The Complaints of the People
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. Num 21:52Ki 1:12Num 16:35Exo 16:91Co 10:10Lev 10:22Sa 11:27Deu 32:22 And the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. Num 21:7Jas 5:16Num 16:45-481Jn 2:1-21Jn 5:16Act 8:24Amo 7:2-6Deu 9:19-20 So that place was called Taberah, 1 because the fire of the LORD had burned among them. Deu 9:22
Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat? 1Co 10:6Exo 12:38Psa 106:14Psa 78:18-201Co 15:33Lev 24:10-11Neh 13:3Rom 13:14 We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. Exo 16:3Php 3:19Psa 17:14 But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!” Num 21:52Sa 13:4
Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin. Exo 16:31Exo 16:14-15Gen 2:121Co 1:23-24Rev 2:17 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. Exo 16:31Exo 16:16-18Exo 16:23Jhn 6:27Jhn 6:33-58 When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it. Exo 16:13-14Deu 32:2Psa 105:40Psa 78:23-25
The Complaint of Moses
Then Moses heard the people of family after family weeping at the entrances to their tents, and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was also displeased. Psa 78:21Deu 32:22Isa 5:25Jer 17:4Mrk 10:14Mrk 3:5Num 11:1Num 12:3
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? Deu 1:12Exo 5:222Co 11:28Exo 17:4Jer 15:10Jer 15:18Jer 20:14-18Jer 20:7-9 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 an infant,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers? Isa 40:11Isa 49:231Th 2:7Exo 13:5Gen 50:24Gen 26:3Ezk 34:23Gal 4:19
Where can I get meat for all these people? For they keep crying out to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ Mat 15:33Mrk 8:4Jhn 6:5-9Mrk 9:23
I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me. Exo 18:18Deu 1:9-122Co 2:16Zec 6:13Isa 9:6Psa 89:19 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.” Jon 4:31Ki 19:4Jer 20:18Jon 4:8-9Php 1:20-24Exo 32:32Zep 3:15Jas 1:4
Seventy Elders Anointed
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. Exo 24:1Exo 24:9Deu 1:15Deu 16:18Gen 46:27Luk 10:1Luk 10:17Exo 4:29
And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put that Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself. 1Sa 10:6Num 11:251Co 12:4-111Co 2:122Ki 2:152Ki 2:9Jol 2:28Isa 59:20-21
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. Exo 19:10Act 7:39Exo 16:3-7Num 11:1Num 11:4-6Exo 19:15Gen 35:2Jdg 21:2 You will eat it not for one or two days, nor for five or ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and makes you nauseous—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have cried out before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” Psa 106:15Num 21:5Psa 78:27-301Sa 10:191Sa 2:301Th 4:82Sa 12:10Act 13:41
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.’ Exo 12:37Num 1:46Gen 12:2Exo 38:26Num 2:32 If all our 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?” 2Ki 7:2Mat 15:33Jhn 6:6-7Jhn 6:9Luk 1:18Luk 1:34Mrk 6:37Mrk 8:4
The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not My word will come to pass.” Isa 59:1Gen 18:14Isa 50:2Luk 1:37Mat 19:26Num 23:19Ezk 12:25Ezk 24:14
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. Num 11:16Num 11:26 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. Num 11:17Jol 2:28-291Co 14:1-31Sa 10:10Num 12:51Sa 10:5-62Ki 2:152Pe 1:21
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. Jer 36:51Sa 20:261Sa 10:22Exo 3:11Exo 4:13-14Jer 1:6 A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
Joshua son of Nun, the attendant to Moses since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” Luk 9:49-50Mrk 9:38-40Jhn 3:26Jos 1:1Exo 17:9Exo 33:11
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!” 1Co 14:5Jas 4:5Jas 5:9Luk 10:2Mat 9:37-38Jas 3:14-15Php 1:15-18Php 2:3
Then Moses returned to the camp, along with the elders of Israel.
The Quail and the Plague
Now a wind sent by the LORD came up, drove in quail from the sea, and brought them near the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground, 2 for a day’s journey in every direction around the camp. Exo 16:13Psa 105:40Psa 78:26-29Exo 10:13Exo 10:19Exo 15:10Psa 135:7 All that day and night, and all the next day, the people stayed up gathering the quail. No one gathered less than ten homers, 3 and they spread them out all around the camp. Ezk 45:11Exo 16:36
But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a severe plague. Psa 78:30-31Psa 106:14-15Num 16:49Num 25:9Deu 28:27 So they called that place Kibroth-hattaavah, 4 because there they buried the people who had craved other food. Deu 9:221Co 10:6Num 33:16
From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth, where they remained for some time. Num 33:17Num 12:16Deu 1:1