But the people thirsted there for water seems to repeat what has already been said, and some scholars believe this verse comes from a different tradition. But the present context suggests that it is repeated for emphasis, so Good News Translation has “very thirsty.” Revised English Bible has “The people became so thirsty there that…,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “But tormented by thirst, the people complained.” And the people murmured against Moses now uses the same Hebrew word for “murmuring” as in 15.24. New International Version has “and they grumbled,” without repeating the people. Good News Translation combines the two clauses: “But the people were very thirsty and continued to complain to Moses.”

And said introduces a rhetorical question similar to the questions in 14.11-12 and the complaint in 16.3. Why, literally “For what this,” is an emphatic Why, meaning “why indeed,” but Durham translates it as “What is this?” Did you bring us up out of Egypt is literally “you caused us to go up from Egypt.” The verb means to ascend from a lower level to a higher level, as explained at 3.8. Most translations do not reflect this.

To kill us is literally “to cause me to die.” The singular pronoun is also used with “my children” and “my cattle.” Jerusalem Bible has followed the Hebrew closely: “Was it so that I should die,” and so on. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project supports this reading with an {A} rating, even though many ancient versions have the plural us. Most translations, however, have used the plural for the sake of the context. Our children is literally “my sons,” and our cattle is literally “my livestock.” (For cattle see 9.3 and the comment.) Contemporary English Version has a helpful model for the final part of this verse: “Moses, did you bring us out of Egypt just to let us and our families and our animals die of thirst?”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .