The Wilderness · c. 1445 BC
Chapter 4
Quail and Complaints
Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh’s people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!”
For parents
When the people complain, the Lord’s fire burns up some of the edges of the camp (Numbers 11:1–3). Later, while the quail meat is still between their teeth, the Lord strikes the people with a very great plague, and the dead are buried there (11:33–34). Moses asks the Lord to kill him right now if this is how he is going to be treated (11:15). After Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses, Miriam has leprosy, white as snow, and Aaron begs that she not be like a baby born dead (12:10–12). It is all told plainly.
The people were complaining where the could hear. When he heard it, his anger burned. The Lord’s fire burned among them, and it burned up some of the outer edges of the camp.
The people cried out to . Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died away.
So that place was named , which means “burning,” because the Lord’s fire had burned among them.
The mixed crowd of other people among them was filled with craving, and the cried again too. “Who will give us meat to eat?” they said.
“We remember the fish we ate in for free, and the cucumbers and melons, the leeks, onions and garlic. But now we’ve lost our appetite. There’s nothing at all here but this to look at.”
The manna was like seed, and it looked like , a kind of tree resin. The people went around gathering it. They ground it in mills or pounded it in mortars, and they boiled it in pots and made cakes out of it. It tasted like fresh oil. At night, when the dew fell on the camp, the manna fell there too.
Moses heard the people crying, family by family, every man at the door of his tent. The Lord’s anger burned hot, and Moses was upset.
“Why have you treated me so badly?” Moses said to the Lord. “Why aren’t you pleased with me? Why put the load of all these people on me? Was I the one who conceived them all? Did I bring them out? Is that why you tell me to carry them in my arms, the way a nurse carries a baby, to the land you promised their ancestors with an oath?
“Where could I get meat to give all these people? They come crying to me, ‘Give us meat, so we can eat!’ I’m not able to carry all these people by myself. It is too heavy for me. If you’re going to treat me like this, then please, if you care about me at all, kill me right now. Don’t let me see my own misery.”
The Lord said to Moses, “Gather seventy men for me from the of Israel, men you know are elders and officers over the people. Bring them to the , so that they can stand there with you.
“I will come down and talk with you there. I will take from the Spirit that is on you, and I will put it on them. Then they will carry the load of the people with you, so that you don’t carry it alone.
“Tell the people, ‘Make yourselves to get ready for tomorrow, and you will eat meat. You have cried where the Lord could hear, “Who will give us meat to eat? Things were good for us in Egypt.” So the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat.
“‘You won’t eat it for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty. You’ll be eating it for a whole month, until it’s coming out of your nose and you’re sick of it. That is because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have cried in front of him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”
Moses said, “The people I’m with are six hundred thousand men on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they can eat for a whole month.’ If flocks and herds were killed for them, would that be enough for them? If all the fish of the sea were gathered for them, would that be enough for them?”
The Lord said to Moses, “Has the Lord’s power grown weak? Now you will see whether my word comes true for you or not.”
Moses went out and told the people the Lord’s words. He gathered seventy men from the elders of the people and set them around the Tent.
The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him. Then he took from the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they , but after that they didn’t do it again.
But two men had stayed behind in the camp. One was named and the other , and the Spirit rested on them. Their names were among those written down, but they hadn’t gone out to the Tent. They prophesied in the camp.
A young man ran to Moses and told him, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
the son of , Moses’ helper and one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, stop them!”
Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
Then Moses and the elders of Israel went back into the camp.
Then a wind went out from the Lord. It brought from the sea and dropped them by the camp, about two above the ground, roughly three feet. The quail were all around the camp, for about a day’s walk on this side and a day’s walk on the other side.
The people got up and spent all that day, all that night and all the next day gathering quail. The person who gathered the least gathered ten , about sixty bushels. They spread them all out for themselves around the camp.
The meat was still between their teeth, not yet chewed, when the Lord’s anger burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great .
That place was called , “graves of craving,” because that is where the people who craved were buried.
From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled on to , and they stayed at Hazeroth.
and spoke against Moses because of the woman he had married.
“Has the Lord really spoken only with Moses?” they said. “Hasn’t he spoken with us too?” And the Lord heard it.
Now Moses was very humble, humbler than anyone else on earth.
Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, to Aaron and to Miriam, “You three, come out to the Tent of Meeting!” The three of them came out.
The Lord came down in a of cloud and stood at the door of the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam, and both of them came forward.
He said, “Now listen to me. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not like that. He is faithful in all my household. With him I speak in person, plainly and not in riddles, and he sees the form of the Lord. So why weren’t you afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”
The Lord’s anger burned against them, and he went away.
The cloud moved away from over the Tent, and there was Miriam: she had , as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam and saw that she had leprosy.
Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us. We have acted foolishly, and we have sinned. Please don’t let her be like someone dead, like a baby that comes out of its mother’s womb with its flesh half wasted away.”
Moses cried out to the Lord, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”
The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had just spit in her face, wouldn’t she be ashamed for seven days? Let her be kept outside the camp for seven days. Then she can be brought back in.”
For seven days Miriam was kept outside the camp. The people didn’t travel until she was brought back in.
Afterward the people traveled on from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of .