Numbers 11

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:32:13utc

This chapter begins the recording of the various failures of the people, beginning immediately upon their departure from Mount Sinai and leading up to their last and fatal failure to enter Canaan. Following the outline of Nelson's Bible Dictionary we study:

B. Failure of the People 11:1-9

C. Failure of Moses 11:10-15

D. God Provides for Moses 11:16-30

E. God Provides for the People 11:31-35B. Failure of the People 11:1-9

This chapter proves that failure to achieve the larger goals begins with smaller failures. The grumbling of the people about the small things in life, leads to the defeat in the larger things. We will never learn to trust the Lord for great things if we do not trust Him for the incidentals. George Mueller, who built a monument of trust in the Lord in the nineteenth century with his founding of the orphanages in Bristol, once wrote a tract about believing God, in which he stated emphatically, that trusting the Lord for large amounts of money begins with trusting Him for dimes and pennies. The people of Israel failed to enter the promised land, because they failed at the beginning of their journey toward it.

The key to this failure of the nation as a whole was their lack of gratitude. It is true, that objectively considered, their circumstances were not rosy, but they had the assurance of God's provision for their needs. The difference between their previous condition and their present one is not understood clearly by them. In Egypt they were slaves; their lives were constantly in danger; their children were unprotected, but life was regulated to the extreme, which gave them a certain feeling of security, however false this may have been. Their utterance: "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic," is completely unrealistic. They ate fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic at the price of their lives and freedom. Saying that food was free shows that they had lost sight of the right perspective. In the desert their food was provided for in a supernatural way. The menu was limited, and their was no reserve of it. Every day there was enough for the day, never more and never less. This meant that their sense of security was gone. Unless they could bring themselves to see that the presence of the Lord was the guarantee of their safety, they would feel themselves lost, and in danger of starvation. The fact that they have freedom and dignity is overshadowed by the monotony of their daily menu. They would gladly have exchanged their liberty for a dish of "Gefülte Fisch."

We read in verse 1: "Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused." According to The Pulpit Commentary the literal reading of this phrase is: "And the people were as complainers evil in the ears of the Lord." This means that they did more than just filing a complaint; they demonstrated their character as complainers. As we said before, the deliverance of the people out of Egypt did not root up Egypt in the hearts and minds of the people. They kept on living and behaving as slaves. The Pulpit Commentary observes, correctly: "Slavery, even when its outward pressure is past and gone like a bad dream, leaves behind it above all things an incurable suspicion of, and a rooted disbelief in, others, which shows itself outwardly by blank ingratitude and persistent complaint of bad treatment. This is the well-known mental attitude of liberated slaves even toward their benefactors and liberators; and in the case of Israel this temper extended to the King of Israel himself, whom they held responsible for all the privations and terrors of an apparently needless journey through a hideous waste."

The enemy often succeeds in creating an atmosphere of hopelessness, in making us believe that the desert and its hardship are created by God, and that He is ultimately responsible for all our suffering. The story of Job is an elaborate illustration of this strategy. Once we understand that God did not create deserts, but that He allows us to cross them in order to teach and form us, we can see through the tactics of the enemy and overcome the temptation of complaining. There are several useful warnings in the New Testament to make us understand the scenery that forms the background of our lives is not what we think it is. Paul advises the Christians in Thessalonica: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."[ 1 ] James goes even further by saying: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."[ 2 ]

The Israelites were disappointed in discovering that their journey from Egypt to Canaan was not a joy ride. They should have understood from the way in which God delivered them out of Egypt, by a series of severe punishments to the Egyptians, that they came out of enemy territory, and that they had to travel through enemy territory, in order to reach Canaan, which was also enemy territory. They had no idea why God allowed this to happen to them; that is was for "the testing of [their] faith [that] develops perseverance." They did not understand what they were, and what God wanted them to be: a kingdom of priests.

