Numbers 11

Complaining in the Desert

1 # Lev 10.2; Num 14.2; 16.11, 35; 17.5 Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled. Then the fire of the Lord burned against them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2#Num 21.7But the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire abated. 3So that place was called Taberah,#11.3 That is, burning because the fire of the Lord burned against them.

4 # Ex 12.38; Ps 78.18; 1 Cor 10.6 The camp followers with them had a strong craving, and the Israelites also wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5#Ex 16.3We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, 6#Num 21.5but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

7 # Ex 16.14, 31 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of gum resin. 8The people went around and gathered it, ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, then boiled it in pots and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9#Ex 16.13, 14When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna would fall with it.

10 # Ps 78.21 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. 11So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12#Gen 26.3; Ex 13.5; Isa 40.11; 49.23Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a wet nurse carries a nursing child, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors’? 13#vv 21, 22; Jn 6.5–9Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14#Ex 18.18I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. 15#1 Kings 19.4; Jon 4.3If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”

The Seventy Elders

16 # Ex 24.1, 9; Deut 16.18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting and have them take their place there with you. 17#v 25; Ex 19.20; 1 Sam 10.6; 2 Kings 2.15I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself. 18#v 5; Ex 16.7; 19.10; Acts 7.39And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “If only we had meat to eat! Surely it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19#Num 21.5; Ps 78.29; 106.15You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ” 21But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! 22#Mt 15.33Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?” 23#Num 23.19; Isa 50.2; 59.1The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?#11.23 Heb Lord’s hand too short? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

24 # v 16 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent. 25#v 17; Num 12.5; 1 Sam 10.5, 6, 10; Acts 2.17, 18Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

26 # 1 Sam 10.6; 20.26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, so they prophesied in the camp. 27And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28#Mk 9.38–40And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men,#11.28 Or of Moses from his youth said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29#1 Cor 14.5But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” 30And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

The Quails

31 # Ex 16.13; Ps 78.26–28; 105.40 Then a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, about two cubits deep on the ground. 32So the people worked all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quails; the least anyone gathered was ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33#Ps 78.30, 31; 106.15But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. 34#Deut 9.22So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah,#11.34 That is, graves of craving because there they buried the people who had the craving. 35#Num 33.17From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth.

Currently Selected:

Numbers 11: NRSVUE

Highlight

Copy