1The people were complaining in the ears of the LORD. When the LORD heard it, his anger burnt; and the LORD’s fire burnt amongst 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.

3The name of that place was called Taberah, ¹¹because the LORD’s fire burnt amongst them.

4The mixed multitude that was amongst 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;

6but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.”

7The manna was like coriander seed, and it looked like bdellium. ¹²

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 burnt greatly; and Moses was displeased.

11Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favour 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 favour 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.

19You will not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,

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 amongst you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”

21Moses said, “The people, amongst 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.”

24Moses went out, and told the people the LORD’s words; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent.

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.

27A young man ran, and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying 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!”

30Moses went into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

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 ¹³above 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; ¹⁴and 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 burnt against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.

34The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, ¹⁵because there they buried the people who lusted.

35From Kibroth Hattaavah the people travelled to Hazeroth; and they stayed at Hazeroth.