Fire at Taberah
1Now the people were complaining bitterly in the hearing of Yahweh. When Yahweh heard it, his anger burned, and the fire of Yahweh burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. 2The people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire died down. 3So that place was named Taberah, because the fire of Yahweh had burned among them.
The Craving for Meat
4Now the rabble among them began to crave other food, and the Israelites also wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? 5We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing at all to look at but this manna.” 7Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of bdellium. 8The people would go about and gather it, grind it in hand mills or crush it in a mortar, cook it in a pot, and make it into cakes. Its taste was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it. 10Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, each at the entrance of his tent. Yahweh’s anger burned greatly, and Moses was troubled as well. 11Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you brought trouble on your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land you swore to their fathers? 13Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat.’ 14I am not able to carry all this people by myself; it is too heavy for me. 15If this is how you are going to treat me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in your sight, and do not let me see my own misery.”
Seventy Elders Share the Burden
16Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel, men you know to be elders of the people and officers over them. Bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them stand there with you. 17I 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 shall carry the burden of the people with you, so that you do not carry it by yourself. 18Say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, since you have wept in the hearing of Yahweh, saying, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We were better off in Egypt.’ Yahweh will give you meat, and you will eat. 19You will not eat it for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you — because you have rejected Yahweh, who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” 21But Moses said, “The people I am among number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ 22Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered for them? Could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them, to be enough?” 23Yahweh said to Moses, “Is Yahweh’s hand too short? Now you will see whether my word comes true for you or not.” 24So Moses went out and told the people the words of Yahweh. He gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and stationed them around the tent. 25Then Yahweh came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He 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 continue doing so.
Eldad and Medad Prophesy
26Two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. The spirit rested on them too — they were among those listed, but had not gone out to the tent — and they prophesied in the camp. 27A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28Joshua son of Nun, who had served Moses since his youth, responded, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh’s people were prophets, and that Yahweh would put his spirit on them!” 30Then Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
The Quail and the Plague
31Now a wind went out from Yahweh, and it drove in quail from the sea and let them fall near 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 two cubits deep on the ground. 32The people were up all that day, all that night, and all the next day, gathering the quail; the one who gathered least gathered ten homers. They spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, Yahweh’s anger burned against the people, and Yahweh struck them with a very great plague. 34So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat. 35From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.
