How does the Lord answer Moses when the burden of the people is too heavy for him alone?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

He tells Moses to gather seventy known elders and leaders, and gives them of Moses’ spirit to share the burden. They prophesy, and the spirit also rests on Eldad and Medad, who stayed in the camp.

Chapter breakdown

Numbers 11 describes the people’s complaints, fire, seventy elders, prophecy and the plague after the supply of meat. The people murmur against the Lord, as though complaining about their fatigue. The Lord hears, becomes angry, and his fire consumes those at the outermost part of the camp. The people cry to Moses; he prays to the Lord, and the fire is swallowed up. He calls the place The burning because the Lord’s fire was kindled against them.

Challoner gives Taberah as the Hebrew name for The burning.

The mixed multitude that came with Israel burns with desire, sitting and weeping. The children of Israel join them and ask who will give them meat to eat.

Challoner says the mixed multitude came out of Egypt, were not of Israel’s race, and drew Israel into murmuring. He draws a warning about associating with the lovers and admirers of the wicked world, whom he calls the children of Egypt. This application belongs to the annotation.

The people remember fish they ate without cost in Egypt, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. They say their soul is dry and they see nothing but manna. The manna is like coriander seed and has the colour of bdellium.

Challoner cites Pliny, book 21, chapter 9, for bdellium’s colour: like a person’s nail, white and bright.

The people gather manna, grind it in a mill or beat it in a mortar, boil it in a pot and make cakes tasting like bread mixed with oil. It falls with the night’s dew. Moses hears families weeping at their tent doors. The Lord’s anger burns greatly, and Moses finds the matter unbearable. He asks the Lord why he has afflicted his servant, why he does not find favour, and why the whole people’s weight is laid on him. He asks whether he conceived or fathered them, that he should carry them like a nurse carrying an infant into the land sworn to their fathers. Where can he get meat for so many? They weep against him and demand meat. He cannot carry them alone because the burden is too heavy. If the Lord sees it otherwise, he asks to be killed and to find grace in his eyes, rather than suffer such great evils.

The Lord tells Moses to gather seventy elders of Israel whom he knows to be elders and leaders of the people. He must bring them to the tabernacle of the covenant’s door to stand with him.

Challoner describes this as the first institution of the council or senate called the Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy or seventy-two counsellors. The chapter’s command names seventy; the additional description and number belong to the annotation.

The Lord will come down and speak with Moses, take of his spirit and give it to the elders so they share the burden and he does not carry it alone. Moses must tell the people to sanctify themselves: tomorrow they will eat meat. The Lord heard them ask for it and say they had been well in Egypt. He promises meat not for one, two, five, ten or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of their nostrils and becomes loathsome. He gives the reason: they have rejected the Lord in their midst and wept about leaving Egypt. Moses says there are 600,000 footmen and asks how they can eat meat for a month. Would killing sheep and oxen suffice, or gathering the sea’s fish? The Lord asks whether his hand is unable and says Moses will soon see whether his word comes to pass.

Moses tells the people the Lord’s words and places seventy elders around the tabernacle. The Lord comes down in a cloud, speaks to Moses and gives the seventy of the spirit in him. They prophesy when the spirit rests on them and do not cease afterward. Eldad and Medad, both enrolled, remain in the camp instead of going to the tabernacle; the spirit rests on them too. A young man runs to tell Moses they are prophesying in the camp. Josue son of Nun, Moses’ minister chosen from many, asks Moses to forbid them. Moses asks why Josue is jealous for him and wishes that all the people might prophesy and receive the Lord’s spirit. Moses returns to the camp with Israel’s elders.

A wind from the Lord takes quails from beyond the sea into the camp, spreading them for a day’s journey on every side. They fly two cubits above the ground. The people gather them all that day, the night and the next day. The least anyone gathers is ten cores, a quantity measure. They dry them around the camp. While the meat is still between their teeth and has not run out, the Lord’s anger strikes them with a very great plague. The place is called The graves of lust because those who desired the meat are buried there. They leave it, come to Haseroth and stay there.

Challoner also calls the place the sepulchres of concupiscence, explaining the name by their irregular desire for meat, and gives the Hebrew name Kibroth. Hattaavah.

The story inside

Eldad and Medad make the shared-spirit account more specific than the appointment of a council alone. They are enrolled but do not go to the tabernacle, and the spirit rests on them in the camp. A young man reports their prophecy. Josue asks Moses to forbid them, but Moses answers with a question about jealousy for him and a wish that all the people receive the Lord’s spirit. Moses then returns with the elders. The account records those actions and words, without giving Josue a private motive or turning Moses’ wish into a prophecy of a later event. Challoner’s Sanhedrin explanation is separately attributed.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Moses’ burden receives a stated answer: seventy elders share it through the spirit given to them. Their appointment must not be reduced to an invented policy about every leader in every setting.
2
The month of meat is a promise, while the gathering and plague have their own timing. The people gather for a day, a night and the next day, and the plague strikes while meat remains; the chapter does not report a month-long quail supply.
3
The food complaint and manna description belong together. The remembered foods, manna’s appearance, preparation and arrival show exactly what the people complain about without adding a claim about their unstated feelings.

