Numbers 11:20

20 but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you-because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and cried to Him: 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?' "[a]

Numbers 11:20 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 11:20

[But] even a whole month
So long the Israelites continued at Taberah or Kibrothhattaavah, as the Jews F15 conclude from this clause:

until it come out at your nostrils;
being vomited up, through a nausea of it, the stomach being overfilled and glutted with it; in which case, it will make its way through the nostrils, as well as out of the mouth:

and it be loathsome unto you;
being surfeited with it; or it shall be for "dispersion" F16, scattered about from the mouth and nostrils:

because that ye have despised the Lord which [is] among you;
who dwelt in the tabernacle that was in the midst of them, whom they despised by treating the manna with contempt he so plentifully spread about their camp, and by distrusting his power to give them flesh, and by murmuring and complaining against him on the account of their having none: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,

``because ye have loathed the Word of the Lord, whose Shechinah (or the glory of whose Shechinah, as Jonathan) dwelleth among you;''

the essential Word, and who was figured by the manna they tasted and despised:

and have wept before him;
complaining of him, and murmuring against him:

saying, why came we forth out of Egypt?
suggesting it would have been better for them if they had stayed there; thus reflecting on the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, displayed in the deliverance of them, and for which they had the utmost reason to be thankful.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24.
F16 (arzl) "in dispersionem", Munster, Fagius, Montanus: so R. Joseph Kimchi, apud Kimchi Sepher Shorash rad. (hrz) "et Aben dana".

Numbers 11:20 In-Context

18 "Tell the people: Purify yourselves [in readiness] for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: 'Who will feed us meat? We really had it good in Egypt.' The Lord will give you meat and you will eat.
19 You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or 10 days, or 20 days,
20 but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you-because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and cried to Him: 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?' "
21 But Moses replied, "I'm in the middle of a people with 600,000 foot soldiers, yet You say, 'I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.'
22 If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?"

Footnotes 1

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