Numbers 14:2-4

And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

Would God that we had died. Such insolence to their generous leaders, and such base ingratitude to God show the deep degradation of the Israelites, and the absolute necessity of the decree that debarred that generation from entering the promised land. They were punished by them wishes being granted to die in that wilderness. A leader to re-conduct them to Egypt is spoken of (Nehemiah 9:17) as actually nominated. The sinfulness and insane folly of their conduct are almost incredible. Their conduct, however, is paralleled by too many among ourselves, who shrink from the smallest difficulties, and rather remain slaves to sin than resolutely try to surmount the obstacles that lie in their way to the Canaan above. This rebellion is computed to have occurred on the ninth day of Ab-a day memorable in Jewish history for a series of national calamities; the day of the same month on which Nebuchadnezzar, 900 years after, destroyed the city and temple of Jerusalem; on which, at a period long subsequent, Titus, the Roman commander, overthrew the capital of Judea, with its sanctuary, accomplishing the prediction of Micah (3: 12); and on which, 50 years later still, in punishment of the insurrection of Bar-Chochebas, the city was again besieged and taken by Hadrian, amid a massacre of 600,000 Jews. An elegy, composed by a Jewish poet of the middle ages, and chanted by the Jewish communities on this mournful day-the anniversary of so many disasters to their nation-is given by Professor Munk, Paris, in his 'Essay on the Poetry of the Jews in the Middle Ages.'