Numbers 11–12

Complaints about Hardship

11Now the people began complaining openly before ^vthe Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, His anger burned, ^wand fire ^xfrom the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. ²Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. ³So that place was named Taberah, ^yzbecause the Lord’s fire had blazed among them.

Complaints about Food

⁴Contemptible people ^aamong them ^bhad a strong craving ^cfor other food. The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat? ⁵We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, ^dalong with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. ⁶But now our appetite is gone; ^ethere’s nothing to look at but this manna!”

⁷The manna ^fresembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium. ^g8The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil. ⁹When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it. ^h

¹⁰Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents. The Lord was very angry; ⁱMoses was also provoked. ^j11So Moses asked the Lord, “Why have You brought such trouble on Your servant? Why are You angry with me, and why do You burden me with all these people? ^k12Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so You should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nursing woman carries a baby,’ ^lto the land that You ^mswore to give their fathers? ⁿ¹³Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying to me: ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me. ¹⁵If You are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now. ^oIf You are pleased with me, ^pdon’t let me see my misery ^qanymore.”

Seventy Elders Anointed

¹⁶The Lord answered Moses, “Bring Me 70 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. ^rThey will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself. ^s

¹⁸“Tell the people: Purify yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: ‘Who will feed us meat? We really had it good 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 10 days, or 20 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 cried to Him: ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ” ^t

²¹But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with 600,000 foot soldiers, ^uyet 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?” ^v

²³The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? ^wxYou 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 70 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. ^yHe took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed the Spirit on the 70 elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, ^zbut 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, ^aresponded, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

²⁹But Moses asked him, “Are you jealous on my account? ^bIf 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.

Quail in the Camp

³¹A wind sent by the Lord ^ccame up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them at the camp all around, three feet ^doff ^ethe ground, about a day’s journey in every direction. ^f32The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail—the one who took the least gathered 50 bushels ^g—and they spread them out all around the camp. ^hi

³³While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord’s anger burned ^jagainst the people, and the Lord struck them with a very severe plague. ^k34So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, ^lbecause there they buried the people who had craved the meat.

³⁵From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth ^mnand remained there.

Miriam and Aaron Rebel

12Miriam ^oand Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite ^pqwoman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman). ²They said, “Does the Lord speak only through Moses? Does He not also speak through us?” And the Lord heard it. ³Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

⁴Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out. ⁵Then the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud, ^rstood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them came forward, ⁶He said:

“Listen to what I say:

If there is a prophet among you from the Lord,

I make Myself known to him in a vision; ^s

I speak with him in a dream.

⁷Not so with My servant Moses;

he is faithful in ^tall My household. ^u

⁸I speak with him ^vdirectly, ^w

openly, and not in riddles;

he sees the form of the Lord. ^x

So why were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” ⁹The Lord’s anger burned against them, ^yand He left.

¹⁰As the cloud moved away from the tent, Miriam’s skin suddenly became diseased, as white as snow. When Aaron turned toward her, he saw that she was diseased ¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please don’t hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. ¹²Please don’t let her be like a dead baby ^zwhose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her!” ^a

¹⁴The Lord answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn’t she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp ^bfor seven days; ^cafter that she may be brought back in.” ¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in. ^d16After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.