There is a direct link between our spirituality and our attitude towards food. The apostle Paul shows us his insight in this matter by saying: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."[ 3 ] And: " 'Food for the stomach and the stomach for food'-- but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."[ 4 ] To those who think that they can alter their relationship with God by following certain dietary regulations, he says: "But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do."[ 5 ] It is true, however, that, if we make food our first priority in life, we damage our relationship with the Lord. We need food to stay alive, but life is more than eating and drinking. Moses sums it up at a later date by saying: "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."[ 6 ] What we eat is sanctified by our prayer, and if we eat with thanksgiving, we will not cause any harm to our fellowship with God. Paul speaks about people who order others "to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth," and he adds: "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."[ 7 ]

The first complaint, however, was not against food but against hardship in general. We read: "Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused." We are given no details as to the matters the people complained about. Hardship is a rather general term. The RSV and TLB use the word "misfortune." As mentioned above, the literal meaning of the phrase is: "And the people were as complainers evil in the ears of the Lord." Their complaining was not a request for a change in certain conditions or matters, but it was a demonstration of their character. They had a spirit of complaint which had taken possession of them. This does not necessarily mean that a certain demon had taken possession of their hearts, although the attitude of the people will have been welcomed by the enemy, but that the chose the evil of complaining over the good of gratitude toward the Lord. They were saying that God mistreated them. Therefore, God considered them to be evil.

To bring the people to their senses God kindles a fire in the camp, starting at the outskirts. Adam Clarke thinks that the fire started in the middle of the camp and consumed tents as far as the outskirts, but there is no reason to believe that it was a disaster of this magnitude. We are not told how the fire started; whether it was caused by lightning or spontaneous combustion. If it is true that it only burned at the edge of the camp, it is unlikely that the fire came from the sanctuary, like it did when Aaron's two sons were killed.

The immediate result of the fire is that people pray; or, at least, they ask Moses to pray. In answer to Moses' prayer the fire stops. The KJV says: "the fire was quenched." This would allow for human intervention. It seems, however, that the fire stopped in the same supernatural way as it had started. It was the Lord's doing, and it was recognized as such. The incident is commemorated by the name given to the place where it occurred. We read: "So that place was called Taberah." Taberah simply means "burning." Since this name does not occur in the list of places of encampment, it is presumed that "Taberah" was in the vicinity of Sinai and that the incident took place during the first three days of the trek to the Desert of Paran. The Pulpit Commentary observes that, if it had not been for the mediation of Moses, the people would have gotten no further than Taberah on their journey to the promised land. Without mediation and divine intervention there is no progress in anybody's spiritual life.

Verse 4 tells us that the effect of fire was short lived. Immediately upon the incident of the first three verses, the people resume their complaining, and this time they are more specific. The instigators of the trouble are "the rabble." The Hebrew word is hasaphsuph, which is translated by the KJV as "the mixed multitude." TLB renders the word simply with "the Egyptians." The Pulpit Commentary says that they were: "the rabble, which had followed the fortunes of Israel out of Egypt, where they had probably been strangers and slaves themselves." At the time of the departure of Israel from Egypt, we read: "Many other people went up with them."[ 8 ] Some of these people may have been of mixed racial background. In Leviticus, for instance we read about the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father.[ 9 ] Such people may have been the instigators of the rebellion, the fact remains that the found such a good sound board for their complaint in the whole nation. As soon as the word "meat" is dropped, all the people start demanding meat. One of the tragedies of this incident is that the people received what they asked for. Their prayers were answered to their own detriment. The psalmist says: "And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."[ 10 ]

It is true that human beings need variety in order to feel satisfied. The limitations of their diet was part of the price they had to pay for their freedom and dignity, but, all of a sudden the people felt that they price they paid was too high. At this point the record regresses somewhat to give a short description of the manna, and its mode of distribution, which was the object of the people's complaint. The psalmist says about this manna, and its supernatural occurrence: "He gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat." The Pulpit Commentary commenting on the phrase, "Men ate the bread of angels," says rather dryly: "To the eye of the Psalmist the manna appeared as angels' food ....; but then the Psalmist had not lived on manna every day for a year."

