Matthew Henry on Numbers 11:1-3
Here is, I. The people's sin. They complained, Num 11:1. They were, as it were, complainers. So it is in the margin. There were some secret grudgings and discontents among them, which as yet did not break out in an open mutiny. But how great a matter did this little fire kindle! They had received from God excellent laws and ordinances, and yet no sooner had they departed from the mount of the Lord than they began to quarrel with God himself. See in this, 1. The sinfulness of sin, which takes occasion from the commandment to be the more provoking. 2. The weakness of the law through the flesh, Rom 8:3. The law discovered sin, but could not destroy it; checked it, but could not conquer it. They…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Numbers 11:2
And the people cried unto Moses,.... And entreated him to pray for them, being frightened at the fire which consumed many of them, lest it should spread and become general among them:
and when Moses prayed unto the Lord; as he did, in which he was a type of Christ, the mediator between God and man, the advocate of his people, an intercessor for transgressors:
the fire was quenched; it stopped and proceeded no further; as through Christ's mediation God is pacified with his people for all that they have done, and his wrath, and all the effects of it, are turned away from them, and entirely cease with respect to them; or it "sunk down" (r) into its place, as the Targum of Jonathan, as if it r…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Numbers 11:1-3
And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. [11] The ambiguous signification of the participle [12] causes the translators to twist this passage into a variety of meanings. Since the Hebrew root 'vn, aven, is sometimes trouble and labor, sometimes fatigue, sometimes iniquity, sometimes falsehood, some translate it, "The people were, as it were, complaining or murmuring." Others (though this seems to be more beside the mark) insert the adverb unjustly; as if Moses said, that their complaint was unjust, when they expostulated with God. Others render it, "being sick, (nauseantes,") but this savors too much of affectation; others, "lying, or dealing treacherously." Some derive it fro…
