¹⁶The Lord said to Moses, “Assemble seventy respected men who are recognized as leaders of the people, bring them to me at the Tent of my presence, and tell them to stand there beside you. ¹⁷I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit I have given you and give it to them. Then they can help you to bear the responsibility for these people, and you will not have to bear it alone. ¹⁸Now tell the people, ‘Purify yourselves for tomorrow; you will have meat to eat. The Lord has heard you whining and saying that you wished you had some meat and that you were better off in Egypt. Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. ¹⁹You will have to eat it not just for one or two days, or five, or ten, or even twenty days, ²⁰but for a whole month, until it comes out of your ears, until you are sick of it. This will happen because you have rejected the Lord who is here among you and have complained to him that you should never have left Egypt.’ ”

²¹Moses said to the Lord, “Here I am leading 600,000 people, and you say that you will give them enough meat for a month? ²²Could enough cattle and sheep be killed to satisfy them? Are all the fish in the sea enough for them?”

²³“Is there a limit to my power?” the Lord answered. “You will soon see whether what I have said will happen or not!”

²⁴So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He assembled 70 of the leaders and placed them round the Tent. ²⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit he had given to Moses and gave it to the 70 leaders. When the spirit came on them, they began to shout like prophets, but not for long.

²⁶Two of the 70 leaders, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp and had not gone out to the Tent. There in the camp the spirit came on them, and they too began to shout like prophets. ²⁷A young man ran out to tell Moses what Eldad and Medad were doing.

²⁸Then Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ helper since he was a young man, spoke up and said to Moses, “Stop them, sir!”

²⁹Moses answered, “Are you concerned about my interests? I wish that the Lord would give his spirit to all his people and make all of them shout like prophets!” ³⁰Then Moses and the 70 leaders of Israel went back to camp.

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