The question is, does God want us to put up with monotony, either in diet or in any other phase of our existence? I believe the answer is "no!" The point of this passage, therefore, is not that it is sinful to ask for meat, or for whatever variety we need to feel satisfied with our condition, but that the Israelites complained instead of asking. Nobody thought of turning to the Lord to ask for meat. James' words are surely applicable here: "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.[ 11 ]

C. Failure of Moses 11:10-15

Nobody believed that God would even consider such a request. Even Moses felt it would be impossible for God to provide enough meat to feed the whole multitude. Nobody had any faith in God's ability to do the impossible. First of all, Moses complains to the Lord that he is unable to provide for the needs of the people, and when God promises him to send enough meat for the whole nation for the next month, he answers: "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!' Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?" This issue of the whole passage is summed up in God's question: "Is the LORD's arm too short?" It is this question that makes this portion of Scripture to such a strange mixture of glory and misery. We find both beauty and ashes in these verses.

D. God Provides for Moses 11:16-30

The glory of these verses is the fact that God gives an outpouring of His Spirit upon seventy of the elders of Israel, so that they receive wisdom and power to assist Moses in the task he feels is too heavy for him. It is obvious that Moses had been put on a pedestal by the people. When the fire broke out they turned to Moses to pray to the Lord. But it seems that Moses had put himself on a pedestal also, by assuming that he was, in fact, the only one God would ever be able to use. This, in itself, is an unhealthy attitude; it is a trap for people who have come to a place of prominence.

In vs. 10-15 Moses voices his complaint before God. Moses' words to God are frank, to say the least. The people are grumbling, but Moses actually blames God for their condition. He may have thought back to the moment when God called him in the desert of Sinai, and when he refused to go.[ 12 ] Now he says to God: "I told you I could not do this." Moses, for a moment, looses sight of where he is and how he got there. The miracles, accompanying the exodus of the people out of Egypt, have lost their sharp edge in Moses' memory. Moses experiences, what is called a "burn-out" in modern English.

We read in vs. 10: "The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled." The Hebrew has some strange expressions to convey the difference between God's reaction to the complaining of the people and Moses'. God's anger expressed itself in "rapid breathing in passion," as Strong's Definition defines it. The Hebrew word used is 'aph , which actually means "nose or nostril." Moses, however, was displeased. The Hebrew word used for his feelings is `ayin, which means "the eye." The primitive way of putting it, would be to say that Israel's attitude affected God's nostrils and Moses' eyes, meaning that God was furious and Moses was merely upset. God's reaction was violent, because He knew that Israel's attitude would lead to final defeat. He knew that their craving for meat would make them unfit to wage the war of conquest for the promised land. People who need their steak do not make for good missionaries. God saw the consequences of Israel's failure in the context of the history of salvation.

Moses, on the other hand, felt that he had failed as a leader. He may have shared God's vision up to a certain point, but he could not see over the horizon of his own time. He only saw that his power over the people was slipping, which meant that he was not the leader he ought to be, and he blamed God for that. We read that he asked the Lord: "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? …. I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now-- if I have found favor in your eyes-- and do not let me face my own ruin." This prayer is a cry of despair. Moses is depressed to the point where he wants to die. There is nothing of God's furious anger in Moses' attitude. Ultimately, Moses only pities himself. There is even a hint of feeling in it that the people's request for meat is not unreasonable. Only, it is beyond his capacity to provide. God has done him wrong!

God does not get upset with Moses' outburst. He accepts Moses' complaint without any argument or without any effort to rectify Moses' perception, and He offers an immediate solution to Moses' despondency and despair. God's compassionate reaction to Moses' outburst is very moving; it shows His deep, understanding love for His servant. God does not get upset with us if we are upset with Him. It is when we are upset without Him, that we become the subjects of His wrath.

