Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?
These verses represent things sadly unhinged and out of order in Israel, both the people and the prince uneasy. I. Here is the people fretting, and speaking against God himself (as it is interpreted, Psa 78:19), notwithstanding his glorious appearances both to them and for them. Observe, 1. Who were the criminals. (1.) The mixed multitude began, they fell a lusting, Num 11:4.
Commenting on Numbers 11:4-15
Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them?.... Conceived them as a mother, or begotten them as a father? am I a parent of either sort to them, in a literal sense, that I should have the like care of them as parents of their children?
Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? (g) Am I their father, that no one may have charge of them but I? (h) Of Canaan promised by another to our fathers.