Exodus 16:2

_AND THE WHOLE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MURMURED AGAINST MOSES AND AARON IN THE WILDERNESS:_ And the whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Modern travelers through the desert of Sinai are accustomed to take as much as is sufficient for the sustenance of people and animals during 40 days. The Israelites having been rather more than a month on their journey, their store of grain or other provisions was altogether or nearly exhausted; and there being no prospect of procuring any means of subsistence in the desert, except some wild olives and wild honey (Deuteronomy 32:13), loud complaints were made against their leaders So completely had their minds become debased by their hard servitude that they considered the freedom and independence of their present condition, together with the special honour and privilege of being u

2._And the whole congregation. _Moses says not that some of the people only murmured, but that they were all gathered into mobs as in a conspiracy, or, at any rate, as they were arranged by hundreds and thousands, that they murmured with one consent. Yet the universal term admits of exception; nor need we suppose that all to a man were comprehended in this impious rebellion. The best remedy for their hunger would have been to pray to God, whom they had found to be in all respects a bountiful Father, and whom they had heard to have wonderfully provided for their parents, when the Egyptians and inhabitants of Canaan were wasting with hunger in such rich and fertile places. If they had only been persuaded that the earth is made fertile by God’s blessing, it would at the same time have occurred to them, that it is His peculiar office to feed the hungry, and immediately they would have direct...

1-12 The provisions of Israel, brought from Egypt, were spent by the middle of the second month, and they murmured. It is no new thing for the greatest kindness to be basely represented as the greatest injuries. They so far undervalue their deliverance, that they wished they had died in Egypt; and by the hand of the Lord, that is, by the plagues which cut off the Egyptians. We cannot suppose they had plenty in Egypt, nor could they fear dying for want in the wilderness, while they had flocks and herds: none talk more absurdly than murmurers. When we begin to fret, we ought to consider, that God hears all our murmurings. God promises a speedy and constant supply. He tried whether they would trust him, and rest satisfied with the bread of the day in its day. Thus he tried if they would serve him, and it appeared how ungrateful they were. When God plagued the Egyptians, it was to make them...

Verse Exodus 16:2. _THE WHOLE CONGREGATION - MURMURED_] This is an additional proof of the degraded state of the minds of this people; Exodus 13:17. And this very circumstance affords a convincing argument that a people so stupidly carnal could not have been induced to leave Egypt had they not been persuaded so to do by the most evident and striking miracles. Human nature can never be reduced to a more abject state in this world than that in which the body is enthralled by _political_ _slavery_, and the soul debased by the influence of _sin_. These poor Hebrews were both _slaves_ and _sinners_, and were therefore capable of the meanest and most disgraceful acts....

MURMURED - The want of food was first felt after six weeks from the time of the departure from Egypt, see Exodus 16:1 : we have no notice previously of any deficiency of bread....

EXPOSITION THE FIRST MURMURING FOR FOOD. From Elim, or the fertile tract extending from Wady Ghurnndel to Wady Tayibeh, the Israelites, after a time, removed, and ca-camped (as we learn from Numbers 33:10) by the Red Sea, probably along the narrow coast tract extending from the mouth of Tayibeh to the entrance upon the broad plain of El Markha. Hence they entered upon "the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai"—a tract identified by some with the coast plain, El Markha, by others with the inland undulating region known at the present day as the Debbet-er-Ramleh It is difficult to decide between these two views. In favour of El Markha are: 1. The fact that the Egyptian settlements in the Sinaitic peninsula would thus be avoided, as they seem to have been, s

AND THE WHOLE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MURMURED,.... For want of bread; for the Targum of Jonathan says, that day the dough ceased they brought of Egypt, on which, and the unleavened cakes they had lived thirty days; and for a longer space of time it was not sufficient, as Josephus g and other Jewish writers h observe; and now it was all spent, and they were in the utmost distress for bread, and fall a murmuring as they were used to do, when in any distress, even the whole congregation of them, at least the far greater part; some few might be excepted, as Caleb and Joshua, and some others: and they MURMURED AGAINST MOSES AND AARON IN THE WILDERNESS; in the wilderness of Sin, where they were, and where no corn was to be had to make bread of; and their murmuring was not only against Moses, as before when they wanted water, but against Aaron also, who were jointly concerned i...

Exodus 16:1. _And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:_ They have been only about six weeks in the wilderness, and already they are up in arms against their leaders. Remember that we have the same kind of people to deal with as Moses and Aaron had. The children of Israel were no better than any other nation; and I do not think they were any worse. We may take them as a fair average of human nature, which is a discontented, rebellious thing in the best of circumstances. Exodus 16:3. A

XVI. MANNA AND QUAILS (Exodus 16:1 P, Exodus 16:4 a(b) - Exodus 16:5 J, (Exodus 16:6 f., Exodus 16:8) Rp, Exodus 16:9 a (morning) P, Exodus 16:13 b - Exodus 16:15 J, Exodus 16:16 P,...

MURMURED. Murmurings mentioned eight times in these verses: viz Exodus 2:7; Exodus 2:7; Exodus 2:8; Exodus 2:8; Exodus 2:8; Exodus 2:9; Exodus 2:12....