This does not seem to be the first time that some leaders of the people we delegated to assist Moses. Adam Clarke's Commentary says at this point: "This institution of the seventy persons to help Moses the rabbis consider as the origin of their grand council called the Sanhedrin. But we find that a council of seventy men, elders of Israel, had existed among the people a year before this time." Moses' father-in-law had given him this advice: "Select capable men from all the people-- men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain-- and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied."[ 13 ] And when the glory of the Lord descends upon Mount Sinai, we read: "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up."[ 14 ] It seems, however, that Moses had found it difficult to delegate responsibility to other people. He may not have considered them spiritually qualified for the task. This is the problem God addresses here in calling these men together and to put on them the same spirit that was on Moses. Good leadership is never a one-man-job. The functioning of the body of Christ requires team work.

E. God Provides for the People 11:31-35

The second part of God's answer to Moses is that the people have to prepare themselves for the meat that will be given to them the next day. We read: "Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat.' " The fact that the Lord tells the people to consecrate themselves indicates that the eating of the meat in itself was not something sinful; it was a gift from God, which they could have enjoyed as a blessing. That they gorged themselves and called judgment upon themselves, was not God's doing or intention. The Hebrew word for "consecrate" is qadash, which means to become clean, ceremonially or morally. The same word is used when the people are ordered to prepare for the revelation of God's glory on Mount Sinai.[ 15 ] The eating of the meat was to be a sacrament, not a orgy, as the people made it to be.

Yet, the provision with meat becomes a punishment. The people get from the frying pan into the fire; from one monotony into another. They will eat meat "for a whole month-- until it comes out of [their] nostrils and [they] loathe it." The problem is not the quality or the quantity of the meat, but the condition of their souls. The psalm we quoted before said: "And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."[ 16 ] The Hebrew words are razown nephesh, which literally means "thinness of a breathing creature." It could be translated, as the Amplified Bible renders is "thinned their numbers by disease." Hence, the NIV reads: "So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them." Holding on to the thought that God's blessing did more spiritual than physical harm to the people, which fits into the context, we see that it is not variety that forms the spice of life, but God's blessing. King Solomon says in the book of Proverbs: "The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it."[ 17 ] And twice we read his considered opinion in Ecclesiastes: "That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-- this is the gift of God …. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work-- this is a gift of God."[ 18 ] To eat and to enjoy what we eat is a gift of God. This gift is what God withheld from His people in this instance.

The first thing that happens is the convocation of the seventy elders at the entrance of the tabernacle. As it turns out only sixty-eight show up, for we learn later that two of the ones called did not come. There names are given as Eldad and Medad. The strange part of what happens next is that those men do not receive the Holy Spirit as a direct outpouring from God, but that part of the Spirit which is on Moses is given to them. It is as if God's want to emphasize the principle that He gives His Spirit only to one Person, which is Jesus Christ, of whom Moses was an image, and that the Holy Spirit in us is the Spirit of Christ. It seems that this giving of the Spirit was for a limited period and for a specific purpose, for we read that the presence of God's Spirit manifested itself in prophecy, which gift was bestowed upon those men only for that day. The Hebrew uses the word wayitnab'uw, "they prophesied," which word is derived from naba' a primitive root; to prophesy, meaning "to speak (or sing) by inspiration."

The question is, what does this all mean? Why were these seventy people given the gift of prophecy for only a limited period of time, probably for just one day? The Pulpit Commentary says about this gift: "The phenomenon here mentioned for the first time was no doubt an ecstatic utterance, not exactly beyond the control, but certainly beyond the origination, of those who prophesied. It must not be confounded with that state of calm, spiritual exaltation in which such men as Isaac and Jacob spake concerning things to come." We are not told whether the utterance of the seventy was ecstatic or not, but taken within the context of the chapter, that is the spirit of complaint among the people and their sinful reaction upon the coming of the quail, we may suppose that their prophecy was relevant to the condition of that day and that what they did was issue a warning to the people not to let themselves to go wild when the quail arrived. God wanted to prevent the orgy by sending prophets who admonished people with His Word. The warning was in vain, but now the blame fell fully on the people and not on the Lord.

