Numbers 11:4-35

Quail From the LORD

4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!
5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.
6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin.
8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.
9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.
11 He asked the LORD, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?
12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors?
13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’
14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.
15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”
16 The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you.
17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.
18 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.
19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days,
20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ”
21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’
22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”
23 The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
24 So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent.
25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.
26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.
27 A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”
29 But Moses replied, “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!”
30 Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
31 Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits[a] deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction.
32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers.[b] Then they spread them out all around the camp.
33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.
34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah,[c] because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.

Numbers 11:4-35 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 11

This chapter informs us of the complaints of the people of Israel, which brought the fire of the Lord upon them, and consumed many of them; and which, at the intercession of Moses, was quenched, and the place from thence called Taberah, Nu 11:1-3; and of the lusting of the mixed multitude after flesh, to increase which, they called to mind their food in Egypt; and to show their folly and ingratitude in so doing, the manna is described, Nu 11:4-9; and of the uneasiness of Moses, and his complaints of the heavy burden of the people upon him, Nu 11:10-15; and to make him easy, it is promised, that seventy of the elders of Israel should partake of his spirit, and assist in bearing the burden, Nu 11:16,17; and that the people should have flesh to serve them a whole month, Nu 11:18-20; at which last Moses expressed some degree of unbelief, Nu 11:21-23; however God fulfilled his promise with respect to both. Some of the spirit of Moses was taken and given to seventy elders, who prophesied, and two men are particularly taken notice of, who did so, Nu 11:24-30; quails in great numbers were brought by a wind to the people; but while they were eating them wrath came upon them, and they were smitten with a plague, whence the place was called Kibrothhattaavah, Nu 11:31-34; and from thence they removed to Hazeroth, Nu 11:35.

Cross References 53

  • 1. S Exodus 16:3; Exodus 12:38
  • 2. ver 18; Psalms 78:18; 1 Corinthians 10:6
  • 3. S Exodus 16:3; Numbers 21:5
  • 4. Exodus 16:14
  • 5. S Exodus 16:31
  • 6. Genesis 2:12
  • 7. Exodus 16:16
  • 8. Exodus 16:13
  • 9. ver 4
  • 10. S Genesis 34:30
  • 11. S Exodus 5:22; S Exodus 18:18
  • 12. Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 49:23; Isaiah 66:11,12
  • 13. Numbers 14:16
  • 14. S Genesis 12:7; Exodus 13:5
  • 15. S Exodus 12:37; John 6:5-9
  • 16. S Exodus 18:18
  • 17. Exodus 32:32
  • 18. 1 Kings 19:4; Job 6:9; Job 7:15-16; Job 9:21; Job 10:1; Isaiah 38:12; John 4:3
  • 19. S Exodus 3:16
  • 20. S Exodus 18:25
  • 21. S Exodus 40:2
  • 22. Exodus 19:20
  • 23. ver 25,29; 1 Samuel 10:6; 2 Kings 2:9,15; 2 Kings 3:12; Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 40:5; Isaiah 63:11; Joel 2:28; Haggai 2:5
  • 24. S Exodus 18:18; Jeremiah 19:1
  • 25. S Exodus 19:10
  • 26. S Exodus 16:7
  • 27. ver 5; Acts 7:39
  • 28. Psalms 78:20
  • 29. Psalms 78:29; Psalms 106:14,15
  • 30. S Leviticus 26:43; Joshua 24:27; Judges 8:23; 1 Samuel 10:19; Job 31:28; Isaiah 59:13; Hosea 13:11
  • 31. ver 33; Job 20:13,23
  • 32. S Exodus 12:37
  • 33. Matthew 15:33
  • 34. Isaiah 50:2; Isaiah 59:1
  • 35. Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Ezekiel 12:25; Ezekiel 24:14
  • 36. S Exodus 19:9; Numbers 12:5
  • 37. ver 17
  • 38. ver 29; 1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Samuel 19:23
  • 39. S Acts 2:17
  • 40. ver 26; Numbers 24:2; Judges 3:10; 1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Samuel 19:20; 2 Chronicles 15:1
  • 41. S ver 25; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Revelation 1:10
  • 42. Exodus 17:9; Numbers 13:8; Numbers 26:65; Joshua 14:10
  • 43. Exodus 33:11; Joshua 1:1
  • 44. Mark 9:38-40
  • 45. 1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Samuel 19:20; 2 Chronicles 24:19; Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 44:4; 1 Corinthians 14:5
  • 46. S ver 17
  • 47. Numbers 27:18
  • 48. S Exodus 16:13; Psalms 78:26-28
  • 49. Psalms 78:30
  • 50. Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 9:7; Judges 2:12; 2 Kings 22:17; Psalms 106:29; Jeremiah 44:3; Ezekiel 8:17
  • 51. S ver 18-20; Psalms 106:15; Isaiah 10:16
  • 52. Numbers 33:16; Deuteronomy 9:22
  • 53. Numbers 33:17

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. That is, about 3 feet or about 90 centimeters
  • [b]. That is, possibly about 1 3/4 tons or about 1.6 metric tons
  • [c]. "Kibroth Hattaavah" means "graves of craving" .
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