כִּ֣י אִם־אֵינְךָ֮ מְשַׁלֵּ֣חַ אֶת־עַמִּי֒ הִנְנִי֩ מַשְׁלִ֨יחַ בְּךָ֜ וּבַעֲבָדֶ֧יךָ וּֽבְעַמְּךָ֛ וּבְבָתֶּ֖יךָ אֶת־הֶעָרֹ֑ב וּמָ֨לְא֜וּ בָּתֵּ֤י מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ אֶת־הֶ֣עָרֹ֔ב וְגַ֥ם הָאֲדָמָ֖ה אֲשֶׁר־הֵ֥ם עָלֶֽיהָ׃
Bo jeżeli nie uwolnisz ludu Mojego, oto Ja puszczę na ciebie i na sługi twoje, i na lud twój, i na domy twoje rój robactwa, a napełnią się domy Micrejczyków rojem robactwa, jak i sama ziemia, na której przebywają.
Kli Yakar
And as a hint, one can derive a law from here, what our Sages said (Moed Katan 25a) that when a Torah scholar dies, everyone is considered like his relative, and about him it says except for his relative who is close to him. For his relative refers to his sustenance, as our Sages said (Berachot 17a) “The whole world is sustained for the sake of my son Chanina, etc.” And our Sages said (Bava Kamma 60a) “Punishment only comes to the world because of the wicked, but it always begins with the righteous, as it is said If a fire breaks out and finds thorns, and a stack of grain is consumed (Exodus 22:5). The stack of grain has already been consumed, referring to the righteous.” You see that the righteous are called a “stack of grain,” — just as people eat from a stack of grain, so too the entire world is sustained because of the righteous. And the meaning of “already been consumed” is that the Holy One, blessed be He, comes with tactics of war, for it is the way of warriors to first block the city’s springs and burn their grain stores so they will have nothing to sustain themselves with, as Rashi explained regarding the plagues of Pharaoh (Exodus 8:17). Similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, does this when Israel does not fulfill His will: He first removes His protection from them and spoils their grain so they will have nothing to eat through his merit, as we explained above in Parshat Vaychi (50:10) regarding the threshing floor of Atad, the matter of thorns and grain. Therefore it says except for his relative who is close to him, hinting at the Torah scholar who sustains him, and everyone is like his relatives, and he takes precedence over one’s father and mother, as our Sages said (Bava Metzia 33a) “Between the lost item of one’s father and the lost item of one’s teacher, the lost item of one’s teacher takes precedence, etc.” And this also applies when the righteous one passed away, and [so did] one’s father or mother. That is why the loss of one’s teacher takes precedence.
Rabbeinu Bahya
כי אין לחם ואין מים, “for there was neither bread nor water.” The statement that there was no bread seems incomprehensible seeing they received the manna daily! They also must have had plenty of the water which had gushed forth from the rock in great quantities!
We must understand the people’s complaint as being a rebellion against their unnatural state of existence. Other nations had abundant supplies of bread and water both of which could be stored whereas the Jewish people wondered from day to day if they would have bread and water on the morrow. Seeing that the continued existence of the people appeared to hinge on immediate reward and punishment they felt themselves in a uniquely disadvantaged position when compared to the Gentiles.
Moreover, they claimed, “even the daily manna we receive is an inferior kind of bread as instead of giving our stomachs the feeling that it is full after having eaten it, our stomachs feel quite light, i.e. empty.” They expressed themselves as being fed up with that kind of existence. They knew of no other creature born of a mother that continuously imbibed food without having to excrete any of it (based on Yuma 75). G’d had intended that the daily dependence of the people on that day’s manna would teach them to put their faith in Him so that their dependence on Him should be like that of the slave on his master. He had related to the people as if they were on the level of angels.
They now had become guilty of a terrible slander against the heavenly manna. The people now used this fact as something negative, found fault with the heavenly food! Seeing their sin consisted of slander, G’d sent against them the creatures which had invented slander, i.e. snakes. Tanchuma Chukat 19 describes the punishment as fitting the crime seeing that however many different kinds of creature a snake devours they all taste like dust to it, as it had been cursed with: “dust you shall eat all the days of your life!” (Genesis 3,14). The Israelites by comparison had been given a single type of food, which however assumed all kinds of different tastes in accordance with the owner’s wishes. Another reason they were being punished through snake bites was that during the entire 40 years G’d had ensured that the snakes whose natural habitat is the desert would not attack any Israelite. Seeing that the Israelites had not appreciated this G’d simply did not continue to work this miracle and the snakes which now bit the people were not a plague, but merely the inhabitants of that desert.
