Nombres 11:1

The people were like complainers. ”The people” refers only to the wicked. Similarly, it says, “what shall I do for this people,” and it says, “this evil people.” But when they are righteous, they are called “My people,” as it says, “send out My people,” “My people, what have I done to you”

Like complainers. מִתְאֹנְנִים is strictly a term referring to a pretext. They seek a pretext in order to turn away from [following] after the Omnipresent. Similarly, it says about Shimshon, “for he seeks a pretext.”

Wicked in the ears of Adonoy. A complaint which is wicked in the ears of God, for they intended it to reach His ears and anger Him. They said, “Woe to us, how we have toiled on this journey. Three days [have passed] that we have not rested from the fatigue of travel.”

And His anger flared. I meant for your benefit, so that you would enter the land immediately.

The outcasts of the camp. Those among them who were outcasts, of low status, they were the great mixture. R’ Shimon ben Menasya says, the distinguished among them, and the great ones.

But there were wicked men of the people, who, being discontent, devised and imagined evil before the Lord; and it was heard before the Lord, whose displeasure was moved; and a flaming fire was kindled among them from the Lord, which destroyed some of the wicked in the outskirts of the house of Dan, with whom was a graven image.

AND THE PEOPLE WERE ‘K’MITHON’NIM.’ Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that [the word k’mithon’nim is] “of the root aven (wickedness); similarly, the thoughts of ‘oneich’ (thy evil thoughts), for they spoke words of wickedness.” But this is not correct, for why would Scripture have concealed their sin, and not stated [clearly what it was], as it does in all other places! The correct interpretation appears to me to be that as they got further away from Mount Sinai, which was near an inhabitable settlement, and entered the great and dreadful wilderness in their first journey, they became upset and said: “What shall we do? How shall we live in this wilderness? What shall we eat and what shall we drink? How shall we endure the trouble and the suffering, and when shall we come out of here?” The word k’mithon’nim is thus related to the expression, Wherefore doth a living man ‘yithonein’ (complain), a strong man because of his sins? which is an expression indicating pain, and feeling sorry for oneself. Similarly, ben oni means “the son of my sorrow; “‘v’anu hadayagim’ (and the fishers shall lament) and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn. Thus when Scripture states that they felt anxious and upset, it has thereby already mentioned and told [the nature of] their sin. It states that they were k’mithon’nim (‘as’ murmurers), meaning that they spoke in the bitterness of their soul as do people who suffer pain, and this was evil in the sight of the Eternal, since they should have followed Him with joyfnlness, and with gladness of heart by reason of the abundance of all good things which He gave them, but they behaved like people acting under duress and compulsion, murmuring and complaining about their condition. It is for this reason that He states with regard to the second [sin, or punishment], and the children of Israel also wept ‘again,’ meaning that their first sin consisted of complaining about their lack of comforts in the wilderness, and now they again did a similar thing, and they did not receive correction from the fire of G-d which devoured them.

כמתאוננים, experiencing the frustrations connected with the tedious journey.

כמתאוננים, on account of the difficulties of the journey. They did not actually complain in their hearts as they had nothing to complain about. They only voiced complaints as a form of testing G’d.

ויהי העם כמתאוננים, “the people were like murmurers;” the people were already mourning the potential casualties they would incur when going into battle against the Canaanites in order to conquer their land. They were lacking in faith and dreading warfare.