Numbers 11:7-32

⁷Soothly manna was as the seed of coriander, of the colour of bdellium, which is white, and bright as crystal.

⁸And the people went about, and gathered it, and brake it with a quernstone, either pounded it in a mortar, and seethed it in a pot; and made thereof little cakes of the savour as of bread made with oil.

⁹And when the dew came down in the night upon the tents, also manna came down together therewith.

¹⁰Then Moses heard the people weeping by meines, and each of them by the doors of their tents; and the strong vengeance of the Lord was wroth greatly, but also the grutching was seen unsufferable to Moses.

¹¹And he said to the Lord, Why hast thou tormented thy servant? why find I not grace before thee? and why hast thou put the burden of all this people onto me?

¹²whether I have conceived all this multitude, either have begotten it, that thou say to me, Bear thou them in thy bosom, as a nurse is wont to bear a little young child, and bear thou this people into the land for the which thou swore to their fathers?

¹³whereof be meats to me, that I feed so great a multitude? They weep before me, and say, Give us flesh, that we eat;

¹⁴I may not alone sustain all this people, for it is grievous to me.

¹⁵If in other manner it seemeth to thee, I beseech thee, that thou slay me, and that I find grace in thine eyes, that I be not punished, or travailed, with so great evils.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, Gather thou to me seventy men of the elder men of Israel, whom thou knowest to be elder men, and masters of the people; and thou shalt lead them to the door of the tabernacle of the bond of peace, and thou shalt make them to stand there with thee,

¹⁷that I come down, and speak to thee; and I shall take away of thy spirit, and I shall give to them, that they sustain with thee the burden of the people, and not thou alone be grieved.

¹⁸And thou shalt say to the people, Be ye hallowed; tomorrow ye shall eat flesh; for I heard you say, Who shall give us the meats of flesh? it was well to us in Egypt; that the Lord give you flesh,

¹⁹and ye eat not only one day, either twain or two, either five, either ten, soothly neither twenty days,

²⁰but till to a month of days, till it go out by your nostrils, and turn into loathing; for by your grutching ye have put away the Lord, which is in the midst of you, and ye wept before him, and said, Why went we out of Egypt?

²¹And Moses said to the Lord, Six hundred thousand of footmen be of this people, and thou sayest, I shall give them to eat flesh an whole month.

²²Whether the multitude of sheep and of oxen shall be able to be slain, that it may suffice this people to meat, either whether all the fishes of the sea shall be gathered together, that those ful fill them?

²³To whom the Lord answered, Whether the Lord’s hand is unmighty? right now thou shalt see, whether my word shall be fulfilled in work.

²⁴Therefore Moses came, and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of Israel, which he made stand about the tabernacle.

²⁵And the Lord came down by a cloud, and spake to Moses, and took away of the spirit that was in Moses, and gave to the seventy men; and when the spirit had rested in them, they prophesied, and moreover they ceased not.

²⁶Forsooth two men dwelled still in the tents, of which men one was called Eldad, and the tother Medad, on which the spirit rested; for also they were described, or ordained, or chosen, and they went not out to the tabernacle. And when they prophesied in the tents,

²⁷a young man ran, and told to Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad prophesy in the tents.

²⁸Anon Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, and chosen of many, said, My lord Moses, forbid thou them.

²⁹And Moses said, What, hast thou envy for me? who giveth, whether not God, that all the people prophesy, and that God give his spirit to them?

³⁰And Moses turned again, and the elder men in birth of Israel, into the tents.

³¹Forsooth a wind went forth from the Lord, and it took curlews, and brought them over the sea, and he left them in the tents, in journey, as much as may be performed in one day, by each part of the tents by compass; and they flew in the air by two cubits in height above the earth.

³²Therefore the people rose in all that day, and that night, and into the tother day, and gathered a multitude of curlews; he that gathered little, gathered ten cors; and they dried those curlews by compass of the tents.