What Does Exodus 15:24 Mean in the King James?

And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

Exodus 15:24 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The complaint itself carries the sense of lodging, and it is aimed at Moses, whose name remembers being drawn out of water.

THE MEANING

When what sustains you is uncertain, a question about need can become an accusation against the person you associate with the way forward. The need is real; the complaint gives that need a target.

THE ROOT

וַיִּלֹּנוּ

wayyillonu

GROWS FROM

לון

lûn

To lodge or remain overnight; in this verb, to murmur or complain.

“murmured” in this verse is wayyillonu. The verb shares its root with a word for lodging: the same Hebrew seed can describe staying overnight and voicing complaint. English gives only the complaint; Hebrew also lets the sound of something settling in remain audible.

ALSO GROWS

lālûn: To lodge, stay overnight.

לָלוּן

This branch makes the root’s sense of staying or settling audible beneath the word translated “murmured.”

telunah: Murmuring, complaint.

תְּלוּנָה

This noun carries the same root into the complaint itself, showing the shared seed behind the verb and the expressed grievance.

מֹשֶׁה

Mosheh

GROWS FROM

משה

m-sh-h

To draw out, especially to draw someone out of water.

Moses’s name is linked to being drawn out of water. At the water’s edge, the name carries a remembered rescue inside the person the people now address.

ALSO GROWS

mashah: To draw out.

מָשָׁה

This verb names the action tied to Moses’s name.

meshithihu: I drew him out.

מְשִׁיתִהוּ

This form appears in the naming explanation in Exodus 2:10, making the connection between Moses and being drawn out of water explicit.

THE PATTERN

When provision feels uncertain or arrives in an unexpected form, people direct complaint at the one they associate with it.

And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

Exodus 16:2 · KJVAs here, uncertainty about food becomes a complaint directed at the people associated with the path forward.

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

John 6:41 · KJVThe claim of provision in an unexpected form draws complaint toward the one who speaks it.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

1 Corinthians 10:10 · KJVThe wilderness murmuring reappears as a pattern that can live in a community beyond its first moment.

THE THREAD

And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.

Exodus 16:8 · KJV

The same root appears again as “murmurings,” and Moses says the complaint reaches beyond him to the LORD. That makes the question here more than a grievance against a human guide: the verse exposes where the people believe their provision comes from.

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