Numbers 11:11-35

111So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You 2been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? 12Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a 34nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which 5You swore to their fathers’? 13Where am I to get meat to give to 6all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat that we may eat!’ 147I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too 8burdensome for me. 159So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.”

16The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me 10seventy men from the elders of Israel, 11whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 1712Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of 13the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone. 18Say to the people, ‘14Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept 15in the ears of the Lord, saying, “Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. 19You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 2016but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because 17you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’” 21But Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are 600,000 on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’ 22Should flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Or should all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?” 23The Lord said to Moses, “Is 18the Lord’s 19power limited? Now you shall see whether 20My word will 21come true for you or not.”

24So Moses went out and 22told the people the words of the Lord. Also, he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and stationed them around the tent. 2523Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again.

26But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the 24other Medad. And 25the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. 27So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28Then 26Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “27Moses, my lord, restrain them.” 29But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? 28Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” 30Then Moses 29returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel.

3130Now there went forth a wind from the Lord and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp and 31about two 32cubits deep on the surface of the ground. 32The people 33spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten 3435homers) and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 3336While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very severe plague. 34So the name of that place was called 3738Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had been greedy. 35From Kibroth-hattaavah 39the people set out for Hazeroth, and they 40remained at Hazeroth.