Numbers · 35 verses

Numbers 11

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

The quail arrive in such abundance that nobody gathers less than ten homers, and the people spread the birds all around the camp; then, while the meat is still between their teeth, the plague begins. It is a feast with remarkably poor timing.

Fire, manna, and a very tired Mosesvv. 1–15

The complaints begin with hardship, and fire from the LORD consumes the outskirts of the camp. Moses prays, the fire dies down, and the place acquires the name Taberah, which is a rather permanent label for a brief blaze. Then the craving turns culinary: the rabble remember Egypt’s fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, while the manna—ground, crushed, boiled, and baked into cakes—has become the entire horizon of appetite. Family after family weeps at the entrances to their tents, and Moses, hearing it, asks whether he conceived all these people or gave them birth. His complaint ends with a request to be killed rather than continue seeing his own wretchedness.

Seventy, plus two in the campvv. 16–30

The LORD answers Moses with seventy elders, summoned to the Tent of Meeting so that some of the Spirit on Moses may rest on them and help bear the people’s burden. Meat is promised for a whole month, in quantities that Moses finds difficult to picture, until the LORD asks whether His arm is too short. At the tent, the Spirit rests on the elders and they prophesy, but never do so again. Two men, Eldad and Medad, have stayed in the camp rather than going out to the tent; the Spirit rests on them there, and they prophesy in the camp. Joshua wants them stopped. Moses, with admirable breadth of wish, says he would rather see all the LORD’s people prophesying.

Quail, teeth, and onward movementvv. 31–35

A wind from the LORD drives quail in from the sea and lays them around the camp, two cubits above the ground, for a day’s journey in every direction. The people gather through that day, night, and the following day; no one gathers less than ten homers, and the birds are spread everywhere. The punishment begins before the meal has properly become a meal. The burial place is named Kibroth-hattaavah, and from there Israel moves on to Hazeroth, where they remain for some time.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

  1. Num 11:1Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

  2. Num 11:2And the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down.

  3. Num 11:3So that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD had burned among them.

  4. Num 11:4Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?

  5. Num 11:5We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

  6. Num 11:6But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”

  7. Num 11:7Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.

  8. Num 11:8The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.

  9. Num 11:9When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

  10. Num 11:10Then Moses heard the people of family after family weeping at the entrances to their tents, and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was also displeased.

  11. Num 11:11So Moses asked the LORD, “Why have You brought this trouble on Your servant? Why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid upon me the burden of all these people?

  12. Num 11:12Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth, so that You should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers?

  13. Num 11:13Where can I get meat for all these people? For they keep crying out to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

  14. Num 11:14I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me.

  15. Num 11:15If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

  16. Num 11:16Then the LORD said to Moses, “Bring Me seventy of the elders of Israel known to you as leaders and officers of the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them stand there with you.

  17. Num 11:17And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put that Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

  18. Num 11:18And say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, because you have cried out in the hearing of the LORD, saying: ‘Who will feed us meat? For we were better off in Egypt!’ Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat.

  19. Num 11:19You will eat it not for one or two days, nor for five or ten or twenty days,

  20. Num 11:20but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and makes you nauseous—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have cried out before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”

  21. Num 11:21But Moses replied, “Here I am among 600,000 men on foot, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’

  22. Num 11:22If all our flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”

  23. Num 11:23The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not My word will come to pass.”

  24. Num 11:24So Moses went out and relayed to the people the words of the LORD, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

  25. Num 11:25Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed that Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but they never did so again.

  26. Num 11:26Two men, however, had remained in the camp—one named Eldad and the other Medad—and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those listed, but they had not gone out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp.

  27. Num 11:27A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

  28. Num 11:28Joshua son of Nun, the attendant to Moses since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

  29. Num 11:29But Moses replied, “Are you jealous on my account? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would place His Spirit on them!”

  30. Num 11:30Then Moses returned to the camp, along with the elders of Israel.

  31. Num 11:31Now a wind sent by the LORD came up, drove in quail from the sea, and brought them near the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground, for a day’s journey in every direction around the camp.

  32. Num 11:32All that day and night, and all the next day, the people stayed up gathering the quail. No one gathered less than ten homers, and they spread them out all around the camp.

  33. Num 11:33But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a severe plague.

  34. Num 11:34So they called that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

  35. Num 11:35From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth, where they remained for some time.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 297 passages were voted onto 32 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

  • 23Isaiah 59:1Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.
  • 23Genesis 18:14Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”
  • 23Isaiah 50:2Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.
  • 23Luke 1:37For no word from God will ever fail.”
  • 23Matthew 19:26Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
  • 23Numbers 23:19God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
  • 23Ezekiel 12:25because I, the LORD, will speak whatever word I speak, and it will be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass, declares the Lord GOD.’”
  • 23Ezekiel 24:14I, the LORD, have spoken; the time is coming, and I will act. I will not refrain or show pity, nor will I relent. I will judge you according to your ways and deeds,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
  • 41 Corinthians 10:6These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.
  • 23Micah 2:7Should it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?” Do not My words bring good to him who walks uprightly?
  • 291 Corinthians 14:5I wish that all of you could speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be edified.
  • 23Jeremiah 44:28–29Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!
  • 4Exodus 12:38And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
  • 171 Samuel 10:6Then the Spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be transformed into a different person.
  • 17Numbers 11:25Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed that Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but they never did so again.
  • 232 Kings 7:17–19Now the king had appointed the officer on whose arm he leaned to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king had come to him.

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