Numbers
Chapter 11
1 When the people complained, it upset God; God heard it, and became angry; God’s fire burned among them, and it destroyed those on the edges of the camp.
2 The people called out to Moses; and when Moses prayed to God, the fire went out.
3 He named the place Taberah because God’s fire had burned there.
4 The diverse crowd with them started to crave food, and the Israelites cried again, asking, “Who will give us meat to eat?”
5 We remember eating fish for free in Egypt, along with cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
6 Now we feel empty inside; all we see is this manna and nothing else.
7 The manna looked like coriander seed and was the same color as bdellium.
8 The people collected the food and ground it in mills or crushed it in a bowl, then cooked it on pans to make cakes; it tasted like fresh oil.
9 When the dew came down on the camp at night, the manna came down with it.
10 Moses heard the people crying in their families, each man at his tent door, and God became very angry; Moses was also upset.
11 Moses said to God, “Why have you made things hard for me, your servant? And why don’t I have your favor, that you have put the responsibility of all these people on me?”
12 Did I give birth to all these people? Did I create them, that you tell me to carry them like a father carries a nursing baby, to the land you promised to their ancestors?
13 Where can I get meat to give to all these people? They are crying to me, ‘Give us meat so we can eat.’
14 I can’t handle all these people by myself, it’s too much for me.
15 If you treat me like this, please kill me now, if I have your favor; don’t let me see my misery.
16 God told Moses, “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders, known to you as leaders and officials, to the meeting tent so they can stand with you.”
17 I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, so they can share the people’s weight with you and you won’t have to carry it alone.
18 Tell the people to get ready for tomorrow, and you will eat meat. You cried to God for meat, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? We had it good in Egypt.” So God will give you meat, and you will eat.
19 You must not eat for one day, two days, five days, ten days, or twenty days.
20 But even for a whole month, until you are sick of it because it comes out of your nose, and you hate it: you feel this way because you rejected God among you and cried in front of him, asking, ‘Why did we leave Egypt?’
21 Moses said, “The people I am with are 600,000 soldiers; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.’”
22 Should we kill enough flocks and herds to feed them? Or should we gather all the fish from the sea for them to be satisfied?
23 God said to Moses, “Is God’s power weak? You will now see if my promise to you happens or not.”
24 Moses went out, told the people what God said, gathered seventy elders, and placed them around the tent.
25 God came down in a cloud, spoke to him, and shared his spirit with the seventy elders. When the spirit rested on them, they spoke God’s message and did not stop.
26 Two men stayed in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad. God’s spirit was with them. They were listed to go to the tent but did not go. Instead, they spoke God’s word 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 served Moses, replied, “Moses, tell them to stop.”
29 And Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? I wish that all God’s people were prophets and that God would give them his spirit!”
30 Moses went into the camp with the elders of Israel.
31 A wind from God blew, and brought quails from the sea, dropping them near the camp, about a day’s walk on one side and on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits deep on the ground.
32 The people stood all day, all night, and the next day, collecting quails. The one who collected the least got ten baskets full. They laid them out around the camp.
33 While the meat was still in their mouths, before they could chew it, God became very angry with the people, and God struck them with a terrible plague.
34 He named that place Graves of Craving because there they buried the people who had strong desires.
35 The people traveled from Kibrothhattaavah to Hazeroth and stayed there.