Numbers 11:20

20 ye shall eat for a full month, until come out at your nostrils; and it shall be nausea to you, because ye disobeyed the Lord, who is among you, and wept before him, saying, What had we to do to come out of Egypt?

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.

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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 And to the people thou shalt say, Purify yourselves for the morrow, and ye shall eat flesh; for ye wept before the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: and the Lord shall allow you to eat flesh, and ye shall eat flesh.

19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days;

20 ye shall eat for a full month, until come out at your nostrils; and it shall be nausea to you, because ye disobeyed the Lord, who is among you, and wept before him, saying, What had we to do to come out of Egypt?

21 And Moses said, The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou saidst, I will give them flesh to eat, and they shall eat a whole month.

22 Shall sheep and oxen be slain for them, and shall it suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and shall it suffice them?

Footnotes

• [a]. a month of days.
• [b]. cholera.