properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common plural
fish
הַדָּגָ֔הha.da.Gah
H1710
a fish (often used collectively) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
eat
נֹאכַ֥לno.Khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common plural
Egypt
בְּמִצְרַ֖יִםbe.mitz.Ra.yim
H4714
Mitsrajim · preposition + proper noun, a place name
freely
חִנָּ֑םchi.Nam
H2600
gratis · adverb
cucumbers
הַקִּשֻּׁאִ֗יםha.ki.shu.'Im
H7180
a cucumber (from the difficulty of digestion) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
melons
הָֽאֲבַטִּחִ֔יםha.'a.va.ti.Chim
H20
a melon (only plural) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
leeks
הֶחָצִ֥ירhe.cha.Tzir
H2682
grass · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
onions
הַבְּצָלִ֖יםha.be.tza.Lim
H1211
an onion · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
garlick
הַשּׁוּמִֽיםha.shu.Mim
H7762
garlic (from its rank odor) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 16:3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh p…
Psalms 17:14 From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid…
Philippians 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 11:4-15
These verses represent things sadly unhinged and out of order in Israel, both the people and the prince uneasy.
I. Here is the people fretting, and speaking against God himself (as it is interpreted, Psa 78:19), notwithstanding his glorious appearances both to them and for them. Observe,
1. Who were the criminals. (1.) The mixed multitude began, they fell a lusting, Num 11:4. The rabble that came with them out of Egypt, expecting only the land of promise, but not a state of probation in the way to it. They were hangers on, who took hold of the skirts of the Jews, and would go with them only because they knew not how to live at home, and were disposed to seek their fortunes (as we say) abroad…
We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely--(See on Exo 7:17). The people of Egypt are accustomed to an almost exclusive diet of fish, either fresh or sun-dried, during the hot season in April and May--the very season when the Israelites were travelling in this desert. Lower Egypt, where were the brick-kilns in which they were employed, afforded great facilities for obtaining fish in the Mediterranean, the lakes, and the canals of the Nile.
cucumbers--The Egyptian species is smooth, of a cylindrical form, and about a foot in length. It is highly esteemed by the natives and when in season is liberally partaken of, being greatly mellowed by the influence of the sun.
melons--The…
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely,.... Fish was food the Egyptians much lived upon; for though Herodotus says the priests might not taste of fish, the common people ate much; yea, he himself says that some lived upon nothing else but fish gutted and dried in the sun; and he observes, that the kings of Egypt had a great revenue from hence (w); the river Nile, as Diodorus Siculus (x) says, abounded with all kind of fish, and with an incredible number, so that there was a plenty of them, and to be bought cheap; and so Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom interpret the word freely, of a small price, as if they had them for nothing almost; but surely they forgot how dear they paid for the…
The Church Fathers
'Successes' have terrible power to cast down or draw aside those who take not heed. Thus the Jews, who at first enjoyed the influence of God, sought the law of royalty from the Gentiles, and in the wilderness after the manna remembered the onions. In the same way here, refusing the Kingdom of Christ, they invited to themselves that of Caesar.
