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Numbers 20:5

in Numbers 20

Why have you led us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates—and there is no water to drink!”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

KJV

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

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This verse in Numbers 20

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly

on Numbers 20:4-5

The charge repeats Exodus 17:3 and Numbers 14:3, that Moses brought them here to die. The four things this place lacks, grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates, echo what the spies carried out of Canaan at 13:23. They measure the wilderness by the land their fathers refused.

This site's exposition

to bring us to this wretched place

The speakers are the children of whom God said at 14:31 that he would bring them into the land their fathers rejected. They now blame Moses for the exodus itself. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call the scene a fresh outbreak of the people's untamed and discontented spirit.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt,.... They represent that affair in such a light, as if they were forced out of Egypt by Moses and Aaron against their wills; or at least were overpersuaded by them to do what they had no inclination to, namely, to come out of Egypt; though they were in the utmost bondage and slavery, and their lives were made bitter by it, and they cried by reason of their oppression, and the hardships they endured; but this was all forgot.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

They prefer slavery before liberty, the house of bondage before the land of promise; and though, the present want was of water only, yet, now that they are disposed to find fault, it shall be looked upon as an insufferable hardship put upon them that they have not vines and figs.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

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.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

The words behind it

18 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.

  • וְלָמָ֤הand <to> why?

    velamahH4100 →752 times

  • הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֙נוּ֙have you brought up us

    heelitunuH5927 →890 times

  • מִמִּצְרַ֔יִםfrom Egypt

    mimitzrayimH4714 →641 times

  • לְהָבִ֣יאto bring

    lehavi'H935 →2568 times

  • אֹתָ֔נוּ<obj.> us

    ʾotanuH853 →10935 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הַמָּק֥וֹםthe place

    hamakomH4725 →401 times

  • הָרָ֖עthe evil

    hara'H7451 →662 times

  • הַזֶּ֑ה<the> this

    hazehH2088 →1180 times

  • לֹ֣א׀not

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • מְק֣וֹםa place of

    mekomH4725 →401 times

  • זֶ֗רַעseed

    zera'H2233 →229 times

  • וּתְאֵנָ֤הand fig tree

    uteenahH8384 →

  • וְגֶ֙פֶן֙and vine

    vegefenH1612 →

  • וְרִמּ֔וֹןand pomegranate

    verimonH7416 →

  • וּמַ֥יִםand [is] water

    umayimH4325 →581 times

  • אַ֖יִןthere not

    ʾayinH369 →789 times

  • לִשְׁתּֽוֹת׃to drink

    lishtotH8354 →217 times

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

Related verses

6 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.

Numbers 16:14Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”4 worksJeremiah 2:6They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’2 worksEzekiel 20:36Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord GOD.2 worksNehemiah 9:21For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.2 worksDeuteronomy 8:15He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.2 worksJeremiah 2:2“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.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

    Nehemiah 9:21

    For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 2:7

      Indeed, the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. The LORD your God has been with you these…

    • Deuteronomy 8:4

      Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.

    • Deuteronomy 29:5

      For forty years I led you in the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.

    • Psalms 34:10

      Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 8:15

    He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 21:6

      So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

    • Numbers 20:11

      Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 2:6

    They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 32:10

      He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.

    • Deuteronomy 8:14–16

      then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

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 20 →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Numbers 20 →