Seventy Elders to Assist Moses

¹⁶ The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me ^(A)seventy men from the elders of Israel, ^(B)whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their stand there with you. ^17 (C)Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take away some of ^(D)the Spirit who is upon you, and put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it by yourself. ¹⁸ And you shall say to the people, ‘^(E)Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept ^(F)in the ears of the Lord, saying, “^[a]Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, ^20 [b]but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nose and ^[c]makes you nauseated; because ^(G)you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’” ²¹ But Moses said, “The people, among whom I am included, are six hundred thousand on foot! Yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’ ²² Are flocks and herds to be slaughtered for them, so that it will be sufficient for them? Or are all the fish of the sea to be ^[d]caught for them, so that it will be sufficient for them?” ²³ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Is ^(H)the Lord’s ^[e]power too little? Now you shall see whether ^(I)My word will ^[f]come true for you or not.”

²⁴ So Moses went out and ^(J)told the people the words of the Lord. He also gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and positioned them around the tent. ^25 (K)Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took away some of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Yet they did not do it again.

²⁶ But two men had remained in the camp; the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the ^[g]other, Medad. And ^(L)the Spirit rested upon them (and they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ So a young man ran and informed Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” ²⁸ Then ^(M)Joshua the son of Nun, the personal servant of Moses from his youth, responded and said, “^(N)My lord Moses, restrain them!” ²⁹ But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? ^(O)If only all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” ³⁰ Then Moses ^[h]returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel.

The Quail and the Plague

^31 (P)Now a wind burst forth from the Lord and it brought quail from the sea, and dropped them beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side all around the camp, and about ^[i]two cubits deep on the surface of the ground. ³² And the people ^[j]spent all that day, all night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quail (the one who gathered least gathered ^[k]ten ^(Q)homers) and spread them out for themselves all around the camp. ^33 (R)While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very severe plague. ³⁴ So that place was named ^[l](S)Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had been greedy. ³⁵ From Kibroth-hattaavah ^(T)the people set out for Hazeroth, and they ^[m]remained at Hazeroth.