Midrasch zu Jeschijahu 5:4

[(Numb. 14:11:) HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE SCORN ME?: This text is related (to Is. 5:4): WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO FOR MY VINEYARD THAT I HAVE NOT DONE FOR IT? WHEN I HOPED FOR IT TO PRODUCE GRAPES, WHY DID IT PRODUCE SOUR GRAPES?⁸The beginning of this section is not found in Numb. R. The Holy One said: <Consider> what good things I have created within my world! Did I not make them for you? Yet with the very good that I made for you, you provoked me. I brought you out of Egypt. Then when I came to the sea, I made it as if it were full of clay.⁹Exod. R. 24:1; cf. Tanh., Numb. 4:13. Thus it is stated (in Hab. 3:15): YOU TROD THE SEA WITH YOUR HORSES, THE MORTAR OF MANY WATERS. They walked in it and talked to each other. A certain Reubenite said: Where are we? Do you not know that he has brought us away from clay and bricks and returned us to clay? Thus it is stated (in Exod. 1:14): AND THEY MADE THEIR LIVES BITTER WITH HARD LABOR AT MORTAR AND BRICKS. So similarly (in Hab. 3:15): YOU TROD THE SEA WITH YOUR HORSES, THE MORTAR OF MANY WATERS. The Holy One said to them: Yet with the good that I brought upon you, you provoked me. When they came to the desert, I brought the manna down to you for forty years.¹⁰With this sentence, the text again parallels Numb. R. 16:24. Moreover, none of them had to ease nature for those forty years. Rather when they ate the manna, it <simply> became flesh for them, as stated (in Ps. 78:25, 27) EACH ONE ATE THE BREAD OF THE MIGHTY (rt.: 'BR); [….AND HE RAINED DOWN MEAT UPON THEM LIKE DUST….] When <the manna> became body members (rt.: 'BR) and flesh,¹¹Numb. R. 7:4; Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael, Wayassa‘ 4 (on Exod. 16:15); Sifre to Numb. 11:4 (88); Yoma 74b. they provoked him with it. Seeing for themselves that they did not have to go out <to ease nature> like <other> humans, they began saying to each other: Do you not know that we have had twenty days, even thirty [days], without easing nature? What is this? When a person does not ease nature for four or five days, does he not die or burst open? Now as for us, (according to Numb. 21:5), OUR SOUL LOATHES THIS MISERABLE FOOD. Why was it said to be MISERABLE (rt.: QLL)? Because it was light (rt.: QLL) within their bowels.

The Holy One said: In whatever <way> I did well for them, in <that way> they provoked me. It is so stated (in Is. 5:4): WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO FOR MY VINEYARD THAT I HAVE NOT DONE FOR <IT?>…. The spies went and looked at the land. Now you find that wherever Israel goes they are recognized. It is so stated (in Is. 61:9): ALL WHO SEE THEM SHALL RECOGNIZE THEM…. However (in the case of the spies), the Holy One said: If they see them they will kill them. So what shall I do? In the case of each and every province into which the spies entered, the head of a province was afflicted with plague, or its king [was smitten with plague], in order that they would be occupied with bringing out their dead and not pay attention to the spies.¹²Above, Numb. 4:13; below, Numb. 4a:10. Thus they would not kill them. When they entered and looked at the land, they explored it <and found> that it was beautiful. Look at how well I treated them! Yet by this <very land> they provoked me. When they came to Moses and to Israel, What did they say (in Numb. 13:32)? THE LAND THROUGH WHICH WE PASSED, IN ORDER TO EXPLORE IT, IS A LAND THAT EATS UP ITS INHABITANTS…. The Holy One began to cry out (in Is. 5:4): WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO FOR MY VINEYARD THAT I HAVE NOT DONE FOR IT?….

[(Numb. 14:11:) HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE SCORN ME?: The Holy One said: I thought and hoped that you would become like the ancestors, of whom it is written (in Hos. 9:10): I FOUND ISRAEL LIKE GRAPES IN THE DESERT; I SAW YOUR ANCESTORS AS THE FIRST FRUIT ON A FIG TREE IN ITS FIRST SEASON. I did not think that you would become like <the inhabitants of> Sodom, who were burned with fire. Thus it is stated (in Deut. 32:32): FOR THEIR VINE IS FROM THE VINE OF SODOM, EVEN FROM THE FIELDS OF GOMORRAH. [THEIR GRAPES ARE GRAPES OF POISON….] (Is. 5:4:) WHEN I HOPED FOR IT TO PRODUCE GRAPES, WHY DID IT PRODUCE SOUR GRAPES? <You have become> like <the inhabitants of> Sodom, who were burned with fire. It is therefore stated (in Numb. 14:11): HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE SCORN ME?