Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Numbers 11

YHWH answers Israel’s rejection with judgment and Moses’ unbearable burden with Spirit-equipped help, showing that his word stands.

Israel’s camp erupts in complaint, and YHWH sends fire until Moses prays. Then craving for meat spreads among the people, who remember Egypt’s food and despise the manna. Moses tells YHWH that the burden of leading them is too heavy to bear alone. YHWH appoints elders to share that burden and puts his Spirit on them. He also sends an abundance of quail, followed by a plague that leaves the people burying their dead.

leadership weightburnouttemptation
Read
1The people were complaining in the ears of the LORD. When the LORD heard it, his anger burned; and the LORD’s fire burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.
2The people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire abated.
4The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?
5We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic;
7The manna was like coriander seed, and it looked like bdellium.
8The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.
9When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.
10Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and the LORD’s anger burned greatly; and Moses was displeased.
11Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
12Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers’?
13Where could I get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’
14I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
15If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”
16The LORD said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; and bring them to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you.
17I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you don’t bear it yourself alone.
18“Say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat.
20but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”
21Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.’
22Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”
23The LORD said to Moses, “Has the LORD’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”
25The LORD came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took 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 so no more.
26But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the Spirit rested on them. They were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp.
28Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, forbid them!”
29Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”
31A wind from the LORD went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.
32The people rose up all that day, and all of that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. He who gathered least gathered ten homers; and they spread them all out for themselves around the camp.
33While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the LORD’s anger burned against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.
34The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted.
35From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth; and they stayed at Hazeroth.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Numbers 11:23YHWH challenges Moses’ doubts about feeding the multitude, making his own power and word the decisive issue.
Numbers 11:25The Spirit’s resting on the elders confirms God’s provision of people to share Moses’ burden.
Numbers 11:4Craving spreads from the mixed multitude to Israel, beginning the demand for meat that ends in graves.
Where this chapter reaches

Exodus shares the wilderness setting, Israel’s complaints about food, and God’s provision of manna and quail; Numbers recounts renewed discontent with that provision. Psalm recalls the people’s craving and the judgment that accompanied their requested food, carrying this event into Israel’s worship and warning.

Numbers 11's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does Israel’s memory of Egypt challenge the way you remember what you have left behind?

Write on this

What do Moses’ words about his burden help you name about responsibilities you carry?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Numbers 11

Why did God punish the Israelites for wanting meat in Numbers 11?

YHWH identifies their offense in verse 20: they have rejected him and regretted leaving Egypt. Their demand for meat expresses contempt for his presence and provision. The quail arrive in abundance, but a plague strikes while they are eating. The burial place takes its name from their craving.

Why did the seventy elders prophesy in Numbers 11?

YHWH puts the Spirit who is on Moses upon the elders so they can share the burden of the people. Their prophecy accompanies that gift, though its content is not recorded. Eldad and Medad also prophesy in the camp, and Moses welcomes this despite Joshua’s objection.

What does “Has the LORD’s hand grown short?” mean?

The question uses the image of a hand to speak of YHWH’s power to act. Moses has questioned how enough meat could be found for such a vast population. YHWH answers by directing Moses to watch whether his promised word comes to pass; the quail then arrive.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Numbers 11. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Numbers · 36 chapters
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536
What the Bible says about temptation →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).