The people murmur and are punished with fire. God appoints seventy ancients for assistants to Moses. They prophesy. The people have their fill of flesh, but forthwith many die of the plague.

¹ Meanwhile, there arose a murmur among the people against the Lord, as if they were grief-stricken because of their labors. And when the Lord had heard it, he was angry. And when the fire of the Lord was enflamed against them, it devoured those who were at the extreme end of the camp.¹

1. 11:1The most faithful were those camped immediately around the Tabernacle. The common people who were mainly non-Hebrew, were at the outer edges of the camp. It is mainly these who were murmuring against the Lord.(Conte)

² And when the people had cried out to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was consumed.

³ And he called the name of that place, ‘The Burning,’ because the fire of the Lord had burned against them.¹

1. 11:3The burning: Hebrew, Taberah.(Challoner)

⁴ So then, the mix of common people, who had ascended with them, were enflamed with desire, and sitting and weeping, with the sons of Israel joining them, they said, “Who will give us flesh to eat?¹²

1. 11:4When the Israelites departed from Egypt, many of the non-Hebrews were so impressed by the signs from God, that they departed with them.(Conte)
2. 11:4A mixt multitude: These were people that came with them out of Egypt, who were not of the race of Israel; who, by their murmuring, drew also the children of Israel to murmur: this should teach us the danger of associating ourselves with the children of Egypt, that is, with the lovers and admirers of this wicked world.(Challoner)

⁵ We remember the fish that we ate freely in Egypt; we call to mind the cucumbers, and melons, and leeks, and onions, and garlic.

⁶ Our life is dry; our eyes look out to see nothing but manna.”

⁷ Now the manna was like coriander seed, but with the color of bdellium.¹

1. 11:7Bdellium: Bdellium, according to Pliny, 1.21, c. 9. was of the colour of a man’s nail, white and bright.(Challoner)

⁸ And the people wandered about, gathering it, and they crushed it with a millstone, or ground it with a mortar; then they boiled it in a pot, and made biscuits out of it, with a taste like bread made with oil.

⁹ And when the dew descended in the night over the camp, the manna descended together with it.

¹⁰ And so, Moses heard the people weeping by their families, each one at the door of his tent. And the fury of the Lord was greatly enflamed. And to Moses also the matter seemed intolerable.

¹¹ And so he said to the Lord: “Why have you afflicted your servant? Why do I not find favor before you? And why have you imposed the weight of this entire people upon me?

¹² Could I have conceived this entire multitude, or have given birth to them, so that you might say to me: Carry them in your bosom, as a nursemaid usually carries a little infant, and bring them into the land, about which you have sworn to their fathers?

¹³ From where would I obtain the flesh to give to so great a multitude? They weep against me, saying, ‘Give us flesh, so that we may eat.’

¹⁴ I alone am unable to sustain this entire people, because it is too heavy for me.

¹⁵ But if it seems to you otherwise, I beg you to put me to death, and so may I find grace in your eyes, lest I be afflicted with such evils.”

¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders, as well as teachers, of the people. And you shall lead them to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and you shall cause them to stand there with you,¹

1. 11:16Seventy men: This was the first institution of the council or senate, called the Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy or seventy-two senators or counsellors.(Challoner)

¹⁷ so that I may descend and speak to you. And I will take from your spirit, and I will deliver it to them, so that, with you, they may sustain the burden of the people, and so that you will not be weighed down alone.

¹⁸ You shall also say to the people: Be sanctified. Tomorrow you will eat flesh. For I have heard you say: ‘Who will give us flesh to eat? It was well with us in Egypt.’ So then, may the Lord give you flesh. And you will eat,

¹⁹ not for one day, nor for two, nor for five, nor for ten, nor even for twenty,

²⁰ but for up to a month of days, until it exits from your nostrils, and until it turns into nausea for you, because you have slipped away from the Lord, who is in your midst, and because you have wept before him, saying: ‘Why did we go forth out of Egypt?’ ”

²¹ And Moses said: “There are six hundred thousand footmen of this people, and yet you say, ‘I will give them flesh to eat for a whole month.’

²² Could a multitude of sheep and oxen be slain, so that there would be enough food? Or will the fishes of the sea be gathered together, in order to satisfy them?”

²³ And the Lord answered him: “Can the hand of the Lord be ineffective? Soon now, you shall see whether my word will be fulfilled in this work.”

²⁴ And so, Moses went and explained the words of the Lord to the people. Gathering together seventy men from the elders of Israel, he caused them to stand around the tabernacle.

²⁵ And the Lord descended in a cloud, and he spoke to him, taking from the Spirit which was in Moses, and giving to the seventy men. And when the Spirit had rested in them, they prophesied; nor did they cease afterwards.

²⁶ Now there had remained in the camp two of the men, of whom one was called Eldad, and the other Medad, upon whom the Spirit rested; for they also had been enrolled, but they did not go forth to the tabernacle.

²⁷ And when they were prophesying in the camp, a boy ran and reported to Moses, saying: “Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp.”

²⁸ Promptly, Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses and chosen from many, said: “My lord Moses, prohibit them.”

²⁹ But he said, “Why are you jealous on my behalf? Who decides that any of the people may prophesy and that God may give to them his Spirit?”

³⁰ And Moses returned, with those greater by birth of Israel, into the camp.

³¹ Then a wind, going out from the Lord and moving forcefully across the sea, brought quails and cast them into the camp, across a distance of one day’s journey, in every part of the camp all around, and they flew in the air two cubits high above the ground.

³² Therefore, the people, rising up, gathered quails all that day and night, and the next day; he who did least well gathered ten homers. And they dried them throughout the camp.

³³ The flesh was still between their teeth, neither had this kind of food ceased, and behold, the fury of the Lord was provoked against the people, and he struck them with an exceedingly great scourge.

³⁴ And that place was called, ‘The Graves of Lust.’ For there, they buried the people who had desired. Then, departing from the Graves of Lust, they arrived in Hazeroth, and they stayed there.¹²

1. 11:34Other translations incorrectly obscure this reference to the sexual sins of the people. Fasting is opposed to sexual sins. When the people, ate freely, no longer fasting on Manna (similar to bread) and water, they fell into sexual sins. The eating of quails was not sin, but through self-indulgence in what should not have been sinful, they fell into sin, and subsequently into even greater sins.(Conte)
2. 11:34The graves of lust: Or, the sepulchres of concupiscence: so called from their irregular desire of flesh. In Hebrew, Kibroth. Hattaavah.(Challoner)