The language of the murmurers is noteworthy. It has the air of a traditional formal protest handed down from the last generation. Compare marginal …

And Moses and Aaron went from the presence. It is probable that they fled in fear, since the tabernacle was a kind of refuge for them from…

And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly ,
&c.] Like fugitives, as Aben Ezra; they fled from them …

After thirty-eight years of a tiresome stay in the wilderness, the armies of Israel advanced towards Canaan again. There was no water for the congr…