Numbers 11:18-34

18 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.

19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days,

20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ”

21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’

22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

23 The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

24 So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent.

25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.

26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied 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 had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

30 Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

31 Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them up to two cubits^[a] deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction.

32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers.^[b] Then they spread them out all around the camp.

33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.

34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah,^[c] because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

Numbers 11:18-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 11

This chapter informs us of the complaints of the people of Israel, which brought the fire of the Lord upon them, and consumed many of them; and which, at the intercession of Moses, was quenched, and the place from thence called Taberah, Nu 11:1-3; and of the lusting of the mixed multitude after flesh, to increase which, they called to mind their food in Egypt; and to show their folly and ingratitude in so doing, the manna is described, Nu 11:4-9; and of the uneasiness of Moses, and his complaints of the heavy burden of the people upon him, Nu 11:10-15; and to make him easy, it is promised, that seventy of the elders of Israel should partake of his spirit, and assist in bearing the burden, Nu 11:16,17; and that the people should have flesh to serve them a whole month, Nu 11:18-20; at which last Moses expressed some degree of unbelief, Nu 11:21-23; however God fulfilled his promise with respect to both. Some of the spirit of Moses was taken and given to seventy elders, who prophesied, and two men are particularly taken notice of, who did so, Nu 11:24-30; quails in great numbers were brought by a wind to the people; but while they were eating them wrath came upon them, and they were smitten with a plague, whence the place was called Kibrothhattaavah, Nu 11:31-34; and from thence they removed to Hazeroth, Nu 11:35.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 19:10
• 2. S Exodus 16:7
• 3. ver 5; Acts 7:39
• 4. Psalms 78:20
• 5. Psalms 78:29; Psalms 106:14,15
• 6. S Leviticus 26:43; Joshua 24:27; Judges 8:23; 1 Samuel 10:19; Job 31:28; Isaiah 59:13; Hosea 13:11
• 7. ver 33; Job 20:13,23
• 8. S Exodus 12:37
• 9. Matthew 15:33
• 10. Isaiah 50:2; Isaiah 59:1
• 11. Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Ezekiel 12:25; Ezekiel 24:14
• 12. S Exodus 19:9; Numbers 12:5
• 13. ver 17
• 14. ver 29; 1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Samuel 19:23
• 15. S Acts 2:17
• 16. ver 26; Numbers 24:2; Judges 3:10; 1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Samuel 19:20; 2 Chronicles 15:1
• 17. S ver 25; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Revelation 1:10
• 18. Exodus 17:9; Numbers 13:8; Numbers 26:65; Joshua 14:10
• 19. Exodus 33:11; Joshua 1:1
• 20. Mark 9:38-40
• 21. 1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Samuel 19:20; 2 Chronicles 24:19; Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 44:4; 1 Corinthians 14:5
• 22. S ver 17
• 23. Numbers 27:18
• 24. S Exodus 16:13; Psalms 78:26-28
• 25. Psalms 78:30
• 26. Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 9:7; Judges 2:12; 2 Kings 22:17; Psalms 106:29; Jeremiah 44:3; Ezekiel 8:17
• 27. S ver 18-20; Psalms 106:15; Isaiah 10:16
• 28. Numbers 33:16; Deuteronomy 9:22

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, about 3 feet or about 90 centimeters
• [b]. That is, possibly about 1 3/4 tons or about 1.6 metric tons
• [c]. "Kibroth Hattaavah" means "graves of craving" .