Commentaire sur Les Nombres 20:3

ולו גוענו — means, WOULD THAT WE HAD DIED.

וירב העם עם משה, the subject of the quarrel was why Moses had brought the people to such a desert as the one they found themselves in at the time. However, there was also a complaint against G’d Himself, as the Torah testifies in verse 13 where the Torah writes: אשר רבו בני ישראל את ה', “in that the Children of Israel quarreled with G’d.” This referred to the words (verse 5) “why did you take us out of Egypt?”

וירב העם עם משה, The people quarrelled with Moses. The people now complained that they would have preferred for Moses to have let them die from the plague than to face death by thirst.

ולו גוענו בגוע אחינו, “if only we had died as our brethren died, etc.;” they referred to the older generation who had died in the desert.

We wish that we had died. Meaning that this is similar to הן לו יהי כדבריך ["Would that it be like your words"] (Bereishis 30:34). However it is not in the sense of “perhaps” as in לו ישטמנו יוסף ["Perhaps Yosef bears a grudge against us"] (Bereishis 50:15) and not in the sense of “if” as in לו הקשבת למצותי ["If you had paid attention to my commandments"] (Yeshayahu 48:18).

V. 3. וירב העם, eben das עם, von dem es V. 1 hieß: וישב העם בקדש, dass es Kadesch als den ersten Wiedereintritt in bewohnbares Land begrüßt hatte, glaubte sich durch diesen plötzlichen Wassermangel, den sie auf der ganzen bisherigen Wanderung durch die Wüste nicht empfunden, mit einemmale enttäuscht und von Mosche und Aharon — betrogen! Daher ולו גוענו וגו׳ — .וירב העם עם משה, mit גויעה, dem sanftesten Ausdrucke eines natürlichen Verscheidens (siehe Bereschit 6, 17) bezeichnen sie den Tod aller der in der Wüste Verstorbenen, denen das göttliche Verhängnis den Eintritt ins Land versagte. Sie waren alle gestorben לפני ד׳, die göttliche Fürsorge hatte sie bis zum letzten Atemzuge nicht verlassen. Ihr Tod erfolgte nach dem natürlichsten Sterblichkeitsgesetze des Menschen, ohne durch eine außerordentliche Kalamität herbeigeführt zu sein — wir aber sollen durch Durst umkommen!

בגוע אחינו means, by the death of our brethren — i.e., by the pestilence. This tells us that death by thirst is worse than that (i.e., than death by pestilence).

By our brothers’ death. It is as if Scripture had said בגויעת ["By our brothers’ death"]. For if not so, and [the vav] was part of the root, בגוע should have been spelled with a cholam. And its meaning would be “At the time when our brothers died” like [the kaf] in ויהי כשמוע לבן ["When Lavan heard"] (Bereishis 29:13).

בגוע — This is a noun and means the same as במיתת אחינו, “by the death of our brethren”; and it would not be correct to explain (translate) it: “when our brethren died”, for if this were so, it should be voweled to read בִּגְוֹעַ.