🔢WEB · Numbers 11:15
What does Numbers 11:15 mean?
"If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”"
— Numbers 11:15 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?’
Where could I get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’
I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”
Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you.
I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you don’t bear it yourself alone.
“Say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore Yahweh will give you meat, and you will eat.
Explanation
Numbers 11:15 records Moses at a breaking point. In plain language, he is telling God: "If this is how you are going to treat me, then just kill me now. If you have any regard for me at all, spare me from having to watch my own misery play out any further." This is raw, honest despair — Moses asking for death rather than continuing under the weight he is carrying.
The context is essential to understanding this outburst. The Israelites, wandering in the wilderness after the exodus, had grown tired of manna and began weeping and complaining, craving meat and the food they remembered from Egypt. Their whining stirred God's anger and also deeply troubled Moses. Moses himself protests to God just before this verse, asking why he alone has to bear the burden of feeding and leading over 600,000 people, since he did not create them and cannot possibly produce meat for them all. Verse 15 is the climax of that complaint — Moses, exhausted and feeling abandoned to an impossible task, essentially says he would rather die than continue carrying this burden alone.
Theologically, this verse is striking because it shows a revered leader of Israel in a moment of genuine weakness and near-despair, and Scripture does not sanitize it. Moses was uniquely close to God, called a friend who spoke with the Lord face to face, yet even he reached a point of wanting to give up. The verse reveals that leadership, even godly leadership, carries real weight, and that faith does not require pretending everything is fine. Importantly, God's response to Moses in the following verses is not rebuke but provision — he tells
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.