There is an intermezzo in the story, which tells the tale of the two elders who did not show up; Eldad and Medad. The reason for their absence is not given, so there is no point in theorizing about it. The interesting part is that, in spite of the fact that those two men do not follow the requirement to present themselves at the place indicated, and consequently would not qualify for the gift of the Spirit, they receive it anyhow. Another significant point in the story is the reaction of Joshua and Moses' answer. Joshua feels that the fact that some of the Spirit that was on Moses is given to men who do not identify with Moses, diminishes Moses' status. Moses' greatness and humility becomes clear in the answer he gives: "I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"

Adam Clarke has a rather amusing note on this incident: "A late eminent divine and poet, (Charles Wesley),[ 19 ] has made a good use of this transaction to illustrate that species of divine call to the ministry, so instrumental in the salvation of myriads, which some have decried, because it appeared to them irregular, and not authorized by the hierarchy of the nation. I shall give this piece, not for the amusement but the instruction of the reader:

ELDAD, they said, and MEDAD there,

Irregularly bold,

By Moses uncommission'd, dare

A separate meeting hold!

And still whom none but heaven will own.

Men whom the world decry,

Men authorized by GOD alone,

Presume to prophesy!

How often have I blindly done

What zealous Joshua did,

Impatient to the rulers run,

And cried, "My lords, forbid!

Silence the schismatics, constrain

Their thoughts with ours t' agree

And sacrifice the souls of men

To idol UNITY!"

MOSES, the minister of God,

Rebukes our partial love,

Who envy at the gifts bestow'd

On those we disapprove.

We do not our own spirit know,

Who wish to see suppress'd

The men that Jesu's spirit show,

The men whom God hath bless'd.

SHALL we the Spirit's course restrain,

Or quench the heavenly fire?

Let God his messengers ordain,

And whom he will inspire.

Blow as he list, the Spirit's choice

Of instruments we bless;

We will, if Christ be preached, rejoice,

And wish the word success.

Can all be prophets then? are all

Commission'd from above?

No, but whome'er the Lord shall call

We joyfully approve.

O that the church might all receive

The spirit of prophecy,

And all in Christ accepted live,

And all in Jesus die!

"I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" Moses' heart must have swelled with joy to see the Holy Spirit moving freely, at least for that day. God lifted the heavy burden from his weary soul by giving him a vision of a whole nation, not only of priests, but of prophets; people who spoke the Word of the Lord and whose heart was in tune with His. Even in our time, which is called the Dispensation of the Holy Spirit, it is a sweet dream to see everyone who calls upon the Name of Jesus Christ, filled with the Spirit of God. We could, very appropriately, quote Wesley's words for our day: "O that the church might all receive the spirit of prophecy, and all in Christ accepted live, and all in Jesus die!"

Moses' dream was short lived; the next day it became evident that the people gave priority to their stomach over their heart. The meat made the flesh gain the victory.

Then came the quail. Evidently the appearance of quail in itself was not an unusual phenomenon. Adam Clarke quotes a certain "Mr. Hasselquist, the friend and pupil of the famous Linnaeus, [who] saw many of them about this time of the year, when he was in Egypt." The supernatural feature in this event is the sheer multitude of the birds. If Mr. Hasselquist saw the birds in Egypt, we would suspect that they were brought on by a westerly wind, coming from the Red Sea and not from the Gulf of Aqaba. This does not correspond, however, with the version of the psalmist, who says: "He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power. He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore."[ 20 ]

