Matthew Henry on Numbers 11:16-23
We have here God's gracious answer to both the foregoing complaints, wherein his goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious.
I. Provision is made for the redress of the grievances Moses complains of. If he find the weight of government lie too heavy upon him, though he was a little too passionate in his remonstrance, yet he shall be eased, not by being discarded from the government himself, as he justly might have been if God had been extreme to mark what he said amiss, but by having assistants appointed him, who should be, as the apostle speaks (Co1 12:28), helps, governments (that is, helps in government), not at all to lesson or eclipse his honour, b…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 11:21
Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand . . . Shall the flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them?--The great leader, struck with a promise so astonishing as that of suddenly furnishing, in the midst of the desert, more than two millions of people with flesh for a whole month, betrayed an incredulous spirit, surprising in one who had witnessed so many stupendous miracles. But it is probable that it was only a feeling of the moment--at all events, the incredulous doubt was uttered only to himself--and not, as afterwards, publicly and to the scandal of the people. (See on Num 20:10). It was, therefore, sharply reproved, but not punished.
John Gill on Numbers 11:22
Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them?.... Suggesting that if all their cattle, their sheep, and oxen were killed, which they and the mixed multitude brought out of Egypt, they would not be sufficient for them to live upon a whole month; and intimating also, that it would be an unwise thing, and very improper, to slay them all, were they sufficient, since then they would have none for sacrifice, or to breed when they came into the land of Canaan; the Targum of Jonathan is,"shall the sheep that are in Arabia and the oxen that are in Nabatea be slain for them, and be sufficient for them?"
or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice the…
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