⁴ Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness,^(A) that we and our livestock should die here?^(B)

³ But the people were thirsty^(A) for water there, and they grumbled^(B) against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die^(C) of thirst?”

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.^{(A) 40} They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’^[a](B)

³⁵ “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’^(A) He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

⁴¹ The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people,” they said.

¹³ Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey^(A) to kill us in the wilderness?^(B) And now you also want to lord it over us!^{(C) 14} Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey^(D) or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.^(E) Do you want to treat these men like slaves^[a]?^(F) No, we will not come!^(G)”

⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.^(A)

³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!^(A) There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food^(B) we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”^(C)