1   There came a time when the people complained to the Lord of their hardships. When he heard, he became angry and fire from the Lord broke out among them, 2   and was raging at one end of the camp, when the people appealed to Moses. He interceded with the Lord, and the fire died down. 3   Then they named that place Taberah, ^note because the fire of the Lord had burned among them there.

4   Now there was a mixed company of strangers who had joined the Israelites. These people began to be greedy for better things, and the Israelites themselves wept once again and cried, ‘Will no one give us meat? 5   Think of it! In Egypt we had fish for the asking, cucumbers and water-melons, leeks and onions and garlic. 6   Now our throats are parched; there is nothing wherever we look except this manna.’ 7   (The manna looked like coriander seed, the colour of gum resin. 8   The people went about collecting it, ground it up in hand-mills or pounded it in mortars, then boiled it in the pot and made it into cakes. It tasted like butter-cakes. 9   When dew fell on the camp at night, the manna fell with it.) 10   Moses heard the people wailing, all of them in their families at the opening of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was troubled. 11   He said to the Lord, ‘Why hast thou brought trouble on thy servant? How have I displeased the Lord that I am burdened with the care of this whole people? 12   Am I their mother? Have I brought them into the world, and am I called upon to carry them in my bosom, like a nurse with her babies, to the land promised by thee on oath to their fathers? 13   Where am I to find meat to give them all? They pester me with their wailing and their “Give us meat to eat.” 14   This whole people is a burden too heavy for me; I cannot carry it alone. 15   If that is thy purpose for me, then kill me outright. But if I have won thy favour, let me suffer this trouble at thy hands ^note no longer.’

The journey from Sinai to Edom

16   The Lord answered Moses, ‘Assemble seventy elders from Israel, men known to you as elders and officers in the community; bring them to me at the Tent of the Presence, and there let them take their stand with you. 17   I will come down and speak with you there. I will take back part of that same spirit which has been conferred on you and confer it on them, and they will share with you the burden of taking care for the people; then you will not have to bear it alone. 18   And to the people you shall say this: “Hallow yourselves in readiness for tomorrow; you shall have meat to eat. You wailed in the Lord's hearing; you said, ‘Will no one give us meat? In Egypt we lived well.’ The Lord will give you meat and you shall eat it. 19   Not for one day only, nor for two days, 20   nor five, nor ten, nor twenty, but for a whole month you shall eat it until it comes out at your nostrils and makes you sick; because you have rejected the Lord who dwells in your midst, wailing in his presence and saying, ‘Why did we ever come out of Egypt?’”’

21   Moses replied, ‘Here am I with six hundred thousand men on the march around me, and thou dost promise them meat to eat for a whole month. 22   How can the sheep and oxen be slaughtered that would be enough for them? If all the fish in the sea could be caught, would they be enough?’ 23   The Lord said to Moses, ‘Is there a limit to the power of the Lord? You will see this very day whether or not my words come true.’

24   Moses came out and told the people what the Lord had said. He assembled seventy men from the elders of the people and stationed them round the Tent. 25   Then the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him. He took back part of that same spirit which he had conferred on Moses and conferred it on the seventy elders; as the spirit alighted on them, they fell into a prophetic ecstasy, for the first and only time.

26   Now two men named Eldad and Medad, who had been enrolled with the seventy, were left behind in the camp. But, though they had not gone out to the Tent, the spirit alighted on them none the less, and they fell into an ecstasy there in the camp. 27   A young man ran and told Moses that Eldad and Medad were in an ecstasy in the camp, 28   whereupon Joshua son of Nun, who had served with Moses since he was a boy, broke in, ‘My lord Moses, stop them!’ 29   But Moses said to him, ‘Are you jealous on my account? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would confer his spirit on them all!’ 30   And Moses rejoined the camp with the elders of Israel.

31   Then a wind from the Lord sprang up; it drove quails in from the west, and they were flying all round the camp for the distance of a day's journey, three feet ^note above the ground. 32   The people were busy gathering quails all that day, all night, and all next day, and even the man who got

The journey from Sinai to Edom least gathered ten homers. They spread them out to dry all about the camp. 33   But the meat was scarcely between their teeth, and they had not so much as bitten it, when the Lord's anger broke out against the people and he struck them with a deadly plague. 34   That place was called Kibroth-hattaavah ^note because there they buried the people who had been greedy for meat.

35   From Kibroth-hattaavah the Israelites went on to Hazeroth, and while they were at Hazeroth,

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