Numbers 11:16–25

The Seventy Elders

¹⁶So the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me ^vseventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and ^wofficers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷Then I will come down and talk with you there. ^xI will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. ¹⁸Then you shall say to the people, ⁶‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept ^yin the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us 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, ^20zbut for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have ^adespised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, ^b“Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” ’ ”

²¹And Moses said, ^c“The people whom I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ ^22dShall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?”

²³And the Lord said to Moses, ^e“Has ⁷the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether ^fwhat I say will happen to you or not.”

²⁴So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he ^ggathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. ²⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, ^hwhen the Spirit rested upon them, that ⁱthey prophesied, ⁸although they never did so again.