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Numbers 11:15

in Numbers 11

If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

KJV

And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

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This verse in Numbers 11

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Is this the meekest of all the men on the earth? The best have their infirmities, and fail sometimes in the exercise of that grace for which they are most eminent.

This site's exposition

I cannot carry all these people by myself

on Numbers 11:14-15

Moses asks to die, as Elijah does at 1 Kings 19:4 and Jonah at Jonah 4:3. Matthew Henry sets this beside Numbers 12:3, which calls Moses “a very humble man”. He says the best men fail in the grace they are most known for.

This site's exposition

let me not see my own wretchedness

Moses asks for death as a mark of favor, the favor verse 11 says he had lost. Scribal tradition lists this verse among its eighteen corrections, holding the older text read Your wretchedness and was softened out of reverence. Matthew Henry counts the plea among the infirmities of the best.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And if thou deal thus with me,....

The words behind it

15 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וְאִם־and if

    veim-H518 →1069 times

  • כָּ֣כָה׀thus

    kakhahH3602 →37 times

  • אַתְּ־you

    ʾat-H859 →1094 times

  • עֹ֣שֶׂה[are] doing

    ʾosehH6213 →2628 times

  • לִּ֗יto <the> me

    li

  • הָרְגֵ֤נִיkill me

    haregeniH2026 →167 times

  • נָא֙please

    na'H4994 →404 times

  • הָרֹ֔גcompletely <to kill>

    harogH2026 →167 times

  • אִם־if

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • מָצָ֥אתִיI have found

    matzatiH4672 →455 times

  • חֵ֖ןfavor

    chenH2580 →69 times

  • בְּעֵינֶ֑יךָin view your

    beeineikhaH5869 →887 times

  • וְאַל־and may not

    veal-H408 →724 times

  • אֶרְאֶ֖הI look

    ʾerehH7200 →1300 times

  • בְּרָעָתִֽי׃ פon distress my

    beraatiH7451 →662 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

1 Kings 19:4while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”10 worksJonah 4:3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”7 worksJob 10:1“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.5 worksGenesis 30:27But Laban replied, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”5 worksJeremiah 20:18Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?4 worksJonah 4:8–9As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”4 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Philippians 1:20–24I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.4 worksExodus 32:32Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.”3 worksZephaniah 3:15The LORD has taken away your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. Israel’s King, the LORD, is among you; no longer will you fear any harm.3 worksJob 3:21who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,3 worksGenesis 30:1When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.3 worksNumbers 14:2All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!3 worksJeremiah 15:18Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.2 worksJames 1:4Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.2 worksJob 7:15so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.2 worksJob 6:8–10If only my request were granted and God would fulfill my hope:2 worksJob 3:20–22Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,2 worksIsaiah 15:4Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out; their souls tremble within.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    1 Kings 19:4

    while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life,…

    it leads to

    • Jonah 4:8

      As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Jonah 4:3

      And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

  • Through

    Jonah 4:3

    And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 20:14–18

      Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 1 Kings 19:4

      while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life,…

    • Ecclesiastes 7:1

      A good name is better than fine perfume, and one’s day of death is better than his day of birth.

    • Numbers 20:3

      The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished with our brothers before the LORD!

  • Through

    Jeremiah 20:18

    Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?

    it leads to

    • Job 3:20

      Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

    • 1 Peter 4:14–16

      If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.
The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 11 →

This page draws on John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Numbers 11 →