Numbers 11:16-29

16 The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you.
17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.
18 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.
19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days,
20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ”
21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’
22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”
23 The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
24 So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent.
25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.
26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.
27 A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”
29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

Cross References 29

  • 1. S Exodus 3:16
  • 2. S Exodus 18:25
  • 3. S Exodus 40:2
  • 4. Exodus 19:20
  • 5. ver 25,29; 1 Samuel 10:6; 2 Kings 2:9,15; 2 Kings 3:12; Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 40:5; Isaiah 63:11; Joel 2:28; Haggai 2:5
  • 6. S Exodus 18:18; Jeremiah 19:1
  • 7. S Exodus 19:10
  • 8. S Exodus 16:7
  • 9. ver 5; Acts 7:39
  • 10. Psalms 78:20
  • 11. Psalms 78:29; Psalms 106:14,15
  • 12. S Leviticus 26:43; Joshua 24:27; Judges 8:23; 1 Samuel 10:19; Job 31:28; Isaiah 59:13; Hosea 13:11
  • 13. ver 33; Job 20:13,23
  • 14. S Exodus 12:37
  • 15. Matthew 15:33
  • 16. Isaiah 50:2; Isaiah 59:1
  • 17. Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Ezekiel 12:25; Ezekiel 24:14
  • 18. S Exodus 19:9; Numbers 12:5
  • 19. ver 17
  • 20. ver 29; 1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Samuel 19:23
  • 21. S Acts 2:17
  • 22. ver 26; Numbers 24:2; Judges 3:10; 1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Samuel 19:20; 2 Chronicles 15:1
  • 23. S ver 25; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Revelation 1:10
  • 24. Exodus 17:9; Numbers 13:8; Numbers 26:65; Joshua 14:10
  • 25. Exodus 33:11; Joshua 1:1
  • 26. Mark 9:38-40
  • 27. 1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Samuel 19:20; 2 Chronicles 24:19; Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 44:4; 1 Corinthians 14:5
  • 28. S ver 17
  • 29. Numbers 27:18
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