Numbers 11:1-26

¹It wasn't long before the people started to complain about how much they were suffering. When the Lord heard what they were saying, he became angry. Fire from the Lord burned them, destroying some on the edge of the camp.

²The people cried to Moses for help. He prayed to the Lord and the fire subsided.

³So that place was named Taberah, because the fire from the Lord burned them.

⁴A group of troublemakers among them had such intense food cravings they affected the Israelites who started crying again, asking “Who's going to get us some meat to eat?

⁵We think back to all the fish we ate in Egypt that didn't cost us anything, as well as the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

⁶We're fading away here! The only thing we ever see is this manna!”

⁷Manna looked like coriander seeds, light in color like gum resin.

⁸The people would go out and collect it, grind it up in a mill or crush it in a mortar. Then they would boil it in a pot and make it into flatbread. It tasted like pastries made with the best olive oil.

⁹When the dew came down on the camp at night the manna would come down with it.

¹⁰Moses heard all the families crying at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became very angry, and Moses was also upset.

¹¹He asked the Lord, “Why have you made things so tough for me, your servant? Why are you so unhappy with me that you have placed on me the heavy responsibility for all these people?

¹²Are they my children? Did I give birth to them, so you could tell me, ‘Hold them close to your chest like a nurse carrying a baby’ and take them to the land you promised to give to their forefathers?

¹³Where am I supposed to get meat for all of them? They keep on complaining to me, ‘Get us some meat to eat!’

¹⁴I can't go on carrying all these people by myself—it's just too much.

¹⁵If this is the way you're going to treat me, then please just kill me now so I don't have to face how depressed I've become. Please grant me this one request.”

¹⁶The Lord told Moses, “Bring before me seventy Israelite elders who you know are repected as leaders by the people Take them to the Tent of Meeting. They will stand there with you.

¹⁷I will come down and talk with you there. I will take some of the Spirit you have and give it to them. They will take some of the responsibility for the people so you won't have to bear it alone.

¹⁸Tell the people: Purify yourselves, for tomorrow you'll have meat to eat, because you were complaining and the Lord heard you saying, ‘Who's going to get us some meat to eat? We were better off in Egypt!’ So the Lord is going to provide you with meat to eat.

¹⁹You're going to eat it, not for just a day or two, and not for five or ten or twenty days.

²⁰You're going to eat it for a whole month until it makes you vomit and it comes out through your nostrils, because you have rejected the Lord who is right here with you, complaining to him by saying, ‘Why on earth did we ever leave Egypt?’”

²¹But Moses replied, “Here I am with 600,000 people and you're telling me, ‘I'm going to give them meat and they'll eat it for a month’?

²²Even if all our flocks and herds were slaughtered, would that be enough for them? Even if all the fish in the sea were caught, would that be enough for them?”

²³“Doesn't the Lord have the power to do that?” the Lord responded. “Now you're going to find out whether what I've said will happen or not!”

²⁴Moses went and shared with the people what the Lord said. He summoned seventy elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

²⁵Then the Lord came down and talked to him. The Lord took some of the Spirit Moses had and gave it to them. They prophesied, but this didn't ever happen again.

²⁶However, two men named Eldad and Medad had stayed behind in the camp. The Spirit came on them too. (They had been put on the list of the seventy elders, but they hadn't gone to the tent. But they prophesied where they were in the camp anyway.)