The reason why the Torah does not write: “G’d sent snakes against the people,” i.e. seraphim, but it writes: ”the snakes which are the seraphim,” underlines that these snakes were not a new or different phenomenon at all. When Moses had told Pharaoh that G’d would punish him with an invasion of wild beasts (Exodus 8,17), he did not say הנני משליח בך ערוב, “here I am about to sent against you wild beasts,” but he said את הערוב. By this he meant that the wild beasts which are normally content to stay in their habitat will change their nature and invade the urban areas. Similarly here; the snakes which had suppressed their lifestyle by not harming the Jewish people though biting Gentiles, would now not practice any restraint whatsoever in their habitual confrontation with human beings, Israelite or not. The term לחם הקלוקל, is an insult, as if the Torah had written that the manna was the לחם קל שבקלים, “the least valuable kind of bread there was.”
We must understand the people’s complaint as being a rebellion against their unnatural state of existence. Other nations had abundant supplies of bread and water both of which could be stored whereas the Jewish people wondered from day to day if they would have bread and water on the morrow. Seeing that the continued existence of the people appeared to hinge on immediate reward and punishment they felt themselves in a uniquely disadvantaged position when compared to the Gentiles.
Moreover, they claimed, “even the daily manna we receive is an inferior kind of bread as instead of giving our stomachs the feeling that it is full after having eaten it, our stomachs feel quite light, i.e. empty.” They expressed themselves as being fed up with that kind of existence. They knew of no other creature born of a mother that continuously imbibed food without having to excrete any of it (based on Yuma 75). G’d had intended that the daily dependence of the people on that day’s manna would teach them to put their faith in Him so that their dependence on Him should be like that of the slave on his master. He had related to the people as if they were on the level of angels.
They now had become guilty of a terrible slander against the heavenly manna. The people now used this fact as something negative, found fault with the heavenly food! Seeing their sin consisted of slander, G’d sent against them the creatures which had invented slander, i.e. snakes. Tanchuma Chukat 19 describes the punishment as fitting the crime seeing that however many different kinds of creature a snake devours they all taste like dust to it, as it had been cursed with: “dust you shall eat all the days of your life!” (Genesis 3,14). The Israelites by comparison had been given a single type of food, which however assumed all kinds of different tastes in accordance with the owner’s wishes. Another reason they were being punished through snake bites was that during the entire 40 years G’d had ensured that the snakes whose natural habitat is the desert would not attack any Israelite. Seeing that the Israelites had not appreciated this G’d simply did not continue to work this miracle and the snakes which now bit the people were not a plague, but merely the inhabitants of that desert.
The reason why the Torah does not write: “G’d sent snakes against the people,” i.e. seraphim, but it writes: ”the snakes which are the seraphim,” underlines that these snakes were not a new or different phenomenon at all. When Moses had told Pharaoh that G’d would punish him with an invasion of wild beasts (Exodus 8,17), he did not say הנני משליח בך ערוב, “here I am about to sent against you wild beasts,” but he said את הערוב. By this he meant that the wild beasts which are normally content to stay in their habitat will change their nature and invade the urban areas. Similarly here; the snakes which had suppressed their lifestyle by not harming the Jewish people though biting Gentiles, would now not practice any restraint whatsoever in their habitual confrontation with human beings, Israelite or not. The term לחם הקלוקל, is an insult, as if the Torah had written that the manna was the לחם קל שבקלים, “the least valuable kind of bread there was.”
Ibn Ezra
יחליץ Some declare it to be hap. leg., and explain it he will make fat; others render it he will strengthen, comparing it with חלוצי armed (Num. 31:5); others still think that יַחֲלִיץ and יְחַלֵּץ he delivereth (Job 36:15) are the same in meaning;13aThe Hebrew text has the Kal יחלוץ; but from the other instances quoted, which are Piёl and Hiphil, it may be inferred that the Piёl יְחַלֵּץ was here intended by I. E. as is the case with יַשְׁלִיחַ (Ex. 8:17) and יְשַׁלַּח he sendeth (Ps. 78:45), with יַשְֹמִיחַ (Ps. 89:43), and יְשַֹמַּח he gladdeneth (Lam. 2:17). This latter explanation is right; comp. He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken (Ps. 34:21);
Rashi
Behold God deals loftily in His power Because His power is great, and one cannot be saved from before Him. Therefore...who is a teacher like Him? When He teaches a sinner to return to Him, He warns Him before the plague because He knows that he cannot beware of His plague, as He would warn Pharaoh concerning each plague (Ex. 8:17), “I shall let loose the beasts of the wilderness upon you etc.”; (ibid. 10:4), “I will bring locusts...tomorrow,” and so all of them. [In contrast,] when a mortal king wishes to wreak vengeance upon his enemies, he comes upon him suddenly, for, if he warns him, he will repent and be saved from him.