And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
4. And the mixed multitude that was among them. A new murmuring of the people is here recorded: for we gather from many circumstances that this relation is different from that which precedes: although, as evil begets evil, it is probable that after they had begun to be affected by the disease of impatience, they spitefully invented grounds for increased tedium and annoyance.
These verses represent things sadly unhinged and out of order in Israel, both the people and the prince uneasy. I. Here is the people fretting, and speaking against God himself (as it is interpreted, Psa 78:19), notwithstanding his glorious appearances both to them and for them. Observe, 1. Who were the criminals. (1.) The mixed multitude began, they fell a lusting, Num 11:4.
Commenting on Numbers 11:4-15
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting,.... These came out of Egypt with them, Exo 12:38; having either contracted affinity with them, or such intimacy of conversation, that they could not part, or being proselyted to the Jewish religion, at least in pretence; these were not only Egyptians, but a mixture of divers people, who having heard or seen the wonderful...