The Toxicity of Constant Complaint

¹¹In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the covenant.

¹²The children of Israel went forward on their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran.

¹³They first went forward according to the commandment of the LORD by Moses.

¹⁴First, the standard of the camp of the children of Judah went forward according to their armies. Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over his army.

¹⁵Nethanel the son of Zuar was over the army of the tribe of the children of Issachar.

¹⁶Eliab the son of Helon was over the army of the tribe of the children of Zebulun.

¹⁷The tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tabernacle, went forward.

¹⁸The standard of the camp of Reuben went forward according to their armies. Elizur the son of Shedeur was over his army.

¹⁹Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai was over the army of the tribe of the children of Simeon.

²⁰Eliasaph the son of Deuel was over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad.

²¹The Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary. The others set up the tabernacle before they arrived.

²²The standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies. Elishama the son of Ammihud was over his army.

²³Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was over the army of the tribe of the children of Manasseh.

²⁴Abidan the son of Gideoni was over the army of the tribe of the children of Benjamin.

²⁵The standard of the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rear guard of all the camps, set forward according to their armies. Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was over his army.

²⁶Pagiel the son of Ochran was over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher.

²⁷Ahira the son of Enan was over the army of the tribe of the children of Naphtali.

²⁸Thus were the travels of the children of Israel according to their armies; and they went forward.

²⁹Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are journeying to the place of which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the LORD has spoken good concerning Israel.”

³⁰He said to him, “I will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my relatives.”

³¹Moses said, “Don’t leave us, please; because you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes.

³²It shall be, if you go with us—yes, it shall be—that whatever good the LORD does to us, we will do the same to you.”

³³They set forward from the Mount of the LORD three days’ journey. The ark of the LORD’s covenant went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them.

³⁴The cloud of the LORD was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp.

³⁵When the ark went forward, Moses said, “Rise up, LORD, and let your enemies be scattered! Let those who hate you flee before you!”

³⁶When it rested, he said, “Return, LORD, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.”

¹The people were complaining in the ears of the LORD. When the LORD heard it, his anger burned; and the LORD’s fire burned among 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, because the LORD’s fire burned among them.

⁴The mixed multitude that was among 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.

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 burned greatly; and Moses was displeased.

¹¹Moses said to the LORD, “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?

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

²¹Moses 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.’

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 above 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; and 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 burned against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.

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

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

¹Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.

²They said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And the LORD heard it.

³Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth.

⁴The LORD spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!” The three of them came out.

⁵The LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward.

⁶He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.

⁷My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house.

⁸With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see the LORD’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”

⁹The LORD’s anger burned against them; and he departed.

¹⁰The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

¹¹Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us, in which we have done foolishly, and in which we have sinned.

¹²Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³Moses cried to the LORD, saying, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”

¹⁴The LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.”

¹⁵Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days, and the people didn’t travel until Miriam was brought in again.

¹⁶Afterward the people traveled from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.