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Numbers

About this book
Chapter 11

1 When the people complained, it displeased the Lord. When the Lord heard it, his anger burned, and so the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.⁠ 2 When the people cried to Moses, he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. 3 So he called the name of that place Taberah because there the fire of the Lord burned among them. 4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them craved more desirable foods, and so the Israelites wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we used to eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now we are dried up, and there is nothing at all before us except this manna!” 7 (Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. 8 And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it with mills or pounded it in mortars; they baked it in pans and made cakes of it. It tasted like fresh olive oil. 9 And when the dew came down on the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.)⁠ 10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and when the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, Moses was also displeased. 11 And Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you afflicted your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of this entire people on me? 12 Did I conceive this entire people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father bears a nursing child,’⁠ to the land that you swore to their fathers? 13 From where shall I get meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat!’ 14 I am not able to bear this entire people alone, because it is too heavy for me! 15 But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately.⁠ If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.”⁠ 16 The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel,⁠ whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there,⁠ and I will take part of the Spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.⁠ 18 “And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves 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 life was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat.⁠ 19 You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, because you have despised the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we ever come out of Egypt?”’” 21 Moses said, “The people around me are 600,000 on foot; but you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’⁠ 22 Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? Now you will see whether my word to you will come true or not!” 24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He then gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tabernacle. 25 And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do so again.⁠ 26 But two men remained in the camp; one’s name was Eldad, and the other’s name was Medad. And the Spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!” 28 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his choice young men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29 Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” 30 Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel. 31 Now a wind went out from the Lord and brought quail from the sea,⁠ and let them fall near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about three feet high on the surface of the ground. 32 And the people stayed up all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people that craved different food. 35 The people traveled from Kibroth Hattaavah to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 11:7 and Numbers 11:17

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Genesis, God goes down to Babel, and in Numbers, God goes down to help Moses by sharing the spirit with the elders. Both use the same language of divine action, following ancient Near Eastern traditions where gods actively participate in human events.

Passages

Genesis 11:7

Hebrew Bible
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building. 6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why its name was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Numbers 11:17

Hebrew Bible
15 But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately. If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.” 16 The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the Spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself. 18 “And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves 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 life was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat. 19 You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

References

"... In verse 6 the reason for YHWH’s intended confusion of the “one lip” in verse 7 is given. In verse 7 God plans his action as saboteur. With a short soliloquy in the first-person plural (recalling Genesis 2–3, Genesis 6:5–7, Genesis 18:20–21 and even Exodus 3:7–8) ... The connection between the latter two texts has also been observed ... The word ירד with YHWH as subject and first-person plural is only attested in Genesis 11:7; ירד in the first-person singular with YHWH as subject is also very rare: besides Genesis 18:21, in order to investigate Sodom and Gomorrah, it is only attested in Exodus 3:8, to save Israel, and in Numbers 11:17, to support Moses ... God exhorts himself to descend and to confuse the “lip” of the people, in order to destroy their ideal, unanimous, primordial inter-human communication. The divine speech in verse 7 forms a parallel with the people’s speech in verses 3–4 ..."
Angelika Berlejung, “Living in the Land of Shinar: Reflections on Exile in Genesis 11:1-9,” in The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah, ed. Peter Dubovský, Dominik Markl, and Jean-Pierre Sonnet, FAT (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), 89–112.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 11:7 and Numbers 11:17

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