CHAPTER 11
Soon
the people
began to complain
about their hardship
in the hearing
of the LORD,
and when He
heard them,
His anger
was kindled,
and fire
from the LORD
blazed
among them
and consumed
the outskirts
of the camp.
Meanwhile, the rabble
among them
had a strong craving for other food,
and
again
the Israelites
wept
and said,
“Who
will feed
us meat?
We remember
the fish
we ate
freely
in Egypt,
along with the cucumbers,
melons,
leeks,
onions,
and garlic.
The people
walked around
and gathered it,
ground it
on a handmill
or
crushed it
in a mortar,
then boiled
it in a cooking pot
or shaped it into
cakes.
It tasted
like pastry
baked with fine oil.
Then Moses
heard
the people
of family
after family
weeping
at the entrance
of their tents,
and the anger
of the LORD
was kindled
greatly,
and Moses
also was displeased.
So Moses
asked
the LORD,
“Why
have You brought this trouble
on Your servant?
Why
have I not
found
favor
in Your sight,
that You have laid
upon me
the burden
of all
these
people?
Did I
conceive
all
these
people?
Did I
give them birth,
so that
You should tell
me,
‘Carry them
in your bosom,
as
a nurse
carries
a nursing infant,’
to
the land
that
You swore to give
their fathers?
Where
can I get meat
for
all
these
people?
For
they keep crying out
to me,
‘Give
us meat
to eat!’
If
this is how
You
are going to treat
me,
please
kill me right now—
if
I have found
favor
in Your eyes—
and let me not
see
my own wretchedness.”
Then the LORD
said
to Moses,
“Bring
Me
seventy
of the elders
of Israel
known to you
as leaders
and officers
of the people.
Bring
them
to
the Tent
of Meeting
and have them stand
there
with you.
And I will come down
and speak
with you
there,
and I will take
some of
the Spirit
who
is on
you and put
that Spirit upon them.
They will help you bear
the burden
of the people,
so that you
do not
have to bear it
by yourself.
And
say
to the people:
Consecrate yourselves
for tomorrow,
and you will eat
meat,
because
you have cried out
in the hearing
of the LORD,
saying,
‘Who
will feed
us meat?
For
we were better off
in Egypt.’
Therefore the LORD
will give
you meat,
and you will eat.
but for
a whole month—
until
it comes out
of your nostrils
and makes
you
nauseous—
because
you have despised
the LORD
who
is among you,
and cried out
before Him
saying,
‘Why
did we ever
leave
Egypt?’”
But Moses
replied,
“Here I am
among
600,000
men
on foot,
yet You
say,
‘I will give
them meat,
and they will eat
for a month.’
If flocks
and herds
were slaughtered for them,
would they have enough?
Or if
all
the fish
in the sea
were caught for them,
would they have enough?”
The LORD
answered
Moses,
“Is the LORD’s
arm
too short?
Now
you will see
whether or
not
My word
shall come to pass.”
So Moses
went out
and relayed
to
the people
the words
of the LORD,
and he gathered
seventy
of the elders
of the people
and had them stand
around
the tent.
Then the LORD
came down
in the cloud
and spoke
to him,
and He took
some of
the Spirit
that
was on Moses
and placed
that Spirit on
the seventy
elders.
As the Spirit
rested
on them,
they prophesied—
but they never
did so again.
Two
men,
however, had remained
in the camp—
one
named
Eldad
and the other
Medad—
and the Spirit
rested
on them.
They
were among those listed,
but they had not
gone out
to the tent,
and they prophesied
in the camp.
Joshua
son
of Nun,
the attendant
to Moses
since youth,
spoke up
and said,
“Moses,
my lord,
stop them!”
But Moses
replied,
“Are you
jealous
on my account?
I wish that
all
the LORD’s
people
were prophets
and that
the LORD
would place
His Spirit
on them!”
Now a wind
sent by
the LORD
came up,
drove in
quail
from
the sea,
and dropped
them near
the camp,
about two cubits
deep
for a day’s
journey
in every direction
around
the camp.
All
that
day
and night,
and all
the next
day,
the people
stayed up
gathering
the quail.
No one gathered
less than
ten
homers,
and they spread them out
all around
the camp.
But while
the meat
was still between
their teeth,
before
it was chewed,
the LORD’s
anger
burned
against the people,
and the LORD
struck
them
with a severe
plague.
So they called
that
place
Kibroth-hattaavah,
because
there
they buried
the people
who had craved other food.