Rather, we should fear God  ...

When the Israelites who went out boldly saw the Egyptians behind them,

They became very frightened because they thought that they would be killed

by the Egyptians in the wilderness.

That is because that was how much they really wanted to live (Exod. 14:8-12).

But when they said “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt” (16:3)

because of the meat in the wilderness of Sin (v. 1),

it seems like the Israelites weren’t afraid of being killed by the hand of God

but were very afraid of being killed by the hands of the Egyptians.