And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,
2. And the whole congregation. Moses says not that some of the people only murmured, but that they were all gathered into mobs as in a conspiracy, or, at any rate, as they were arranged by hundreds and thousands, that they murmured with one consent. Yet the universal term admits of exception; nor need we suppose that all to a man were comprehended in this impious rebellion.
They had bread for a month, and when it ran out, despair set in at once, as if the God who parted the Red Sea could not feed them in the desert. They charge Moses with malice when he acted by God's command for their good. The best actions get the worst colors put upon them, and people wish themselves back in bondage rather than trust the invisible hand that saved them.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 16:1-12
And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured,.... For want of bread; for the Targum of Jonathan says, that day the dough ceased they brought of Egypt, on which, and the unleavened cakes they had lived thirty days; and for a longer space of time it was not sufficient, as Josephus (g) and other Jewish writers (h) observe; and now it was all...