Numbers 11:24

24 And Moses went out, and spoke the words of the Lord to the people; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and he set them round about the tabernacle.

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 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?

23 And the Lord said to Moses, Shall not the hand of the Lord be fully sufficient? now shalt thou know whether my word shall come to pass to thee or not.

24 And Moses went out, and spoke the words of the Lord to the people; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and he set them round about the tabernacle.

25 And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and put it upon the seventy men that were elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and ceased.

26 And there were two men left in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Modad; and the spirit rested upon them, and these were of the number of them that were enrolled, but they did not come to the tabernacle; and they prophesied in the camp.