Numbers 11:3

And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Taberah—i.e., burning, a word cognate to the verb which is rendered burnt in Numbers 11:1 and in this verse.

Benson Commentary

Numbers 11:3. He called the place Taberah — That is, burning, because of this fire; and it was called Kibroth-hattaavah on another account. It is no unusual thing in Scripture for persons and places to have two or more names. Both these names were imposed as monuments of the people’s sin, and of God’s just displeasure. This passage is well improved by St. Paul, (1 Corinthians 10:10-12,) to caution us against discontent and murmuring.

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

Taberah - i. e. "burning:" not the name of a station, and accordingly not found in the list given in Numbers 33, but the name of the spot where the fire broke out. This incident might seem (compare Numbers 11:34) to have occurred at the station called, from another still more terrible event which shortly followed, Kibroth-hattaavah.

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

Tabera, from this fire; as it was called Kibroth-hattaa-vah from another occasion, Numbers 11:34,35 33:16; as it is no new thing in Scripture for persons and places to have two names. Both these names were imposed as monuments of the people’s sin, and of God’s just judgment. See Deu 9:7,22,24.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he called the name of the place Taberah,.... That is, "burning": Moses called it so; or it may be rendered impersonally, it was called (s) so in later times by the people:

because the fire of the Lord burnt among them; to perpetuate the, memory of this kind of punishment for their sins, that it might be a terror and warning to others; and this history is indeed recorded for our caution in these last days, that we murmur not as these Israelites did, and were destroyed of the destroyer, 1 Corinthians 10:10.

(s) "et vocatum est", Tigurine version, Fagius, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - and he called the name of the place Taberah. Or Taberah (תַּבְעֵרָה). This name does not occur in the list of stations in chapter 33, which mentions nothing between Sinai and Kibroth-Hattaavah. It would seem probable, however, that the conflagration occurred while Israel was encamped, or else there could hardly have been a burning "in the end of the camp." We may therefore suppose either that Tabeerah was some spot in the immediate neighbourhood of Sinai whither the people gathered for their first long march; or that it was one of the halting-places on the "three days' journey" not mentioned in the list, because that journey was considered as all one; or that it was the same place afterwards called Kibroth-Hatta-avah. There is nothing in the narrative to decide a question which is in itself unimportant. It is necessary to remember that where the ancient and local names derived from marked natural features were not available, such names as Tabeerah given to the halting-places of so vast a host must have had a very loose significance.

CHAPTER 11:4-35 KIBROTH HATTAAVAH (verses 4-35). Numbers 11:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From this judgment the place where the fire had burned received the name of "Tabeerah," i.e., burning, or place of burning. Now, as this spot is distinctly described as the end or outermost edge of the camp, this "place of burning" must not be regarded, as it is by Knobel and others, as a different station from the "graves of lust." "Tabeerah was simply the local name give to a distant part of the whole camp, which received soon after the name of Kibroth-Hattaavah, on account of the greater judgment which the people brought upon themselves through their rebellion. This explains not only the omission of the name Tabeerah from the list of encampments in Numbers 33:16, but also the circumstance, that nothing is said about any removal from Tabeerah to Kibroth-Hattaavah, and that the account of the murmuring of the people, because of the want of those supplies of food to which they had been accustomed in Egypt, is attached, without anything further, to the preceding narrative. There is nothing very surprising either, in the fact that the people should have given utterance to their wish for the luxuries of Egypt, which they had been deprived of so long, immediately after this judgment of God, if we only understand the whole affair as taking place in exact accordance with the words of the texts, viz., that the unbelieving and discontented mass did not discern the chastising hand of God at all in the conflagration which broke out at the end of the camp, because it was not declared to be a punishment from God, and was not preceded by a previous announcement; and therefore that they gave utterance in loud murmurings to the discontent of their hearts respecting the want of flesh, without any regard to what had just befallen them.