Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 16:13
[Is it] a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?
13. out of a land flowing with milk and honey ] The expression which Moses had applied to Canaan in persuading the people to escape from slavery (Exo 3:17) is applied by the rebels ironically to Egypt.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
With perverse contempt for the promises, Dathan and Abiram designate Egypt by the terms appropriated elsewhere to the land of Canaan.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
i.e. Out of Egypt, a place indeed of great plenty, but to them a place of torment and intolerable slavery. They invidiously and scoffmgly use the same words wherewith God by Moses commended the land of Canaan.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
[Is it] a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey?…. Meaning Egypt, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; which, though a plentiful country, never had, nor deserved to have this epithet given it, which is peculiar to the land of Canaan, and is here given, in opposition to the description of that land, which the Lord himself had so described; and argues great impudence and want of reverence of the divine Being, as well as great ingratitude to Moses, the instrument of their being brought out of Egypt, where they laboured under bondage and servitude intolerable; and yet here represent it as an injury done to them, and as if the intent and design of it was purely to destroy them: for they add,
to kill us in the wilderness; with want of food, of which they had plenty in Egypt, they suggest; referring, it may be, to what the Lord by Moses had said to them, that their carcasses should fall in the wilderness; but that would not be for want of provisions, but because of their sins. It was bad enough, they intimate, to be brought out of such a plentiful country, into a barren wilderness; but what was still worse, the despotic and tyrannical government of Moses, as they represent it, they were brought under:
except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? ruling in an arbitrary way, making laws, and setting up offices and officers at pleasure, so that it is more eligible to be in bondage in Egypt than under thy government. Aben Ezra takes their meaning to be, as if the end of bringing them out of Egypt was to assume and exercise such rule and authority over them. His words are,
“hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, that thou mayest exercise dominion over us as a prince, yea, many dominions, thou and thy brother?”
and who also observes, that Egypt lay to the south of the land of Israel, so that one that came from Egypt to the land of Canaan may be truly said to come up, that part of Canaan lying higher than Egypt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us. It is not enough for these wicked men, when they are invited to discussion, contumaciously to repudiate the superiority of Moses, unless they also assail him with counter-accusations. The crime they allege against him must be observed. They reproach him for having led them up out of the land of Egypt: though they cunningly suppress its name, whilst they magniloquently extol its fruitfulness, in order to throw into the shade all that God had promised with respect to the land of Canaan. Nay, they seem to transfer slyly to Egypt the very phrase which Moses had often used, so that thus God’s blessing may be, as it were buried. But what gross ingratitude it showed, to allege as a crime against Moses, God’s minister, that deliverance, which was so extraordinary an act of His kindness! In the next place, they reproach him with having brought them into the desert, to die: and this they enlarge upon in the next verse, and maliciously inquire, Where is the truth of the promises? At length they conclude that Moses is impudent in his deceptions, inasmuch as it plainly appears that the people had been imposed upon by him: as if it were his fault that they had deprived themselves of the possession of the promised land. Moses had exhorted them, by God’s command, to enter upon the inheritance promised to them: what dishonesty and petulance, therefore, was it, when they had shut the door against themselves, to complain of Moses, upon whom it had not depended that they were not in the enjoyment of fields and vineyards! In the third place, they taunt Moses with seeking to domineer over a free people. He did indeed preside over them; but how far short of dominion was that moderate control, which was as onerous to Moses, as it was advantageous to the whole people! But this is the condition of God’s servants, that their course is through reproaches, (92) though they are conducting themselves aright.
(92) Addition in Fr., “comme dit Sainct Paul.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) A land that floweth with milk and honey.The description of the land of promise is here applied perversely and ironically to the land of Egypt.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Num 16:13 [Is it] a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?
Ver. 13. That floweth with milk and honey. ] So they falsely and maliciously speak of the land of Egypt, in derision of the land of Canaan, whereunto that praise properly belonged. Those that were born in hell know no other heaven.
Altogether a prince over us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Is it . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a small: Num 16:9
out of a: Num 11:5, Exo 1:11, Exo 1:22, Exo 2:23
to kill: Num 20:3, Num 20:4, Exo 16:3, Exo 17:3
thou make: Exo 2:14, Psa 2:2, Psa 2:3, Luk 19:14, Act 7:25-27, Act 7:35
Reciprocal: Gen 30:15 – General Exo 33:3 – a land Num 20:15 – vexed us Num 21:5 – spake Deu 33:5 – king 2Sa 7:19 – And this 2Sa 15:3 – thy matters Isa 7:13 – Is it a small Jer 42:14 – nor hear Eze 34:18 – a small Mar 11:28 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
16:13 [Is it] a small thing that thou hast brought us up {f} out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?
(f) Thus they spoke contemptuously, preferring Egypt to Canaan.