Numbers 11:12

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}

{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.

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. Text via Bolls.life.

(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.

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.

(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.

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:

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

כי תאמר אלי means, [HAVE I CONCEIVED ALL THIS PEOPLE] THAT THOU SHOULDST always SAY UNTO ME, “Carry them in thy bosom!?” And where did He speak thus to him? When He said to him, (Exodus 32:34) “Go, lead the people”; and it further states, (Exodus 6:13) “[And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron] and gave them a charge concerning the children of Israel” saying unto them: “Take charge of them even under the risk (lit., under the condition) that they may stone you or at least insult you” (Sifrei Bamidbar 91; cf. Rashi on that verse).

על האדמה אשר נשבעת לאבתיו UNTO THE LAND WHICH THOU SWAREST UNTO THEIR FATHERS hast Thou bidden me to carry them in my bosom.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

DID I ‘HARITHI’ ALL THIS PEOPLE? In the opinion of Onkelos [who rendered it: “Am I ‘the father’ of all this people?” the word harithi] is like [the expression] beyond the blessing of ‘horai’ (my progenitors), for a father is called horeh [of the root haroh, “to conceive” or “become pregnant”] because it is he who causes conception and brings about the pregnancy [of the mother]. Thus Moses is saying: “Am I their father [who has caused their conception], or am I their mother who has given birth to them?” — is thus explained as referring to the separate functions of father and mother. But the masters of the plain meaning of Scripture. interpreted the verse in the opposite manner: “Am I their mother who was pregnant with them and gave birth to them?” Similarly, ‘Vatahar’ eth Miriam v’eth Shammai means “she was pregnant with them and gave birth to them.” “Or am I their father who begot them?” [the word y’lidetihu being] like: ‘vayoled Noach’ (and Noah begot); thy father that ‘y’ladecha’ (begot thee), and other similar expressions. And Moses said, as ‘ha’omein’ carrieth the sucking child, [the word ha’omein] being a reference to the [nursing-] father or mother. In my opinion the whole verse is a figurative reference to the mother, and the meaning thereof is as follows: “Have I conceived all this people and have I given birth to them?” Moses mentioned it in this way [speaking as the mother] because it is the woman who suffers the pain of raising children, remembering what she suffered for them from birth, pregnancy, and conception. But Moses said omein [in the masculine] since he is speaking of himself as a nursing-father, since he is not an omeneth (a nursing-mother).

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.