Numbers 11:15

15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

Numbers 11:15 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
English Standard Version (ESV)
15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness."
New Living Translation (NLT)
15 If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”
The Message Bible (MSG)
15 If this is how you intend to treat me, do me a favor and kill me. I've seen enough; I've had enough. Let me out of here."
American Standard Version (ASV)
15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
15 If this is how you're going to treat me, why don't you just kill me? I can't face this trouble anymore."
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
15 If You are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now. If You are pleased with me, don't let me see my misery [any more]."
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
15 "Is this how you are going to treat me? If you are pleased with me, just put me to death right now. Don't let me live if I have to see myself destroyed anyway."

Numbers 11:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 11:15

And if thou deal thus with me
Let the whole weight of government lie upon me, and leave the alone to bear it:

kill me, I pray thee, out of hand;
take me out of the world at once, or "kill me now, in killing" F14; dispatch me immediately, and make a thorough end of me directly:

if I have found favour in thy sight;
if thou hast any love for me, or art willing to show me a kindness, to remove me by death, I shall take as one:

and let me not see my wretchedness;
or live to be the unhappy man I shall be; pressed with such a weight of government, affected and afflicted with the wants of a people I cannot relieve, or seeing them bore down with judgments and punishments inflicted on them for their sins and transgressions I am not able to prevail upon them to abstain from: so the Targum of Jerusalem,

``that I may not see their evil, who are thy people;''

so Abendana, and in the margin of some Hebrew copies, it is read,

``this is one of the eighteen words, the correction of the scribes;''

who, instead of "my wretchedness" or evil, corrected it, "their wretchedness" or evil; but Aben Ezra says there is no need of this correction.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 (grh an yngrh) "occide me nunc occidendo", Drusius; "occide me jam, occide", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Numbers 11:15 In-Context

13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’
14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.
15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”
16 The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you.
17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Exodus 32:32
  • 2. 1 Kings 19:4; Job 6:9; Job 7:15-16; Job 9:21; Job 10:1; Isaiah 38:12; John 4:3
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