Numbers 11:16–30

SEVENTY ELDERS ANOINTED

¹⁶The Lord answered Moses, “Bring me seventy men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you. ¹⁷Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them.^g They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.^h

¹⁸“Tell the people: Consecrate yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you wept in the Lord’s hearing, ‘Who will feed us meat? We were better off in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat. ¹⁹You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, ²⁰but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and wept before him, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ”ⁱ

²¹But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with six hundred thousand foot soldiers,^j yet you say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’ ²²If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”^k

²³The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm weak?^Al Now you will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.”

²⁴Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He brought seventy men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent. ²⁵Then the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him.^m He took some of the Spirit who was on Moses and placed the Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied,ⁿ but they never did it again. ²⁶Two men had remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad; the Spirit rested on them—they were among those listed, but had not gone out to the tent—and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

²⁸Joshua son of Nun, assistant to Moses since his youth,^B responded, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

²⁹But Moses asked him, “Are you jealous on my account?^o If only all the Lord’s people were prophets and the Lord would place his Spirit on them!” ³⁰Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.