Numbers Chapter 11
The People Complain
1 The people started complaining about their hardships. The LORD’s anger flared. It burned among them and burned up the outskirts of the camp. 2 The people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. 3 The name of that place became Taberah, because the LORD’s fire “burned” among them.
4 Some riffraff among them had selfish interests and cried out again,
“Who’s going to feed us? 5 We remember the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6 Now our appetite’s gone. There’s nothing to look at except this manna.”
7The manna was like coriander seed and looked like bdellium. 8The people would go around and gather it up, grind it between millstones, mash it in mortars, or boil it in pots and make cakes. The cakes tasted like they were baked with olive oil. 9Manna fell with the dew at night. Num 11:1-9
10 Moses heard the families whining at the entrance to their tents. The LORD’s anger kindled greatly, and Moses wasn’t pleased. 11 He asked the LORD,
“Why be so hard on me? How have I displeased you that you’ve laid the responsibility for all these people on me? 12 Was I the one that conceived them and had them, that you should tell me to carry them in my arms like a nurse carries a nursing infant to the land you swore to their ancestors? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They’re crying to me for something to eat! 14 I can’t carry them; they’re too heavy. 15 If you’re going to deal with me this way, take my life now if I’m pleasing to you. Spare me the misery.”
Num 11:10-15
Elders Appointed to Help Moses
16 The LORD told Moses,
“Gather the 70 elders and their officers at the Tent of Meeting. Have them stand there with you. 17 I’ll come down and speak to you and take the Spirit that’s on you and put on them. They’ll bear responsibility for the people, too, so you won’t be bearing it by yourself. 18 Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you’ll eat meat because you’ve cried, “Oh that someone would feed us! We were well-off in Egypt.” The LORD will give you meat and you’ll eat it— 19 not 1 day, 2 days, 5, 10, or 20 days, 20 but for a whole month, till it comes out your nostrils and you sick of it. That’s because you’ve rejected the LORD that’s among you and whined to his face, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”
21 But Moses said,
“There are 600,000 people around me; yet you’ve said you’d give them meat for a month. 22 Should they butcher flocks and herds to get enough or try to catch all the fish in the sea?”
23 The LORD said, “Am I limited? You’ll see if what I said comes true.”
Num 11:16-23
24 Moses told the people what the LORD said. He gathered the 70 elders and stationed them around the tent. 25 The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him. The Spirit that was on Moses he put on them. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they never did it again.
26 Two men had remained in the camp, Eldad and Medad. The Spirit rested on them, and they kept on prophesying. (They were among the ones that had been registered but hadn’t gone out to the Tent.) 27 A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
Num 11:24-27
28 Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, stop them.”
29 “Are you jealous for me? Oh that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and he would put his Spirit on them.”
30 Moses and the elders went back to the camp.
The LORD Sends Quail
31 The LORD made a wind blow from the sea to bring quail. They fell about a day’s walk away all around the camp—about 3ft deep all over the ground. 32 The people spent all day, all night, and the next day picking them up and spreading them out all around the camp. The least anybody gathered was 62.5 bushels. 33 While they chewed the meat, the LORD’s anger flared at them; he struck them with a severe plague. 34 So they called the place Kibroth-hattaavah because they put in “graves” the people that had been “greedy.” 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah they set out for Hazaroth and stayed there.
Num 11:28-35