11 They said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to bring us forth out of Egypt?
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Because there were no graves. This [1] is the more proper sense; for the double negative is put for a single one. It is a bitter and biting taunt; for, not contented with preferring the graves of Egypt to the death which they feared, they scoffingly inquire how he could have thought of bringing them into the wilderness, as if the land of Egypt was not large enough to bury them in. But God had openly and clearly proved Himself to be the leader of their departing; and, again, it was basely insensible of them to forget that they were not long since like dead men, and had been miraculously brought out of the grave. Their madness is wilder still, when they daringly call to remembrance the impious blasphemies which should have been a matter of shame and detestation to themselves. For how sad was their ingratitude in rejecting the proffered favor of deliverance, and in shutting the door against the advances of God, in order that they might rot in their misery! True, that God had pardoned this great depravity; but it was their part unceasingly to mourn, and to be as it were overwhelmed with shame, that their crime might be blotted out before God's judgment-seat. But now, as if God and Moses were accountable to them, they boastfully and petulantly reproach them for not believing them, when they would have prudently prevented the evil. Hence are we taught how far men's passions will carry them, when fear has extinguished their hopes, and they wait not patiently for God's aid.
1 - This sentence is omitted in the French.
No graves in Egypt - This bitter taunt was probably suggested by the vast extent of cemeteries in Egypt, which might not improperly be called the land of tombs.
And they said unto Moses,.... The Targum of Jonathan is,"the ungodly of that generation said unto Moses;''but it seems rather to be understood of the body of the people in general, and is not to be limited to some particular persons of the worse characters among them:
because there were no graves in Egypt; as if there had been none, when there were so many; the Egyptians being more solicitous about their graves than their houses, as Diodorus Siculus reports (u); thus upbraiding Moses in a sarcastic way for what he had done:
hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? that so there might be room and graves enough to bury them in, for nothing but death was before their eyes:
wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? which was very ungrateful and disingenuous.
(u) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 47.
*More commentary available at chapter level.