"... Why did the Torah write “my wretchedness” when what Moses did not want to see was the wretchedness of the complaining Israelites? This is one of the times that the sages changed the original Torah reading – which read “their wretchedness” – to avoid referring to the people in a harsh manner. This concept is called in Hebrew tikkunei soferim, “emendations of the sages,” and is discussed in Mekhilta Beshalach 10 and Tanchuma Beshalach 16 (Rashi). Ibn Ezra insists that no such emendation is necessary since Moses is referring to his own feelings of wretchedness. Although Ibn Ezra does not state this outright, he obviously understood “see” as a commonly used figure of speech for “feel,” and it is obvious that the Torah is not trying to hide the people’s improper behavior ..."

"... The word “trouble” here probably refers to the stress and difficulty of caring for a complaining group of people. The suffix on the noun would be objective, perhaps stressing the indirect object of the noun—trouble for me. The expression “on my trouble” (בְּרָעָתִי, braʿati) is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this tradition the original reading in verse 15 was [to look] “on your evil” (בְּרָעָתֶךָ, braʿatekha), meaning “the calamity that you bring about” for Israel. However, since such an expression could be mistakenly thought to attribute evil to the Lord, the ancient scribes changed it to the reading found in the Masoretic Text ..."