elim." I thanked my friend for that good word. I had found it true before. I have found it true since then and you and I, if we are, indeed, the people of God, will find it true to the end, that Marah, though it is bitter, is also better. And albeit that we do not like it, yet in the end there shall be no bitterness in it, but an unutterable sweetness which shall be ours through time and eternity! We have a long record about Marah, have we not? I have read you four verses concerning Marah. How many verses have we about Elim? Only one. Does Marah deserve to be talked about four times as much as Elim? Perhaps it does. Perhaps there is four times as much fruit to be obtained from the bitter waters of Marah than from the 12 springs of water, and 70 palm trees at Elim. Who knows? This I know, however, that we are very apt to talk more about our bitters than about our sweets—and that is a serious fault. It were well if we had fewer murmuring words for our sorrows and more songs of thanksgiving for our blessings.
WHAT A SUDDEN CHANGE from the sound of the timbrel to the voice of murmuring! You saw the maidens dancing three days ago, and you little dreamed that they would make part of yonder clamorous throng who surround the servant of God, and cry, “What shall we drink?” Such are the changes of our outward conditions and of our inward feelings, so fickle and so mutable is man. What is there that can be rested upon in this mortal life?
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּלֹּ֧נוּ | vaiyilonu | and they grumbled | H3885 → | 84 times |
| הָעָ֛ם | haam | the people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מֹשֶׁ֥ה | mosheh | Moses | H4872 → | 765 times |
| לֵּאמֹ֖ר | lemor | <to> saying | H559 → | 5305 times |
| מַה־ | mah- | what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| נִּשְׁתֶּֽה׃ | nishteh | will we drink | H8354 → | 217 times |
וַיִּלֹּ֧נוּand they grumbled
vaiyilonuH3885 →84 times
הָעָ֛םthe people
haamH5971 →1873 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
מֹשֶׁ֥הMoses
moshehH4872 →765 times
לֵּאמֹ֖ר<to> saying
lemorH559 →5305 times
מַה־what?
mah-H4100 →752 times
נִּשְׁתֶּֽה׃will we drink
nishtehH8354 →217 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 16:2And there in the desert they all grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 10:10
And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.
- Psalms 106:7
Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.
- Psalms 106:25
They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
- Exodus 14:11
They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
- Psalms 106:13
Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.
- 1 Corinthians 10:10
Through
Exodus 14:11They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
it leads to
- Psalms 106:7–8
Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.
- Numbers 14:1–4
Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept.
- Exodus 16:2–3
And there in the desert they all grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
- Psalms 106:7–8
Where this verse is studied
About Exodus
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 987: “Marah; or, The Bitter Waters Sweetened” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2301: “Marah Better Than Elim” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.