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?’
Parallel Translations
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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?’
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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?
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Have I conceived all this people? have I brought them forth, that Thou shouldest say unto me: Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing-father carrieth the sucking child, unto the land which Thou didst swear unto their fathers?
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Numbers 11:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.
- Isaiah 49:23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.”
- Exodus 13:5 It shall be, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.
- Genesis 26:3 Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
- Genesis 50:24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
- Genesis 22:16-17 and said, “ ‘I have sworn by myself,’ says Yahweh, ‘because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.
- Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!
- Ezekiel 34:23 I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd.
- John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
- Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you—
- Genesis 13:15 for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Of Canaan promised by an oath to our fathers.
Of Canaan promised by an oath to our fathers.
Am I their father, that none may have the charge of them but I?
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 11:12 Have I conceived all this people? have…
Num 11:12 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?
Ver. 12. As a nursing father beareth, &c.] Lovingly, mildly, gently. A magistrate should carry himself as a pater patriae. Queen Elizabeth would many times say, That she could believe nothing of her people that parents would not believe of their children. {a}
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{a} Camden’s Elisab.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Have I begotten them; are they my children, that…
Have I begotten them; are they my children, that I should be obliged to provide food and all things for their necessity and desire?
As a nursing-father beareth the sucking-child; which expression shows the tender care and affection that governors by the command of God ought to have towards their people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten…
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? but though this was not the case, yet, in a civil and political sense, he was their parent, as every king and governor of a country is, or should be, the father of it, and should have a paternal affection for his subjects, and a tender care of them, and a hearty concern for their good and welfare: this, in a spiritual sense, may denote the weakness of the law of Moses, as Ainsworth observes, which has no concern in the regeneration of the spiritual Israel of God; who are born not of blood, nor of the will of men, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God; he only does and can regenerate men by his Spirit and grace; and though ministers of the word are instruments, yet it is not through the law, but through the Gospel that they beget souls to Christ, even by the word of truth, the Gospel of salvation, by that word which lives and abides for ever; it is not through the doctrine of the law, but through the doctrine of faith, that the Spirit, as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification, is received; faith, hope, and love, and every other grace, come the same way; see Co1 4:15,
that thou shouldest say unto me; as in Exo 32:34; "go, lead the people unto the place", &c. which words, Jarchi thinks, are here referred to:
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carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father beareth the sucking child,
unto the land which thou swarest to their fathers? the land of Canaan: kings should be nursing fathers; civil governors should rule with gentleness and mildness; such are most beloved, and most cheerfully obeyed by their people: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret the word for "nursing father", by "pedagogue", which is the same word the apostle uses of the law, Gal 3:24; that indeed was a severe schoolmaster, that menaced, whipped, and scourged for every fault, and not a tender nursing father; there is not one kind tender word in the law; it accuses of sin, pronounces guilty of it, curses and condemns for it; but the Gospel ministry, and ministers of it, use men gently; the apostles of Christ were gentle, as a nurse cherisheth her children, Th1 2:7; fed men as they were able to bear it; and when they delivered out their charges, it was in a kind manner, and even their reproofs were in love; and especially Christ himself was so, by whose meekness and gentleness the Apostle Paul beseeches men, Co1 10:1; who gathers the lambs in his arms, carries them in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with young; and supplies them with food, and brings them all safely to Canaan's land, the heavenly glory, where the law and the deeds of it will never bring men, Isa 40:11.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Have I begotten them? - Are they my children,…
Have I begotten them? - Are they my children, that I should be obliged to provide food and all things for their necessity and desire?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Nurse. We often read of men nursing or watching…
Nurse. We often read of men nursing or watching over others. (4 Kings x. 5; Esther ii. 11.) Thus kings shall nurse the Church, Isaias xlix. 23. (Calmet) --- All who have authority should treat their subjects with love. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Have I conceived all this people — Moses…
12. Have I conceived all this people — Moses does not throw off all care for the people, but he rather devolves on Jehovah that burden as the Creator and Father of Israel, (Exo_4:22,) more in despair than in unbelief. For unbelief complains, but does not pray. The Holy Ghost has declared that “Moses was faithful in all his house.” Heb_3:2. He was, in the language of the New Testament, a perfect man, inasmuch as the bent of his will, the outgoing of his affections, the drift of his whole being was toward God; yet this verse unveils the infirmities which were still marring his character. The holiest man, in times of great distress, may momentarily lose heart through forgetfulness of the fact that God is a great burden-bearer, as Moses forgot that Israel was but a feather’s weight upon the divine shoulders. How honestly does Moses draw aside the veil which might have concealed his own weakness, and which an uninspired historian would have left undrawn!
Carry them in thy bosom — Moses here seems to disclose some past charge given to him by the Lord. It is in striking consonance with the character of the great Shepherd of Israel: “He shall gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom.” Isa_40:11; Joh_10:11-14, notes.
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As a nursing father — Moses’s ideal of a ruler is here beautifully expressed: not a stern despot wielding a sceptre, but a kind and loving father bearing his infant babe in his arms. St. Paul, as a spiritual ruler of the Church of Christ, realized this ideal. 1Th_2:7; 1Th_2:11. The Palestinian Targum, instead of “nursing father” has “pedagogue” — child leader — the term which describes the office of the law in Gal_3:24.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. Was it I that conceived … was it…
12. Was it I that conceived … was it I that gave them birth] Israel was brought into being by God and not by Moses.
a nursing-father] i.e. a foster-father who brings up a child instead of its own parent. Cf. 2Ki_10:1; 2Ki_10:5, and figuratively Isa_49:23.
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(I) 13. The continuation of Num_11:10. The words ‘And Moses said unto Jehovah’ must be supplied. See prelim. note.
(II) 15. kill me … out of hand] A good equivalent for the Heb. idiom. Kill me at once and have done with it. His cry in Exo_32:32 has the same meaning.
Cf. Elijah’s despair, 1Ki_19:4. Both Moses and Elijah received the encouragement that they needed; and both were destined for a peculiar privilege (Mar_9:4).
let me not experience my trouble] Let me no longer have to face my trouble.
(III) 16, 17a. The beginning of the account of the seventy elders.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) Have I conceived . .?—The personal pronoun is…
(12) Have I conceived . .?—The personal pronoun is emphatic in this and the following clause: Is it I who have conceived all this people? Is it I who have brought them forth? (or, begotten them), as in Gen_4:18; Gen_10:8.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father.…
Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father. Probably he meant to say that this was the part and the duty of God himself as the Creator and Father of Israel. Compare the reading, which is perhaps the correct one, in Act_13:18: Tessarakontaeth cronon etrofoorhsen autoumw .
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.