John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 2. And the people cried unto Moses , etc.] And entreated him to pray for them, being frightened at the fire which consumed many of them, lest it should spread and become general among them: and when Moses prayed unto the Lord ; as he did, in which he was a type of Christ, the mediator between God and man, the advocate of his people, an intercessor for transgressors: the fire was quenched ; it stopped and proceeded no further; as through Christ’s mediation God is pacified with his people for all that they have done, and his wrath, and all the effects of it, are turned away from them, and entirely cease with respect to them; or it “sunk down” into its place, as the Targum of Jonathan, as if it rose out of the earth. This may serve to confirm the notion of its being a burning wind, to which the idea of sinking down and subsiding well agrees.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-3 - Here is the people's sin; they complained. See the sinfulness of sin which takes occasion from the commandment to be provoking. The weaknes of the law discovered sin, but could not destroy it; checked, but coul not conquer it. They complained. Those who are of a discontente spirit, will always find something to quarrel or fret about, though the circumstances of their outward condition be ever so favourable. The Lord heard it, though Moses did not. God knows the secret frettings an murmurings of the heart, though concealed from men. What he noticed, he was much displeased with, and he chastised them for this sin. The fir of their wrath against God burned in their minds; justly did the fir of God's wrath fasten on their bodies; but God's judgments came on the gradually, that they might take warning. It appeared that God delight not in punishing; when he begins, he is soon prevailed with to let it fall.
Original Hebrew ויצעק6817 העם5971 אל413 משׁה4872 ויתפלל6419 משׁה4872 אל413 יהוה3068 ותשׁקע8257 האשׁ׃784