We would be censured along with those who dwelled in the desert and who desired the disgusting food of vice and filthiness after having eaten the heavenly manna, and we would seem to complain like them: "It was well with us in Egypt, when we sat over pots of flesh and ate onions and garlic and cucumbers and melons." Although this manner of speaking first referred to that people, nonetheless we see it now daily fulfilled in our life and profession. For everyone who has first renounced this world and then returns to his former pursuits and his erstwhile desires proclaims that in deed and in intention he is the same as they were, and he says, "It was well with me in Egypt."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Cucumbers — (Heb. plur. kishshuim; i.e., “hard,” “difficult” of digestion, only in Num. 11:5). This vegetable is extensively cultivated in the East at the present day, as it appears to have been in earlier times…
Food — Originally the Creator granted the use of the vegetable world for food to man (Gen. 1:29), with the exception mentioned (2:17). The use of animal food was probably not unknown to the antediluvians.…
Garlic — (Heb. shum, from its strong odour), mentioned only once (Num. 11:5). The garlic common in Eastern countries is the Allium sativum or Allium Ascalonicum, so called from its having been brought into…
Grass — (1.) Heb. hatsir, ripe grass fit for mowing (1 Kings 18:5; Job 40:15; Ps. 104:14). As the herbage rapidly fades under the scorching sun, it is used as an image of the brevity of human life (Isa.…
Leek — (Heb. hatsir; the Allium porrum), rendered “grass” in 1 Kings 18:5, 2 Kings 19:26, Job 40:15, etc.; “herb” in Job 8:12; “hay” in Prov. 27:25, and Isa. 15:6; “leeks” only in Num. 11:5. This Hebrew…
Leeks — (Heb. chatsir). The leek was a bulbous vegetable resembling the onion. Its botanical name is Allium porrum. The Israelites in the wilderness longed for the leeks and onions of Egypt. (Numbers 11:5)…
Manna — Heb. man-hu, “What is that?” the name given by the Israelites to the food miraculously supplied to them during their wanderings in the wilderness (Ex. 16:15-35). The name is commonly taken as derived…
Melons — Only in Num. 11:5, the translation of the Hebrew abattihim, the LXX. and Vulgate pepones, Arabic britikh. Of this plant there are various kinds, the Egyptian melon, the Cucumus chate, which has been…
Onion — The Israelites in the wilderness longed for the “onions and garlick of Egypt” (Num. 11:5). This was the betsel of the Hebrews, the Allium cepe of botanists, of which it is said that there are some…
Cucumber · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt. By this comparison with the former mode of living, they depreciate the present grace of God: and yet they enumerate no delicacies, when they speak of leeks, and onions, and garlic. Some, therefore, thus explain it, When such great abundance and variety was commonly to be met with, how painful and grievous must it be to us to be deprived of greater delicacies! My own opinion is, that these lowly people, who had been used to live on humble fare, praised their accustomed food, as if they had been the greatest luxuries. Surely rustics and artisans value as much their pork and beef, their cheese and curds, their onions and cabbage, as most of the ri…
The first impulse to this came from the mob that had come out of Egypt along with the Israelites. "The mixed multitude:" see at Exo 12:38. They felt and expressed a longing for the better food which they had enjoyed in Egypt, and which was not to be had in the desert, and urged on the Israelites to cry out for flesh again, especially for the flesh and the savoury vegetables in which Egypt abounded. The words "they wept again" (שׁוּב used adverbially, as in Gen 26:18, etc.) point back to the former complaints of the people respecting the absence of flesh in the desert of Sin (Exo 16:2.), although there is nothing said about their weeping there. By the flesh which they missed, we are not to un…
Israel had not relinquished the attitude that brought about the judgment at Taberah (11:1-3), so they readily joined the foreign rabble in craving the delicacies of Egypt, forgetting the misery of slavery there.
11:4-6 Oh, for some meat! The Israelites had flocks and herds (e.g., 32:1; Exod 12:32, 38; 17:3; 34:3), but the animals were more valuable for their dairy products and other benefits produced while alive and were only butchered for meat on a selective basis. The Hebrews would not have had enough meat to feed such a large population regularly (cp. Num 11:21-22).
Rashi on Numbers 11:5
אשר נאכל במצרים חנם [WE REMEMBER THE FISH] WHICH WE DID EAT IN EGYPT FOR NOTHING — If you say that they meant that the Egyptians gave them fish for nothing (without payment), then I ask, “But does it not state, (Exodus 5:18): [Go, therefore, now, and work], for there shall no straw be given you”? Now, if they did not give them straw for nothing, would they have given them fish for nothing! — What then is the force of the word חנם? It means: free from (i.e. without us having been burdened with) heavenly commands (Sifrei Bamidbar 87).
את הקשאים THE CUCUMBERS — R. Simeon said, “Why did the manna change its flavor into that of anything one wished (as the Midrash states) except into these vegeta…
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Murmuring of the mixed multitude and of Israel, for flesh — Murmuring of the mixed multitude and of Israel, for flesh
Diet Of The Jews, The · In Egypt — In Egypt
Egypt · .Productions of — .Productions of
Fishes · Used as food: By the Egyptians — Used as food: By the Egyptians
Garlic · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Herbs, & C · Mentioned in scripture: Cucumber — Mentioned in scripture: Cucumber
Leek · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Manna · The Israelites: Counted inferior to food of Egypt — The Israelites: Counted inferior to food of Egypt
Melon · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Murmuring · .Israelites — .Israelites
Onion · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Trouble · .Foo — .Foo
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
