They said to Moses: was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? The complaint is the first of many such complaints in the wilderness narrative. The sarcasm — no graves in Egypt — is the expression of people who see no way out and are certain that death is imminent. The looking backward to Egypt that Pharaoh attempted to force with his compromise offers is now being performed voluntarily by the people Moses freed. Numbers 14:2–4 records the complaint in its fully developed form after the spies' report. Hebrews 3:12–13 warns against the unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, using Israel's wilderness pattern as the cautionary example. The complaint at the sea is not yet that full rebellion, but it is its seed. Terror produces retrospective idealization of Egypt.

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