Exodus 17:3

17:3 But the people were very thirsty ¹  there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world ²  did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” ³ 

Exodus 21:4

21:4 If his master gave ⁴  him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

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¹ tn The verbs and the pronouns in this verse are in the singular because “the people” is singular in form.

² tn The demonstrative pronoun is used as the enclitic form for special emphasis in the question; it literally says, “why is this you have brought us up?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

³ sn Their words deny God the credit for bringing them out of Egypt, impugn the integrity of Moses and God by accusing them of bringing the people out here to die, and show a lack of faith in God’s ability to provide for them.

⁴ sn The slave would not have the right or the means to acquire a wife. Thus, the idea of the master’s “giving” him a wife is clear – the master would have to pay the bride price and make the provision. In this case, the wife and the children are actually the possession of the master unless the slave were to pay the bride price – but he is a slave because he got into debt. The law assumes that the master was better able to provide for this woman than the freed slave and that it was most important to keep the children with the mother.