Comentario sobre Exodo 16:3
וַיֹּאמְר֨וּ אֲלֵהֶ֜ם בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל מִֽי־יִתֵּ֨ן מוּתֵ֤נוּ בְיַד־יְהוָה֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בְּשִׁבְתֵּ֙נוּ֙ עַל־סִ֣יר הַבָּשָׂ֔ר בְּאָכְלֵ֥נוּ לֶ֖חֶם לָשֹׂ֑בַע כִּֽי־הוֹצֵאתֶ֤ם אֹתָ֙נוּ֙ אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּ֣ר הַזֶּ֔ה לְהָמִ֛ית אֶת־כָּל־הַקָּהָ֥ל הַזֶּ֖ה בָּרָעָֽב׃ (ס)
Y decíanles los hijos de Israel: Ojalá hubiéramos muerto por mano de SEÑOR en la tierra de Egipto, cuando nos sentábamos á las ollas de las carnes, cuando comíamos pan en hartura; pues nos habéis sacado á este desierto, para matar de hambre á toda esta multitud.
Rashi on Exodus
מי יתן מותנו WOULD THAT WE HAD DIED — The word מותנו means “that we should die”; it is not a noun with the same meaning as מיתתנו “our death”, but it is an infinitive like עשותנו and חנותנו and שובנו which signify “that we should make”, “that we should encamp”, “that we should return”. In the Targum it is rendered by לוי דמיתנא which is really the Targum rendering of (Numbers 14:2) לו מתנו “Would that we were dead” (cf. Rashi on Exodus 14:12).
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Sforno on Exodus
מי יתן מותנו...בשבתנו על סיר הבשר, they did not want to die. What they said was that if it had been G’d’s plan all along to let them die, why had He not arranged for them to die while they were still satiated from their last meal? A similar thought is expressed in Lamentations 4,9טובים היו חללי חרב מחללי רעב, “the ones killed by the sword were better off than the ones who died from hunger.”
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Or HaChaim on Exodus
ביד ה׳ בארץ מצרים, "by the hand of G'd, in the land of Egypt." They meant that if they had still been in Egypt and would have refused to leave they would have died by the hand of G'd in Egypt. They preferred to have died for that sin rather than to die in the desert from hunger without having sinned. The situation is reminiscent of Lamentations 4,9: "those who died by the sword are better off than those who died from hunger."
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