⁵ The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”^(A)

⁴¹ On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.”^(A)

¹³ Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also lord it over us?^{(A) 14} It is clear you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come!”^(B)

² The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”^{(A) 3} But the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”^(B)

¹² The Israelites said to Moses, “We are perishing; we are lost; all of us are lost!

The People Rebel

14 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. ² And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!^{(A) 3} Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt.”

Complaining in the Desert

11 Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled. Then the fire of the Lord burned against them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.^{(A) 2} But the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire abated.^{(B) 3} So that place was called Taberah,^[a] because the fire of the Lord burned against them.

⁴ The camp followers with them had a strong craving, and the Israelites also wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat!^{(C) 5} We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic,^{(D) 6} but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”^(E)

⁷ Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of gum resin.^{(F) 8} The people went around and gathered it, ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, then boiled it in pots and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. ⁹ When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna would fall with it.^(G)

² The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.^{(A) 3} The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”^(B)

¹¹ They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?^(A)