Numbers 11:22

22 Can flocks and herds be found and slaughtered for them? Or can all the fish in the sea be found and caught for them?"

Numbers 11:22 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 11:22

Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice
them?
&c.] Suggesting that if all their cattle, their sheep, and oxen were killed, which they and the mixed multitude brought out of Egypt, they would not be sufficient for them to live upon a whole month; and intimating also, that it would be an unwise thing, and very improper, to slay them all, were they sufficient, since then they would have none for sacrifice, or to breed when they came into the land of Canaan; the Targum of Jonathan is,

``shall the sheep that are in Arabia and the oxen that are in Nabatea be slain for them, and be sufficient for them?''

or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to
suffice them?
of the great sea, as Jonathan; which, to gather together, is, humanly speaking, impossible; indeed, if it could be done, they would not suffice such a number of people a month together: Moses takes notice only of the flesh of beasts and of fishes, and seems not to have thought of the flesh of fowls with which, and not the other, the Lord afterwards fed them a whole month.

Numbers 11:22 In-Context

20 but for a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and nauseates you. You've rejected the LORD who's been with you and you have cried before him, saying, 'Why did we leave Egypt?' '"

21 Moses said, "The people I'm with are six hundred thousand on foot and you're saying, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.'

22 Can flocks and herds be found and slaughtered for them? Or can all the fish in the sea be found and caught for them?"

23 The LORD said to Moses, "Is the LORD's power too weak? Now you will see whether my word will come true for you or not."

24 So Moses went out and told the people the LORD's words. He assembled seventy men from the people's elders and placed them around the tent.