Numbers 11

11 ¹ Now the people began complaining about their hardship where our Father could hear; and he heard, and his anger burned, and the fire of our Father blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. ² Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to our Father, and the fire died down. ³ So that place was named Taberah, because the fire of our Father had blazed among them. ¹ 1 v3 Taberah means "burning" — the place was named for the fire that broke out there.

⁴ The mixed crowd among them was seized with intense craving, and the people of Israel also wept again and said, "If only we had meat to eat!" ⁵ "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. ⁶ But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing at all to see but this manna."

⁷ Now the manna was like coriander seed, and it looked like pale resin. ² 2 v7 Bdellium was a pale, pearl-like resin or gum — the manna had that same translucent look. ⁸ The people would go around and gather it, then grind it in mills or crush it in mortars; they boiled it in pots and made it into cakes. It tasted like cakes baked with oil. ⁹ When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna fell with it.

Moses Cries Out to the Father

¹⁰ Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, each at the entrance of his tent. The anger of our Father burned greatly, and it seemed wrong to Moses. ¹¹ And Moses said to our Father, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? Why have I not found favor in your eyes, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your arms, as a caregiver carries a nursing baby,' to the land you swore to give their ancestors? ¹³ Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they keep weeping to me, saying, 'Give us meat to eat!' ¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is how you are going to treat me, please kill me at once — if I have found favor in your eyes — and let me not see my own misery."

The Father Shares the Spirit with Seventy

¹⁶ Then our Father said to Moses, "Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders and officers of the people, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. 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. They will help you carry the burden of the people, so that you do not carry it alone.

¹⁸ And say to the people: 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat. For you have wept in the hearing of our Father, saying, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt." So our Father will give you meat, and you will eat. ¹⁹ You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, ²⁰ but a whole month — until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you — because you have rejected our Father who is among you, weeping before him and saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"'"

²¹ But Moses said, "The people I am among number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month'? ²² Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered for them? Could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them, to be enough?"

²³ And our Father said to Moses, "Is my hand too short? Now you will see whether my word comes true for you or not."

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people the words of our Father. He gathered seventy men from the elders of the people and stationed them around the tent. ²⁵ Then our Father 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. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied — but they did not do so again. ²⁶ But two men had remained in the camp; one was named Eldad and the other Medad, and the Spirit rested on them too. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent — yet they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran and reported to Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."

²⁸ Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' assistant since his youth, spoke up: "Moses, my lord, stop them!"

²⁹ But Moses replied, "Are you jealous on my account? If only all of our Father's people were prophets, and our Father would put his Spirit on them!"

³⁰ Then Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

Quail from the Father, Plague for Craving

³¹ Now a wind went out from our Father and drove quail in from the sea, letting them fall beside the camp — about a day's journey on each side, all around the camp, and about three feet deep on the ground. ³² The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail; the one who gathered least gathered about sixty bushels. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. ³ 3 v32 A homer was a large dry measure — roughly the load a donkey could carry, about 220 liters; ten homers was an enormous haul. ³³ But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was even chewed, the anger of our Father burned against the people, and our Father struck them with a very severe plague. ³⁴ So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had given in to craving. ⁴ 4 v34 Kibroth-hattaavah means "graves of craving" — named for those buried there after the people's greed for meat.

³⁵ From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.