Would We Had Died by the Fleshpots of Egypt

"And the children of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD" (Exodus 16:3). They said, Would that we had died during the three days of darkness in Egypt. "When we sat by the pot of meat." Rabbi Yehoshua says: but were they not eager for everything? Rather, it was in their power, and so they spoke. "When we ate bread to the full." But were they not eager for everything? Rather, it was in their power, and so they spoke. Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says: Israel were slaves under the kingdom of Egypt, and they would go out to the market and take bread, meat, fish, and everything, and no creature would protest against them; and they would go out to the field and take figs, grapes, pomegranates, and everything, and no one would protest against them. "For you have brought us out into this wilderness." They said, You have brought us out into this wilderness of chaos, in which there is nothing. "To kill this whole assembly with hunger." Rabbi Yehoshua says: you have no death harder than hunger, as it is said, "Better were those slain by the sword than those slain by hunger" (Lamentations 4:9). Rabbi Elazar says, reading it as 'in famine came famine': famine came upon us after famine, plague after plague, darkness after darkness.