Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MURMURING

An overtly vocal or subdued expression of deep pain, grief, distress, discontent, dissatisfaction, or anger. Murmurings, at times, functioned as prayers to God that called for action. Examples include complaints (Heb. lûn) by the Israelites in the wilderness (Exod. 15:24; 16:2, 7-8; 17:3; Num. 14:2, 27, 29, 36). These murmurings had concrete ground, namely, hunger or thirst. God responded to such cries by “hearing favorably” and providing food and water and thus alleviating the people’s anguish.

However, murmurings are also presented as clandestine, malicious whisperings of slander against God or his appointed leaders. Korah complained against Moses and Aaron (Num. 16), and the people of Israel are said to have been murmuring against the leadership of Moses (ch. 17). The Israelites are also portrayed as grumbling (rāgan) in their tents (Deut. 1:27; Ps. 106:25) in response to the report of the spies. This is a graphic picture of the people sulking in their tents instead of preparing for the march upon Canaan. Such murmuring is a scorning of God and his appointed leaders and calls for severe punishment. Those who refused to enter the Promised Land would die in the wilderness. In addition, the people of Israel justifiably murmured in the Promised Land when they believed that the leaders of the nation were disobedient to the rules established by God (Josh. 9:18).

In the NT “murmuring” (Gk. gongýzō) generally refers to the complaining of the Pharisees and scribes (Luke 5:30; 15:2; cf. 19:7; Matt. 20:11). The NT church experienced the murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution (Acts 6:1).Paul exhorted the Corinthians not to murmur as the Hebrews had done in the wilderness, for their murmurings had brought destruction (1 Cor. 10:10; cf. Phil. 2:14).

Bibliography. G. W. Coats, Rebellion in the Wilderness: The Murmuring Motif in the Wilderness Traditions of the Old Testament (Nashville, 1968).

John L. Harris

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MURMURING

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)