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 put the burden of all this people on me? 12Was it I who conceived all this people? Or did I give birth to them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them 3in your arms, as a 45nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which 6You swore to their fathers’? 13Where am I to get meat to give to 7all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat so that we may eat!’ 148I am not able to carry all this people by myself, because it is too 9burdensome for me. 1510So if You are going to deal with me this way, please kill me now, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my misery.”

16The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me 11seventy men from the elders of Israel, 12whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their stand there with you. 1713Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take away some of 14the Spirit who is upon you, and put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it by yourself. 18And you shall say to the people, ‘15Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept 16in the ears of the Lord, saying, “17Oh 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, 2018but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nose and 19makes you nauseated; because 20you 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 included, are six hundred thousand on foot! Yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’ 22Are flocks and herds to be slaughtered for them, so that it will be sufficient for them? Or are all the fish of the sea to be 21caught for them, so that it will be sufficient for them?” 23Then the Lord said to Moses, “Is 22the Lord’s 23power too little? Now you shall see whether 24My word will 25come true for you or not.”

24So Moses went out and 26told the people the words of the Lord. He also gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and positioned them around the tent. 2527Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took away some of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Yet they did not do it again.

26But two men had remained in the camp; the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the 28other, Medad. And 29the Spirit rested upon them (and 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 informed Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28Then 30Joshua the son of Nun, the personal servant of Moses from his youth, responded and said, “31My lord Moses, restrain them!” 29But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? 32If only all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” 30Then Moses 33returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel.

3134Now a wind burst forth from the Lord and it brought quail from the sea, and dropped them 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 about 35two cubits deep on the surface of the ground. 32And the people 36spent all that day, all night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quail (the one who gathered least gathered 37ten 38homers) and spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 3339While 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 that place was named 4041Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had been greedy. 35From Kibroth-hattaavah 42the people set out for Hazeroth, and they 43remained at Hazeroth.