Complaints in the Desert

¹Now when the people complained openly before the Lord , the Lord heard, and His anger burned. Then the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.[#Lev 10:2; Nu 16:35]

²And the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord , and the fire was quenched.[#Nu 16:45–48; 21:7]

³He called the name of the place Taberah because the fire of the Lord burned among them.[#Dt 9:22]

⁴The mixed multitude that was among them lusted, and the Israelites wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?[#Ex 12:38; #1Co 10:6]

⁵We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.[#Ex 16:3]

⁶But now our life is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes.”[#Nu 21:5]

⁷The manna was as coriander seed, and it looked like bdellium.[#Ex 16:31; #Ge 2:12]

⁸The people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked in oil.[#Ex 16:16–18]

⁹When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna fell on it.[#Ex 16:13–14]

¹⁰Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the opening of his tent, and the anger of the Lord burned greatly. Moses was also displeased.

¹¹Moses said to the Lord , “Why have You hurt Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your eyes, that You lay the burden of all this people on me?[#Dt 1:12]

¹²Have I conceived all this people? Have I given them birth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse bears the nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers?[#Isa 49:23; #Ex 13:5]

¹³Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep to me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’[#Mt 15:33; Mk 8:4]

¹⁴I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me.[#Ex 18:18]

¹⁵If You do this to me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your eyes, and do not let me see my misery.”[#1Ki 19:4; Jon 4:3]

The Seventy Elders

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, that they may take a stand there with you.[#Dt 10:22; Lk 10:1; #Ex 24:1, 9]

¹⁷And I will come down, and I will speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit which is on you and will put it on them, and they will bear the burden of the people with you, and you will not bear it by yourself.[#1Sa 10:6; #Nu 11:25]

¹⁸“And say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord , saying, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.’ Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.[#Ex 19:10]

¹⁹You shall eat, not one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,

²⁰but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it will be nauseating to you because you rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we come out of Egypt?’ ”[#Nu 21:5]

²¹And Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand foot soldiers, and You have said, ‘I will give them meat that they may eat a whole month.’[#Ex 12:37; 38:26]

²²Will the flocks and the herds be slaughtered for them, to satisfy them? Or will all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to satisfy them?”[#Mt 15:33]

²³And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the hand of the Lord shortened? Now you will see if My word will happen to you or not.”[#Isa 50:2; 59:1]

²⁴Moses went out, and he spoke to the people the words of the Lord and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and set them around the tabernacle.[#Nu 11:16]

²⁵And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and gave it to the seventy elders, and when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do it again.[#1Sa 10:10]

²⁶But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other, Medad. And the Spirit rested on them. They were among those listed, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.

²⁷And a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp.”

²⁸Then Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, forbid them.”

²⁹Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Oh, that all the people of the Lord were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”[#Joel 2:28; Mk 9:38; 1Co 14:5]

³⁰And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

The Lord Sends Quail

³¹Now a wind from the Lord started up, and it swept quail 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, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.[#Ex 16:13; Ps 105:40; #11:31 About 3 feet, or 90 centimeters.]

³²And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.[#Ex 16:36; Eze 45:11; #11:32 Likely about 13/4 tons, or 1.6 metric tons.]

³³While the meat was between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great slaughter.[#Ps 78:30–31]

³⁴And he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah because there they buried the people who had the craving.[#Dt 9:22]

³⁵The people journeyed from Kibroth Hattaavah to Hazeroth, and they camped at Hazeroth.[#Nu 12:16; 33:17]