14:11 and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert?28 What in the world29 have you done to us by bringing30 us out of Egypt?
sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 396–97) notes how the speech is overly dramatic and came from a people given to using such exaggerations (Num 16:14), even using a double negative. The challenge to Moses brings a double irony. To die in the desert would be without proper burial, but in Egypt there were graves—it was a land of tombs and graves! Gesenius notes that two negatives in the sentence do not nullify each other but make the sentence all the more emphatic: “Is it because there were no graves …?” (GKC483§152.y).
29
tn The demonstrative pronoun has the enclitic use again, giving a special emphasis to the question (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
30
tn The Hebrew term לְהוֹצִּיאָנוּ (léhotsi’anu) is the Hiphil infinitive construct with a suffix, “to bring us out.” It is used epexegetically here, explaining the previous question.
