Numbers 11:24

24 And Moses goeth out, and speaketh unto the people the words of Jehovah, and gathereth seventy men of the elders of the people, and causeth them to stand round about the tent,

Numbers 11:24 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 11:24

And Moses went out
Either out of his own tent, about which the people assembled, complaining and weeping, ( Numbers 11:10 ) ; or rather, as Aben Ezra, out of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the sanctuary where he had been conversing with God, about the affairs complained of both by the people and by himself; so the Targum of Jonathan says, he went out of the tabernacle, the house of the Shechinah or divine Majesty:

and told the people of the words of the Lord;
what he had ordered him to do for his ease in the government of them, and how he had promised to give them flesh on the morrow:

and gathered the seventy men of the elders of Israel;
sent for them by name, and ordered them to assemble at such a time and place; and though two of them came not, after mentioned, ( Numbers 11:26 ) , yet the full number of seventy is given:

and set them round about the tabernacle;
they seem to be set not promiscuously in a body together, but distinctly, one by another, in a circular form; that they might be seen, observed, and taken notice of by the people that came about the tabernacle, who they were, what were done to them, and what befell them.

Numbers 11:24 In-Context

22 Is flock and herd slaughtered for them, that one hath found for them? -- are all the fishes of the sea gathered for them -- that one hath found for them?'

23 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Is the hand of Jehovah become short? now thou dost see whether My word meeteth thee or not.'

24 And Moses goeth out, and speaketh unto the people the words of Jehovah, and gathereth seventy men of the elders of the people, and causeth them to stand round about the tent,

25 and Jehovah cometh down in the cloud, and speaketh unto him, and keepeth back of the Spirit which [is] on him, and putteth on the seventy men of the elders; and it cometh to pass at the resting of the Spirit on them, that they prophesy, and do not cease.

26 And two of the men are left in the camp, the name of the one [is] Eldad, and the name of the second Medad, and the spirit resteth upon them, (and they are among those written, and have not gone out to the tent), and they prophesy in the camp;