Numbers 11:16-25

International Standard Version

The Appointment of 70 Elders

¹⁶ Then the Lord told Moses, “Gather together for me 70 men who are elders of Israel, men whom you know to be elders of the people and officers over them. Then bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them stand there with you. ¹⁷ Then I’ll come down and speak with you. I’ll take some of the spirit that rests on you and apportion it among them, so that they may help you bear the burden of the people. That way, you won’t bear it by yourself.”

God Threatens to Provide Meat

¹⁸ “But give this command to the people: ‘You are to consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow you’re going to eat meat, since you’ve complained where the Lord can hear it, “Who can give us meat to eat? After all, life was better with us in Egypt.” Therefore, the Lord is going to give you meat and you’ll eat— ¹⁹ not only for a day, or for two days, or for five days, or for ten days, or for 20 days, ²⁰ but for a whole month—until it comes out your nostrils and makes you vomit. This is because you’ve despised the Lord, who is among you, and you cried out in his presence by complaining, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

Moses Doubts God’s Ability

²¹ Moses responded, “I’m with 600,000 people on foot and you’re saying I am to give them enough^[a] meat to eat for a whole month? ²² What if we were to slaughter our entire inventory of^[b] flocks and herds for them? Would that be enough? What if we could gather all the fish in the sea in nets for them? Would that be enough, either?”

God Rebukes Moses

²³ But the Lord responded to Moses, “Is the Lord short on power?^[c] You’re now going to witness whether what I say will come to pass or not.”

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He gathered 70 men from the elders of the people and stationed them around the tent. ²⁵ The Lord came down in a cloud, spoke to Moses,^[d] and made an apportionment from the spirit who rested on him to the 70 elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but that was it.^[e]