Numbers 11:2

And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) The fire was quenched.—Better, subsided or sunk down. No precise information is given as to the extent of the fire, or as to the objects which it destroyed. It broke out in the extremity of the encampment, and it was arrested in its progress at the supplication of Moses. It seems, however, more probable that it consumed some of the Israelites themselves, than that it consumed only some of their tents. Some suppose that the reference is to the simoom, or fiery south wind, which sometimes blows in the Eastern desert, and which stifles those over whom it sweeps.

Benson Commentary

Numbers 11:2. The people cried unto Moses — This calamity threw them into such consternation, that they immediately applied to Moses to deprecate the divine displeasure.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1-3 Here is the people's sin; they complained. See the sinfulness of sin, which takes occasion from the commandment to be provoking. The weakness of the law discovered sin, but could not destroy it; checked, but could not conquer it. They complained. Those who are of a discontented spirit, will always find something to quarrel or fret about, though the circumstances of their outward condition be ever so favourable. The Lord heard it, though Moses did not. God knows the secret frettings and murmurings of the heart, though concealed from men. What he noticed, he was much displeased with, and he chastised them for this sin. The fire of their wrath against God burned in their minds; justly did the fire of God's wrath fasten on their bodies; but God's judgments came on them gradually, that they might take warning. It appeared that God delights not in punishing; when he begins, he is soon prevailed with to let it fall.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal rendering. They murmured against the privations of the march.

The fire of the Lord - Probably lightning; compare Psalm 78:21.

In the uttermost parts - Rather, in the end. The fire did not reach far into the camp. It was quickly quenched at the intercession of Moses.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 11

Nu 11:1-35. Manna Loathed.

1. When the people complained it displeased the Lord, &c.—Unaccustomed to the fatigues of travel and wandering into the depths of a desert, less mountainous but far more gloomy and desolate than that of Sinai, without any near prospect of the rich country that had been promised, they fell into a state of vehement discontent, which was vented at these irksome and fruitless journeyings. The displeasure of God was manifested against the ungrateful complainers by fire sent in an extraordinary manner. It is worthy of notice, however, that the discontent seems to have been confined to the extremities of the camp, where, in all likelihood, "the mixed multitude" [see on [71]Ex 12:38] had their station. At the intercession of Moses, the appalling judgment ceased [Nu 11:2], and the name given to the place, "Taberah" (a burning), remained ever after a monument of national sin and punishment. (See on [72]Nu 11:34).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The people, the murmurers being penitent, or others for fear.

Unto Moses, whom they knew to be very prevalent with God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the people cried unto Moses,.... And entreated him to pray for them, being frightened at the fire which consumed many of them, lest it should spread and become general among them:

and when Moses prayed unto the Lord; as he did, in which he was a type of Christ, the mediator between God and man, the advocate of his people, an intercessor for transgressors:

the fire was quenched; it stopped and proceeded no further; as through Christ's mediation God is pacified with his people for all that they have done, and his wrath, and all the effects of it, are turned away from them, and entirely cease with respect to them; or it "sunk down" (r) into its place, as the Targum of Jonathan, as if it rose out of the earth. This may serve to confirm the notion of its being a burning wind, to which the idea of sinking down and subsiding well agrees.

(r) "sunk down", so Ainsworth; "compressus est", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius; "resedit", Tigurine version.

Geneva Study Bible

And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Moses prayed] The word hithpallçl (‘pray,’ ‘intercede’) is used in the Pentateuch only by E (Numbers 21:7, Genesis 20:7; Genesis 20:17) and D (Deuteronomy 9:20; Deuteronomy 9:26). In his self-forgetfulness Moses was always ready to intercede for those who had sinned; cf. Numbers 12:13, Numbers 14:13-19, Numbers 16:22, Exodus 32:31 f., Numbers 34:9. This gives point to Ben Sira’s description of him (Sir 45:1) as ‘beloved of God and men.’

Taberah] i.e. a ‘burning’ or ‘conflagration.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - And the people cried unto Moses. Fear brought them to their senses, and they knew that their only hope was in their mediator, who had already saved them by his intercession from a worse destruction (Exodus 32:30-34). The fire was quenched. Rather, "went out." As its beginning was supernatural, or at least was so ordered as to appear so, its end also was due to the Divine intervention, not to human efforts. Numbers 11:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After a three days' march the Israelites arrived at a resting-place; but the people began at once to be discontented with their situation.

(Note: The arguments by which Knobel undertakes to prove, that in chs. 11 and 12 of the original work different foreign accounts respecting the first encampments after leaving Sinai have been woven together by the "Jehovist," are founded upon misinterpretations and arbitrary assumptions and conclusions, such as the assertion that the tabernacle stood outside the camp (chs. Numbers 11:25; Numbers 12:5); that Miriam entered the tabernacle (Numbers 12:4-5); that the original work had already reported the arrival of Israel in Paran in Numbers 10:12; and that no reference is ever made to a camping-place called Tabeerah, and others of the same kind. For the proof, see the explanation of the verses referred to.)

The people were like those who complain in the ears of Jehovah of something bad; i.e., they behaved like persons who groan and murmur because of some misfortune that has happened to them. No special occasion is mentioned for the complaint. The words are expressive, no doubt, of the general dissatisfaction and discontent of the people at the difficulties and privations connected with the journey through the wilderness, to which they gave utterance so loudly, that their complaining reached the ears of Jehovah. At this His wrath burned, inasmuch as the complaint was directed against Him and His guidance, "so that fire of Jehovah burned against them, and ate at the end of the camp." בּ בּער signifies here, not to burn a person (Job 1:16), but to burn against. "Fire of Jehovah:" a fire sent by Jehovah, but not proceeding directly from Him, or bursting forth from the cloud, as in Leviticus 10:2. Whether it was kindled through a flash of lightning, or in some other such way, cannot be more exactly determined. There is not sufficient ground for the supposition that the fire merely seized upon the bushes about the camp and the tents of the people, but not upon human beings (Ros., Knobel). All that is plainly taught in the words is, that the fire did not extend over the whole camp, but merely broke out at one end of it, and sank down again, i.e., was extinguished very quickly, at the intercession of Moses; so that in this judgment the Lord merely manifested His power to destroy the murmurers, that He might infuse into the whole nation a wholesome dread of His holy majesty.