Numbers 11

The people complained about how hard their life was, and the LORD heard them. He was displeased, and his anger burned. Fire from the LORD blazed among them and burned up people in the far parts of the camp.

1And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

2The people cried out to Moses. Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down.

2And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.

3So he named that place Taberah, because the fire of the LORD had burned among them.

3And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

NoteTaberah means "burning" in Hebrew. Naming a place after what happened there is common in these books, and the name is usually a pun on a key word in the story, here, the burning fire.

4The mixed crowd of other people traveling with Israel began to crave different food. The Israelites started weeping again too, and said, "Who will give us meat to eat?

4And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

NoteThe "mixed crowd" (King James "mixt multitude") were non-Israelites who left Egypt along with the Israelites (Exodus 12:38). The Hebrew word is contemptuous, something like "the rabble."

5We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

5We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:

Note"At no cost" translates a word about price, not quantity: the fish cost them nothing. Fish from the Nile and its canals was the cheap everyday protein of Egypt, within reach even of forced laborers.

6But now we have no appetite left. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna."

6But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

NoteManna was the flaky food that had appeared with the dew each morning since soon after Israel left Egypt (Exodus 16); the name echoes the people's first puzzled reaction to it, man hu, roughly "what is it?" The word behind "appetite" (King James "our soul is dried away") is nephesh, often translated "soul," but here meaning the throat or the hunger felt in it.

7The manna looked like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of bdellium, a pale gum resin.

7And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.

NoteCoriander seed is a small, pale, roundish seed about the size of a peppercorn. Bdellium is a fragrant gum resin that oozes from certain trees and hardens into pale, waxy, semi-transparent lumps; it was a costly trade good, so the comparison suggests something pale and translucent rather than dull.

8The people went around and gathered it. They ground it in hand mills or crushed it in a bowl with a pestle, then cooked it in pots and made it into flat cakes. It tasted like something baked with fresh olive oil.

8And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.

NoteA hand mill was two stones, one turned on the other, for grinding grain; a mortar was a stone bowl in which the grain was pounded with a club-shaped pestle. Both are the ordinary equipment for turning grain into flour, which is the point: manna was treated exactly like grain.

9When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna fell with it.

9And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.

10Moses heard the people weeping, family after family, each man at the door of his tent. The anger of the LORD burned hot, and Moses was unhappy as well.

10Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.

11Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on me, your servant? Why have I not pleased you, that you put the weight of all these people on me?

11And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?

12Did I conceive all these people? Did I give birth to them? Why then do you tell me, 'Carry them against your chest, the way a nurse carries a baby,' and take them to the land you promised their fathers?

12Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?

NoteThe King James "nursing father" reflects the Hebrew, which uses a masculine word for the one doing the carrying, a male guardian or foster-parent carrying a nursing infant against his chest. Moses is asking why the job of a child's caretaker has been given to him.

13Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep crying to me, 'Give us meat to eat.'

13Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

14I cannot carry all these people by myself. The load is too heavy for me.

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

15If this is how you are going to treat me, then please kill me right now, if I have pleased you at all. Do not let me go on seeing my own misery."

15And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

16The LORD said to Moses, "Bring me seventy men from the elders of Israel, men you know to be leaders and officers over the people. Bring them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you.

16And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.

Note"Elders" were the heads of families and clans, the men who settled disputes and spoke for the community; the office was one of standing and age, not of religion. The "tent of meeting" (King James "tabernacle of the congregation") was the portable sanctuary at the center of the camp, the tent where the LORD was said to meet with Moses.

17I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will carry the load of the people with you, so you do not carry it alone.

17And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "spirit" here, ruach, also means breath and wind, the same word that names the wind in verse 31. Taking "some of the spirit that is on you" pictures a share of what has been resting on Moses being distributed, not divided away from him.

18Tell the people this: Make yourselves ready for tomorrow, and you will eat meat. The LORD heard you crying, 'Who will give us meat to eat? We were better off in Egypt.' So the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.

18And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.

Note"Make yourselves ready" translates a word meaning to set oneself apart for contact with something holy: washing, clean clothes, and abstaining from ordinary activity, usually for a day beforehand. It is preparation, not moral improvement.

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

19Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days;

20but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nose and you are sick of it. This is because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have cried in front of him, 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?'"

20But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?

21Moses said, "The people I am with number six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat, and they will eat for a whole month.'

21And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.

Note"Men on foot" (King James "footmen") is a military term for men of fighting age, the group counted in the census in Numbers 1 and 2. Women, children, and the elderly are not in the figure, so the whole company being described is larger still.

22Could enough flocks and herds be killed to satisfy them? Could all the fish in the sea be caught to satisfy them?"

22Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?

23The LORD said to Moses, "Is the LORD's arm too short to reach? Now you will see whether or not what I said comes true for you."

23And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.

Note"Is the LORD's arm too short?" is a Hebrew idiom. A short arm cannot reach what it wants; the question asks whether God's reach has run out.

24So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He gathered seventy of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

24And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.

25The LORD came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses. He took some of the spirit that was on Moses and gave it to the seventy elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, and they did not stop.

25And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

NoteThe last phrase is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew. It can mean the elders prophesied and did not stop, or that they prophesied then and never did so again; ancient and modern translators split both ways. "Prophesied" here describes ecstatic speech or behavior marking someone as seized by the spirit, not necessarily the foretelling of events.

26But two of the men had stayed in the camp. One was named Eldad and the other Medad. The spirit rested on them too. They were on the list of the seventy, but they had not gone out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp.

26But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.

Note"On the list" translates "they were of them that were written", the two were among the seventy registered for the ceremony but had not come out to the tent.

27A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."

27And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

28Joshua son of Nun, who had served Moses since he was young, spoke up and said, "Moses, my master, stop them."

28And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

NoteJoshua son of Nun is Moses' personal attendant and military commander, and later his successor. The King James "one of his young men" and the reading "from his youth" both render the same Hebrew, which can mean either that Joshua was one of Moses' chosen men or that he had served since he was young.

29Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them."

29And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

30Then Moses went back into the camp, and the elders of Israel went with him.

30And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

31A wind came from the LORD. It drove quail in from the sea and dropped them near the camp, about a day's walk out on one side and a day's walk out on the other side, all around the camp, lying about two cubits deep on the ground.

31And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.

NoteQuail are small migratory game birds that cross the Sinai in vast flocks in spring and autumn, arriving exhausted after the sea crossing and easily caught by hand. A "day's journey" is a rough distance, about twenty miles. A cubit was about eighteen inches, roughly the length of a forearm, so two cubits is about three feet, and the Hebrew can mean either that the birds lay piled that deep on the ground or that they flew about that high above it.

32The people were up all that day, all that night, and all the next day gathering the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers. They spread the birds out all around the camp.

32And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.

NoteA homer was a dry measure of roughly six bushels, about 220 liters, a donkey-load, which is what the name suggests. Ten homers is an absurd quantity for one person, which is the point. Spreading the birds out was the standard way of drying meat in the sun to keep it from spoiling.

33But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was even chewed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a very great plague.

33And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.

NoteThe word translated "plague" means a blow or a striking. It describes a sudden deadly affliction, not specifically an infectious disease.

34So he named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

34And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.

NoteKibroth-hattaavah means "the graves of craving," naming the place after the appetite described earlier in the chapter.

35From Kibroth-hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.

35And the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.