And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

And making a sedition, they said: Would God we had perished among our brethren before the Lord.

And the people contended with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah!

And the people chid with Moses, and spoke, saying, O that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

and the people strive with Moses, and speak, saying, 'And oh that we had expired when our brethren expired before Jehovah!

And the people strived with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would God that we had died when our brothers died before the LORD!

And the people were angry with Moses and said, If only death had overtaken us when our brothers came to their death before the Lord!

And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying: 'Would that we had perished when our brethren perished before the LORD!

And as it turned into sedition, they said: "If only we had perished among our brothers in the sight of the Lord.

Et jurgatus est populus cum Mose, ac dixerunt in hunc modum, Et utinam obiissemus quando obierunt fratres nostri coram Jehova.

And the people chode with Moses,.... Contended with him in a wrangling and litigious manner, showing no reverence nor respect unto his person on account of the dignity of his office, and the many favours they had received from him; and this at a time, when, instead of quarrelling with him, they should have condoled him on the loss of his sister, and bewailed their own loss also of one who had been a prophetess to them, and a leader of them, Micah 6:4.
and spake, saying, would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord; either at Taberah by fire, or as Korah and his company in like manner, or as the fourteen thousand and seven hundred by a pestilence, Numbers 11:1 which they thought a much easier death, either of them, than to die of thirst: they might well call them brethren, not only because of the same nation, and nearly related to them, but because they were of the same temper and disposition, and indeed brethren in iniquity; and they seem to use this appellation, as being of the same sentiments with them, and in vindication of them, and adopt almost their very language; see Numbers 14:2.

Before the Lord - Suddenly, rather than to die such a lingering death. Their sin was much greater than that of their parents, because they should have taken warning by their miscarriages, and by the terrible effects of them, which their eyes had seen.