NEW: Please subscribe to my Substack/newsletter at the bottom of the page. Thanks!
b. The People Complain (11:1-35)
i. The Burning at Taberah (11:1-3)
1 Soon, the people were complaining in the hearing of ADONAI. When ADONAI heard it, His anger burned; and ADONAI’s fire burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. 2 The people cried to Moshe; and Moshe prayed to ADONAI, and the fire abated. 3 So that place was named Taberah,[3] because ADONAI’s fire burned among them.
ii. The Complaints About Food (11:4-35)
1. Israel Eats Manna (11:4-9)
4 The rabble[4] among them had a strong craving for other food and again the people of Isra'el wept and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.” 7 The manna was like coriander seed, and it looked like bdellium.[7] 8 The 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. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.[8] 9 When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna fell on it.
2. Seventy Elders Anointed (11:10-17)
10 Moshe heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and ADONAI’s anger burned greatly; and Moshe was displeased. 11 Moshe said to ADONAI, “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? 12 Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse[12] carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?’ 13 Where could I get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ 14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 15 If You’re foing to 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.”
16 ADONAI said to Moshe, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Isra'el, 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. 17 I 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.
3. The Quail and the Plague (11:18-35)
18 “Tell the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; for you have wept in ADONAI’s hearing, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore ADONAI will give you meat, and you will eat. 19 You will not eat 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 is loathsome to you; because you have rejected ADONAI who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”
21 Moshe 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.’ 22 Shall 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?”
23 ADONAI told Moshe, “Has ADONAI’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”
24 Moshe went out, and told the people ADONAI’s words; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent. 25 ADONAI 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. 26 But 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. 27 A young man ran, and told Moshe, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
28 Y’hoshua ben Nun, the servant of Moshe, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moshe, forbid them!”
29 Moshe said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all ADONAI’s people were prophets, that ADONAI would put His Spirit on them!”
(vii) 30 Moshe went into the camp, he and the elders of Isra'el. 31 A wind from ADONAI 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[GN] above the surface of the earth. 32 The people rose up all that day, and all of that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers;[GN] and they spread them all out for themselves around the camp. 33 While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, ADONAI’s anger burned against the people, and ADONAI struck the people with a very great plague. 34 The name of that place was called Kivrot-HaTa’avah,[34] because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
35 From Kivrot-HaTa’avah the people traveled to Hatzerot;[35] and they stayed at Hatzerot.
3. Taberah (תַּבּעֵרָ֑ה) means “burning.” [BACK]
4. Rabble, frequently translated mixed multitude: The Hebrew word אֲסְפְּסֻף (’asaphsûph) is a reduplicated form from אָסַף (’âsaph) ‘to collect.’ The alliteration may also be represented by riff-raff. It is a contemptuous term for non-Israelites who had attached themselves to the camp. They would include Egyptians with whom Israelites may to a small extent have intermarried (Leviticus 24:10), and people of various nationalities who, having been united with the Israelites in the forced building labour in Egypt, would be glad to escape with them. They are mentioned (by a different term) in Exodus 12:38. (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges).
The “mixed multitude” that accompanied the
Israelites during their Exodus from Egypt was a diverse group. It included
Egyptians and others who chose to join the tribes of Israel. While the exact
number is not specified, it is described as a “very large number of livestock”
and people.¹ Some of these individuals may have been willing to leave Egypt
due to the recent plagues, while others were perhaps curious or impressed
by the miracles they witnessed.¹ The term “mixed multitude” emphasizes the
variety of people who left Egypt alongside the Israelites, forming a unique
and diverse assembly.⁴ According to Jewish tradition, “Moses accepted them
as an integral part of the people.² So, while we don't have an exact headcount,
it's clear that this mixed multitude played a significant role in the Exodus story.
[Source: Conversation with Bing, 4/11/2024.
(1) Exodus 12:38 Commentaries:
A mixed multitude also went up with them ....
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/exodus/12-38.htm.
(2) What constituted the mixed multitude in the Old Testament?.
https://bibleask.org/who-was-the-mixed-multitude-in-the-ot/.
(3) Erev Rav - Wikipedia.
https://bing.com/search?q=the+mixed+multitude+that+went+out+of+
Egypt+with+Israel.
(4) Erev Rav - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erev_Rav.]
Somewhere along the line I have read that these non-Israelites who were accompanying them numbered as many as one-and-a-half-million souls, but at this writing (04/11/24) I cannot find a particular number estimated anywhere. [BACK]
7. Bdellium is a resin extracted from certain African trees. [BACK]
8. LXX. has ἐνκρίς, which was a cake made with oil and honey; cf. ‘like wafers made with honey’ (Exodus 16:31). [BACK]
12. Nurse. Hebrew הָאֹמֵן֙ (hā·’ō·mên) can denote a foster-father caring for a child who is not his own. [BACK]
34. Kivrot-HaTa’avah (קִבּרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה) means “graves of lust” or “graces of desire.” [BACK]
35. Hatzerot (חֲצֵרוֹת) means “settlement.” [BACK]
|
 |
Subscribe to my Substack/newsletter |
ANXIOUSLY WATCHING FOR MASHIACH’S RETURN,
SPEEDILY AND IN OUR DAY. MARANA, TA!
