Numbers 11 Commentary

Sometime during the three-day journey described in chapter 10, the Israelites began to complain. The LORD heard it and became very angry, and He caused fire to burn at the edge of the camp. Moses intervened and the LORD ceased causing the fire.

Not only did the Israelites complain to the LORD. The "rabble" also voiced their demands and disappointments. The main complaint in this section was about food. The rabble and the Israelites bemoaned the lack of the type of food they had when in Egypt. The only food available to them was the manna which was given to them by the LORD.

Verses 10 – 15 contain what some have called "Moses’ Lament." Moses heard, and probably was the recipient of, the never-ending griping of the people in the camp about having only manna to eat. In verses 11 – 15, Moses took his impassioned complaint to the LORD. Moses’ issue with the LORD involved him being chosen by the LORD to be the leader of these miserable, ungrateful, and demanding people.

Numbers 11:16-25 contains the LORD’s answer to Moses’ question.

Verses 26 – 30 speak of two of the elders that did not meet with Moses and the other elders at the tent of meeting. It turned out that the Holy Spirit came upon them even though they were not at the tabernacle. These two men, Eldad and Medad, prophesied just like the other sixty-eight elders, only they did so in the camp. Moses was notified of this, and Joshua urged Moses to stop the two from prophesying. Moses rejects Joshua’s request, and all of them return to the camp of the Israelites.

After the seventy men had been commissioned, the LORD then met the people’s desire for meat in their diet. He caused a wind to blow countless quail into the Israelite camp to supply this meat. As it turned out, this was both a blessing and a curse because not only did the LORD accommodate the people, He also judged them for their lack of gratefulness by sending a plague upon them through the meat.