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35 Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say,

“Arise, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered
    and your foes flee before you.”(A)

36 And whenever it came to rest, he would say,

“Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”[a]

Complaining in the Desert

11 Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled. Then the fire of the Lord burned against them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.(B) But the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire abated.(C) So that place was called Taberah,[b] because the fire of the Lord burned against them.

The camp followers with them had a strong craving, and the Israelites also wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat!(D) We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic,(E) but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”(F)

Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of gum resin.(G) The people went around and gathered it, ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, then boiled it in pots and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna would fall with it.(H)

10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased.(I) 11 So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12 Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a wet nurse carries a nursing child, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors’?(J) 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’(K) 14 I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.(L) 15 If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”(M)

The Seventy Elders

16 So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting and have them take their place there with you.(N) 17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.(O) 18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “If only we had meat to eat! Surely it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.(P) 19 You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,(Q) 20 but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ” 21 But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! 22 Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?”(R) 23 The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?[c] Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”(S)

24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent.(T) 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.(U)

26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, so they prophesied in the camp.(V) 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men,[d] said, “My lord Moses, stop them!”(W) 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”(X) 30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

The Quails

31 Then a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, about two cubits deep on the ground.(Y) 32 So the people worked all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quails; the least anyone gathered was ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.(Z) 34 So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah,[e] because there they buried the people who had the craving.(AA) 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth.(AB)

Aaron and Miriam Jealous of Moses

12 While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman),(AC) and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it.(AD) Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.(AE) Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.(AF) And he said, “Hear my words:

When there are prophets among you,
    I the Lord make myself known to them in visions;
    I speak to them in dreams.(AG)
Not so with my servant Moses;
    he is faithful in all my house.(AH)
With him I speak face to face—clearly, not in riddles,
    and he beholds the form of the Lord.

“Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”(AI) And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

10 When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam’s skin had become diseased, as white as snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam and saw that she was diseased.(AJ) 11 Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us[f] for a sin that we have so foolishly committed.(AK) 12 Do not let her be like one stillborn, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of its mother’s womb.” 13 And Moses cried to the Lord, saying, “O God, please heal her.” 14 But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.”(AL) 15 So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people did not set out on the march until Miriam had been brought in again. 16 After that the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Footnotes

  1. 10.36 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  2. 11.3 That is, burning
  3. 11.23 Heb Lord’s hand too short?
  4. 11.28 Or of Moses from his youth
  5. 11.34 That is, graves of craving
  6. 12.11 Heb do not lay sin upon us