And they tempted God in their heart - Exodus 16:2. The heart was the source of the evil. They were not satisfied with what he gave them. They asked for that which would be more agreeable to them, and they did it with a complaining and a murmuring spirit. It is not wrong in itself to ask of God that which will be better than what we now possess, for that is the object of all our prayers; but this may be done from a wrong motive - for mere self-gratification, as was the case here; or it may be with a complaining and dissatisfied spirit, such as was evinced on this occasion. In such a case we cannot expect the prayer to be answered “except as a punishment.”
By asking meat for their lust - Food. The word “meat” here does not necessarily denote animal food, as it does with us. They asked another kind of food than manna; and they did it, not because this was “necessary” to sustain life, but in order to gratify their appetites. The original word here, however, is not “lusts,” but “souls;” that is, “they asked food for themselves.”