Numbers 11

1The people were like those who complain of hardship in the hearing of Yahweh, and Yahweh heard it, and his anger burned, and the fire of Yahweh burned among them and consumed some at the edge of the camp.

2Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire died down.

3So he called the name of that place Taberah, because the fire of Yahweh burned among them.

4The rabble among them had a strong craving, and the sons of Israel also turned back and wept, and said, “Who will feed us meat?”

5We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

6But now our appetite is dried up; there is nothing at all except the manna before our eyes.

7The manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was like the appearance of bdellium.

8The people would roam about and gather it, and grind it in the millstones or crush it in the mortar, and boil it in the pot, and make it into cakes; and its taste was like the taste of rich oil.

9When the dew came down on the camp at night, the manna came down on it.

10Moses heard the people weeping by their clans, each man at the entrance of his tent. And the anger of Yahweh burned greatly, and it was evil in the eyes of Moses.

11And Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you treated your servant badly? And why have I not found favor in your eyes, that you have laid the burden of all this people on me?”

12Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to him, that you should say to me, ‘Carry him in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to his fathers?

13Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they are weeping before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, so that we may eat.’

14I am not able, I alone, to carry all this people, because it is too heavy for me.

15If this is how you are going to deal with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in your eyes, and do not let me see my misery.

16Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and its officers, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them stand there with you.”

17And I 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 will bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it by yourself alone.

18And to the people you shall say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, because you have wept in the hearing of Yahweh, saying, “Who will feed us meat? For it was good for us in Egypt.” And Yahweh will give you meat, and you shall eat.”

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

20for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected Yahweh who is among you and have wept before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever come out of Egypt?’”

21But Moses said, “The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand on foot, and yet you have said, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month of days.’”

22Would sheep and cattle be slaughtered for them and be enough for them? Or if all the fish of the sea were gathered for them, would it be enough for them?

23And Yahweh said to Moses, “Has Yahweh’s hand become short? Now you will see whether my word will happen for you or not.”

24So Moses went out and spoke to the people the words of Yahweh. He gathered seventy men from the elders of the people and stationed them around the tent.

25Then Yahweh came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and he took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue.

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

27Then a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

28Then Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant from his youth, answered and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!”

29But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all Yahweh’s people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!”

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

31Then a wind went out from Yahweh and drove quail in from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on that side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground.

32And the people rose up all that day and all that night and all the next day, and they gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

33While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, Yahweh’s anger burned against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very severe plague.

34So the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved.

35From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.