Complaints, Seventy Elders and Quail

As Israel travelled, the people complained, and Yahweh heard them. His anger burned, and fire burned among the outskirts of the camp. The people cried to Moses, and Moses prayed, so the fire died down. That place was called Taberah because Yahweh’s fire had burned there.

Then the mixed multitude among them strongly craved other food, and the Israelites wept again. They remembered fish and vegetables from Egypt and complained that all they had to look at was manna. Yet manna kept falling with the dew, and the people gathered it, ground or crushed it, cooked it, and made cakes from it.

Moses heard families weeping at the doors of their tents. Yahweh’s anger burned greatly, and Moses was troubled too. Moses told Yahweh that the burden of these people was too heavy for him to carry alone. So Yahweh told Moses to gather seventy elders at the Tent of Meeting, and promised they would help bear the people’s burden.

Yahweh also told Moses to tell the people to prepare themselves, because they would eat meat the next day. It would not be for only a few days, but for a whole month, until they could hardly stand it, because they had rejected Yahweh and longed for Egypt. Moses wondered how enough meat could be found for so many people, but Yahweh said Moses would see whether his word would happen.

Moses gathered the seventy elders around the Tent. Yahweh came down in the cloud, took of the Spirit that was on Moses, and put it on the elders, and they prophesied. Two men, Eldad and Medad, also received the Spirit in the camp. Joshua wanted Moses to stop them, but Moses said he wished all Yahweh’s people had his Spirit on them.

Then a wind from Yahweh brought quail from the sea and dropped them all around the camp. The people spent that day, that night, and the next day gathering them. But while the meat was still between their teeth, Yahweh’s anger burned, and a very great plague struck the people. The place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved, and from there they travelled to Hazeroth.