Numbers 11 Study Notes

11:18 Consecrate yourselves refers to the process of purification through the washing of body and clothes to prepare people to receive a theophany—a manifestation of God’s presence.

11:19-20 God declared to the Israelites that they would eat . . . for a whole month. The supply of quail in Ex 16:13 was in response to a need for food in the first wilderness journey before reaching Mount Sinai. This request arose out of rebellious discontentment with the continuous provision of manna that God had made.

11:21-23 Moses forgot for a moment that the Lord is the leader of this people rather than Moses.

11:24-25 That God took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed it on the Israelite elders did not diminish the Spirit that was on Moses. This miracle provided the necessary power and wisdom to those who functioned on behalf of God and under the direction of Moses.

11:26-30 Two elders, Eldad and Medad, who had not attended the presentation ceremony, prophesied in the same manner as the other elders, demonstrating that God’s Spirit cannot be confined to any space or time. Joshua saw the actions of Eldad and Medad as a challenge to Moses’s leadership. Moses is apparently now glad to share his responsibilities.

11:31-32 In a manner similar to the wind that blew back the waters of the Red Sea in the exodus event, a divinely driven wind brought a large quantity of quail across the camp. Arabs in the early twentieth century are known to have captured between one and two million quail during the autumn bird migration. The extraordinary quantity of quail was swept in from the sea, probably from the Gulf of Aqaba (Elath) if the wind were from the east, and then northwest toward the encampment of Israel.

11:33 The severe plague sent upon the people might have been food poisoning due to the time the quail meat remained in the sun without proper processing and drying. Even if there are natural explanations, the ultimate cause was the Lord’s anger.

11:34 The blessing turned to craving, and the craving to disease and death, leading to the naming of the location Kibroth-hattaavah (“Graves of Craving”).