Numbers
11
- Now the people complained about their hardships
in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused.
Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts
of the camp.
- When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed
to the LORD and the fire died down.
- So that place was called Taberah, because
fire from the LORD had burned among them.
- The rabble with them began to crave other
food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we
had meat to eat !
- We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at
no cost -- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.
- But now we have lost our appetite; we never
see anything but this manna !"
- The manna was like coriander seed and looked
like resin.
- The people went around gathering it, and
then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in
a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive
oil.
- When the dew settled on the camp at night,
the manna also came down.
- Moses heard the people of every family wailing,
each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses
was troubled.
- He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought
this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put
the burden of all these people on me ?
- Did I conceive all these people? Did I give
them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries
an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers ?
- Where can I get meat for all these people?
They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat !'
- I cannot carry all these people by myself;
the burden is too heavy for me.
- If this is how you are going to treat me,
put me to death right now -- if I have found favor in your eyes -- and do
not let me face my own ruin."
- The LORD said to Moses: "Bring me seventy
of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the
people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with
you.
- I will come down and speak with you there,
and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They
will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to
carry it alone.
- "Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves
in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when
you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!"
Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.
- You will not eat it for just one day, or
two days, or five, ten or twenty days,
- but for a whole month -- until it comes
out of your nostrils and you loathe it -- because you have rejected the LORD,
who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever
leave Egypt ?" '"
- But Moses said, "Here I am among six
hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for
a whole month !'
- Would they have enough if flocks and herds
were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea
were caught for them ?"
- The LORD answered Moses, "Is the LORD'S
arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for
you."
- So Moses went out and told the people what
the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them
stand around the Tent.
- Then the LORD came down in the cloud and
spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit
on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but
they did not do so again.
- However, two men, whose names were Eldad
and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but
did not go out to the Tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied
in the camp.
- A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad
and Medad are prophesying in the camp."
- Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide
since youth, spoke up and said, "Moses, my lord, stop them !"
- But Moses replied, "Are you jealous
for my sake? I wish that all the LORD'S people were prophets and that the
LORD would put his Spirit on them !"
- Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned
to the camp.
- Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove
quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three
feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction.
- All that day and night and all the next
day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten
homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp.
- But while the meat was still between their
teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against
the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.
- Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah,
because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
- From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled
to Hazeroth and stayed there.
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