A sudden water shortage in the barren wilderness triggers a wave of existential panic, driving the Israelites to extreme despair and a chilling death wish. Their outcry represents more than just physical suffering, exposing a deep fracture in their trust toward their leadership. The people direct their anger squarely at Moses. As the head of the nation, he bears the ultimate responsibility to provide for their basic needs [ביאור יש"ר]. Furthermore, Moses shares a profound, lifelong connection with water. He was drawn from it as an infant, led the splitting of the Red Sea, and previously extracted water from solid rock. Naturally, the people expect him to produce water for them once again [כלי יקר]. Yet, beneath this open confrontation with their leader lies a deeper, hidden resentment directed at God Himself for bringing them out of Egypt and into the harsh desert [ספורנו].
Consumed by the agony of their thirst, the people express a tragic wish to have already died alongside their fallen brothers. The primary approach among commentators is that this cry is a literal wish to have shared the exact same fate as their brethren, revealing the sheer terror of dehydration. When identifying who these fallen brothers were and why the people preferred their fate, commentators offer varying perspectives woven into the history of their journey.
Some identify these brothers as the individuals who perished in the sudden plagues that struck the followers of Korah or the spies. Dehydration is a slow, agonizing process that burns the body from the inside out, making it far more torturous than a swift death by plague or sudden fire [רש"י, שד"ל, העמק דבר, שטיינזלץ]. This creates a bitter irony. The people are essentially blaming Moses for praying to stop those past plagues. In their current agony, they feel it would have been better to die quickly back then rather than face the creeping horror of thirst now [אור החיים, אלשיך].
Alternatively, the fallen brothers are understood to be the older generation who passed away gradually over the years of wandering [רבנו בחיי, אבן עזרא, שפתי כהן]. Those individuals died quiet, natural deaths, accepting God's decree under His watchful care. In contrast, the current generation feels abandoned, facing a terrifying and seemingly senseless extermination in the wasteland [רש"ר הירש].
On a deeper spiritual level, the people fear that dying of thirst in the wilderness will reduce them to the state of common beasts. They long for a meaningful passing that brings atonement and secures a place in the World to Come, much like the righteous deaths of their brethren. They dread a degrading end, dying by chance in the desert without God's divine oversight [כלי יקר, אלשיך].