Matthew Henry Commentary Numbers 14:1-4

"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." — Numbers 14:1-4 (ASV)

Those who do not trust God continually vex themselves. The sorrow of the world worketh death. The Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, and in them reproached the Lord. They look back with causeless discontent. See the madness of unbridled passions, which makes people wasteful of what nature holds most dear: life itself.

They would rather wish to die as criminals under God's justice than to live as conquerors in his favor. At last, they resolve that instead of going forward to Canaan, they would go back to Egypt. Those who do not walk in God's counsels seek their own ruin. Could they expect God's cloud to lead them, or his manna to accompany them?

Suppose the difficulties of conquering Canaan were as they imagined; those of returning to Egypt were much greater. We complain of our place and lot, and we wish to change; but is there any place or condition in this world that does not have something in it to make us uneasy, if we are disposed to be so? The way to improve our condition is to get our spirits into a better frame.

See the folly of turning from the ways of God. But people press on to the certain fatal consequences of a sinful course.