Test your recall

How does the gift to the seventy elders answer Moses’ statement that he cannot bear the people alone?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 15340–15355
Numbers Chapter 11 The people murmur and are punished with fire. God appointeth seventy ancients for assistants to Moses. They prophesy. The people have their fill of flesh, but forthwith many die of the plague. 11:1. In the mean time there arose a murmuring of the people against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And when the Lord heard it he was angry. And the fire of the Lord being kindled against them, devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp. 11:2. And when the people cried to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was swallowed up. 11:3. And he called the name of that place, The burning: for that the fire of the Lord had been kindled against them.
Lines 15357–15357
The burning.... Hebrew, Taberah.
Lines 15359–15361
11:4. For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them, burned with desire, sitting and weeping, the children of Israel also being joined with them, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat?
Lines 15363–15367
A mixt multitude.... These were people that came with them out of Egypt, who were not of the race of Israel; who, by their murmuring, drew also the children of Israel to murmur: this should teach us the danger of associating ourselves with the children of Egypt, that is, with the lovers and admirers of this wicked world.
Lines 15369–15375
11:5. We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. 11:6. Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna. 11:7. Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium.
Lines 15377–15378
Bdellium.... Bdellium, according to Pliny, 1.21, c. 9. was of the colour of a man’s nail, white and bright.
Lines 15380–15408
11:8. And the people went about, and gathering it, ground it in a mill, or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes thereof of the taste of bread tempered with oil. 11:9. And when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the manna also fell with it. 11:10. Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families, every one at the door of his tent. And the wrath of the Lord was exceedingly enkindled: to Moses also the thing seemed insupportable. 11:11. And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy servant? Wherefore do I not find favour before thee? And why hast thou laid the weight of all this people upon me? 11:12. Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou hast sworn to their fathers? 11:13. Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude? They weep against me, saying: Give us flesh that we may eat. 11:14. I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too heavy for me. 11:15. But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me, and let me find grace in thy eyes, that I be not afflicted with so great evils.
Lines 15410–15413
11:16. And the Lord said to Moses: Gather unto me seventy men of the ancients of Israel, whom thou knowest to be ancients and masters of the people: and thou shalt bring them to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and shalt make them stand there with thee,
Lines 15415–15417
Seventy men.... This was the first institution of the council or senate, called the Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy or seventy-two senators or counsellors.
Lines 15419–15443
11:17. That I may come down and speak with thee: and I will take of thy spirit, and will give to them, that they may bear with thee the burden of the people, and thou mayest not be burthened alone. 11:18. And thou shalt say to the people: Be ye sanctified: to morrow you shall eat flesh: for I have heard you say: Who will give us flesh to eat? It was well with us in Egypt. That the Lord may give you flesh, and you may eat: 11:19. Not for one day, nor two, nor five, nor ten, no nor for twenty. 11:20. But even for a month of days, till it come out at your nostrils, and become loathsome to you, because you have cast off the Lord, who is in the midst of you, and have wept before him, saying: Why came we out of Egypt? 11:21. And Moses said: There are six hundred thousand footmen of this people, and sayest thou: I will give them flesh to eat a whole month? 11:22. Shall then a multitude of sheep and oxen be killed, that it may suffice for their food? or shall the fishes of the sea be gathered together to fill them? 11:23. And the Lord answered him: Is the hand of the Lord unable? Thou shalt presently see whether my word shall come to pass or no.
Lines 15445–15467
11:24. Moses therefore came, and told the people the words of the Lord, and assembled seventy men of the ancients of Israel, and made them to stand about the tabernacle. 11:25. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, taking away of the spirit that was in Moses, and giving to the seventy men. And when the spirit had rested on them they prophesied, nor did they cease afterwards. 11:26. Now there remained in the camp two of the men, of whom one was called Eldad, and the other Medad, upon whom the spirit rested; for they also had been enrolled, but were not gone forth to the tabernacle. 11:27. And when they prophesied in the camp, there ran a young man, and told Moses, saying: Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp. 11:28. Forthwith Josue the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and chosen out of many, said: My lord Moses forbid them. 11:29. But he said: Why hast thou emulation for me? O that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his spirit! 11:30. And Moses returned, with the ancients of Israel, into the camp.
Lines 15469–15484
11:31. And a wind going out from the Lord, taking quails up beyond the sea brought them, and cast them into the camp for the space of one day’s journey, on every side of the camp round about, and they flew in the air two cubits high above the ground. 11:32. The people therefore rising up all that day, and night, and the next day, gathered together of quails, he that did least, ten cores: and they dried them round about the camp. 11:33. As yet the flesh was between their teeth, neither had that kind of meat failed: when behold the wrath of the Lord being provoked against the people, struck them with an exceeding great plague. 11:34. And that place was called, The graves of lust: for there they buried the people that had lusted. And departing from the graves of lust, they came unto Haseroth, and abode there.
Lines 15486–15489
The graves of lust.... Or, the sepulchres of concupiscence: so called from their irregular desire of flesh. In Hebrew, Kibroth. Hattaavah.