Numbers 11:3-17

³And he called the name of that place, The burning: for that the fire of the Lord had been kindled against them.

⁴For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them, burned with desire, sitting and weeping, the children of Israel also being joined with them, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat?

⁵We remember the Ash that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.

⁶Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.

⁷A Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium.

⁸And the people went about, and gathering it, ground it in a mill, or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes thereof of the taste of bread tempered with oil.

⁹And when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the manna also fell with it.

¹⁰Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families, every one at the door of his tent. And the wrath of the Lord was exceedingly enkindled: to Moses also the thing seemed insupportable.

¹¹And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy servant? wherefore do I not find favour before thee? and why hast thou laid the weight of all this people upon me?

¹²Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou hast sworn to their fathers?

¹³Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude? they weep against me, saying: Give us flesh that we may eat.

¹⁴I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too heavy for me.

¹⁵But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me, and let me find grace in thy eyes, that I be not afflicted with so great evils.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses: Gather unto me seventy men of the ancients of Israel, whom thou knowest to be ancients and masters of the people: and thou shalt bring them to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and shalt make them stand there with thee,

¹⁷That I may come down and speak with thee: and I will take of thy spirit, and will give to them, that they may bear with thee the burden of the people, and thou mayest not be burthened alone.