Numbers 11:14-35 ▼

14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me.

15 If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

16 Then the LORD {YHWH} said to Moses (drawn out), “Bring Me seventy of the elders of Israel (he wrestles with God) known to you as leaders and officers of the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them stand there with you.

17 And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit {Ruach} that is on you and put that Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden (burden) of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

18 And say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you⁺ will eat meat, because you⁺ have cried out in the hearing of the LORD {YHWH}, saying: ‘Who will feed us meat? For we were better off in Egypt (land of bondage)!’ Therefore the LORD will give you⁺ meat, and you⁺ will eat.

19 You⁺ will eat it not for one or two days, nor for five or ten or twenty days,

20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your⁺ nostrils and makes you⁺ nauseous—because you⁺ have rejected the LORD {YHWH}, who is among you⁺, and have cried out before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt (land of bondage)?’”

21 But Moses (drawn out) replied, “Here I am among 600,000 men on foot, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’

22 If all our flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”

23 The LORD {YHWH} answered Moses (drawn out), “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not My word will come to pass.”

24 So Moses (drawn out) went out and relayed to the people the words of the LORD {YHWH}, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

25 Then the LORD {YHWH} came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and He took some of the Spirit {Ruach} that was on Moses and placed that Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but they never did so again.

26 Two men, however, had remained in the camp—one named Eldad (God has loved) and the other Medad (love)—and the Spirit {Ruach} rested on them. They were among those listed, but they had not gone out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp.

27 A young man ran and reported to Moses (drawn out), “Eldad (God has loved) and Medad (love) are prophesying in the camp.”

28 Joshua (YHWH saves) son of Nun (fish / posterity), the attendant to Moses (drawn out) since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

29 But Moses (drawn out) replied, “Are you jealous on my account? I wish that all the LORD’s {YHWH} people were prophets and that the LORD would place His Spirit {Ruachow} on them!”

30 Then Moses (drawn out) returned to the camp, along with the elders of Israel (he wrestles with God).

31 Now a wind {ruach} sent by the LORD {YHWH} came up, drove in quail from the sea, and brought them near the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground <3 ft / 91.4 cm>, for a day’s journey in every direction around the camp.

32 All that day and night, and all the next day, the people stayed up gathering the quail. No one gathered less than ten homers <62.4 bu / 2,200 l>, and they spread them out all around the camp.

33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD {YHWH} burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a severe plague.

34 So they called that place Kibroth-hattaavah (graves of craving), because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

35 From Kibroth-hattaavah (graves of craving) the people moved on to Hazeroth (settlement), where they remained for some time.