“It would have been better if we stayed in Egypt where we had meat and bread. But no-o-o! You’d rather us starve out here in the desert.”

That’s a paraphrase out of Exodus 16: 3. The complaint was leveled against Moses, he who had delivered the complainers from Egyptian bondage. It’s a mystery to me, though, as to why the Israelites were grumbling about not having anything to eat. After all, when they left Egypt, they left with a food supply. They left with all of their flocks and herds of animals (Exodus 12: 30-32).

Exodus 16: 1 says that it was around the middle of their second month of deliverance that the Israelites gathered together to complain about being hungry. Perhaps, the animals were all eaten by then.

Or, they couldn’t stomach the idea of their animals as food. After 400 years of Egyptian captivity, the complainers were used to the Egyptian custom of worshiping animals, including cattle. Remember the golden calf they erected to worship? So that could have made them averse to eating their flocks and herds.

Or, because they were mostly shepherds/herdsmen, they wouldn’t have wanted to eat their source of income. In that case, they were intent on preserving the animals so they would have something to sell once they reached the Promised Land.

Or, they were complaining because they simply wanted something different to eat.

The Bible, as far as I can tell, doesn’t explain why they claimed to be starving. However, their need for food must have been a legitimate need, for God satisfied it by providing them with manna to eat.

This looks to be another one of those mysteries that’ll only be answered when I get to heaven.