Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 16:3

3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sate by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full : for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger .

By any of those Plagues wherewith God destroyed the Egyptians.

Which is not probable: but they amplifie their former mercies that they might aggravate their present calamity, as the manner of impatient and ungoldly men is.

Quest. What danger was there of dying with hunger, seeing they had their flocks and their herds which they brought out of Egypt? Answ. 1. There was no great danger of it, but they use aggravating expressions, as discontented persons use to do. 2. Their flocks and herds were not so numerous as to suffice them for above a months provision, if they had all been slain and eaten, as it is implyed, Numb. 11. 21, 22. So there was some danger of it, though neither immediate, nor great. 3. They were it seems resolved to spare these, partly for increase and for their future subsistence, and partly for sacrifice, as not knowing how many of them they should be required to offer. See Exod. 10. 26.

Marginal references: Numb. 11. 4, 5.