Numbers 11:13-35 ▼

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

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

15 So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.”

16 Yahweh therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and take them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.

17 Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone.

18 And say to the people, ‘Set yourselves apart as holy for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, “Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For it was good for us in Egypt.” Therefore Yahweh will give you meat, and you shall eat.

19 You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,

20 but 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 go out from Egypt?”’”

21 But Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are 600,000 on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’

22 Should flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Or should all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”

23 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Is Yahweh’s power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will happen for you or not.”

24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of Yahweh. Also, he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

25 Then Yahweh came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again.

26 But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp.

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

28 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.”

29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of Yahweh were prophets, that Yahweh would put His Spirit upon them!”

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

31 Now there went forth a wind from Yahweh, and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp and about two cubits over the surface of the ground.

32 And the people spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers), and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

33 While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very severe plague.

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

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