About the fact that the wind "brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction," Adam Clarke observes: "[Two cubits high upon the face of the earth.] We may consider the quails as flying within two cubits of the ground; so that the Israelites could easily take as many of them as they wished, while flying within the reach of their hands or their clubs. The common notion is, that the quails were brought round about the camp, and fell there in such multitudes as to lie two feet thick upon the ground; but the Hebrew will not bear this version. The Vulgate has expressed the sense, …. 'And they flew in the air, two cubits high above the ground.' "

The International Standard Bible Encylopaedia says about the quail: A game bird of the family Coturnix, closely related to "partridges"…. Quail and partridges are near relatives, the partridge a little larger and of brighter color. Quail are like the gray, brown and tan of earth. Their plumage is cut and penciled by markings, and their flesh juicy and delicate food. Their habits are very similar. They nest on the ground and brood on from 12 to 20 eggs. The quail are more friendly birds and live in the open, brooding along roads and around fields. They have a longer, fuller wing than the partridge and can make stronger flight. In Palestine they were migratory."

Vs. 32 tells us: "All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp." Not only did every person gather an unbelievable amount of meat, (not less than ten homers), but they also put the meat out to dry, evidently, because they did not believe the word of the Lord that they would eat quail for one whole month. One homer, according to The New Unger's Bible Dictionary, "was originally a donkey load and hence a measure of like capacity." In modern measurements this would amount to about 393 kilo, or 864.6 pounds. So, in their greed, each person stored up ten homer, or almost 4000 kilo of meat, over 8000 pounds, enough for more than ten years, if one eats about two pounds of meat a day. This gives us an impression of the mentality of the people, and how much faith they demonstrated in God's provision for their sustenance. This little calculation makes us better understand why the wrath of God burned against the people, "while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed." God looked down from heaven upon the people He had delivered miraculously from Egypt, which He had made from a herd of slaves into a nation of free men, and which He lead through the wilderness to their new home, providing for them in a supernatural way, and they behaved worse than pigs. These were the sons He was leading to glory!

What kind of plague struck the people is not told in these verses; the most likely conjecture is that it was the result of overeating. As we read in the above quote from The International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, "the flesh of quail is juicy and delicate." To be served some of the finest kinds of meats in a desert, after more than a year of a mostly vegetarian diet, was probably more than most people could manage. The plague could very well have been the reaction of the body to a too rapid and too copious consumption of high grade meat. The mention that "the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed," does not necessarily mean that the people did not get to eat or digest any of the meat. The fact that the plague hit "the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel," as the psalmist says,[ 21 ] would suggest that those who had complained the hardest were hit most. It was not a matter of starved people killing themselves by eating too much too soon, but of greedy people killing themselves by indulging beyond satisfying their normal appetite. How many people died, we are not told. But the Israelites left a sad monument behind at the place where they got what they wanted. "The place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food." Kibroth Hattaavah means the graves of greediness. This first place of encampment, after the departure of the people from Mount Sinai, after the conclusion of the Festival of the Lord, could have been a place of rich blessing, instead of a graveyard.

"From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there." Hazeroth means "enclosures." Whether this means and "ancient stone enclosures erected by wandering tribes for their herds and flocks, " as The Pulpit Commentary suggest, or a place where the people withdrew themselves spiritually from fellowship with God, cannot be determined. From this point on, however, the victory of this great nation is gone, not to return until the next generation is ready to enter the promised land.

[ 1 ] I Thes. 5:18

[ 2 ] James 1:2,3

[ 3 ] Rom. 14:17

[ 4 ] I Cor. 6:13

[ 5 ] I Cor. 8:8

[ 6 ] Deut. 8:3

[ 7 ] I Tim 4:3-5

[ 8 ] Ex. 12:38

[ 9 ] Lev. 24:10

[ 10 ] Ps. 106:15 (KJV)

[ 11 ] James 4:1-3

[ 12 ] See Ex. 3, 4

[ 13 ] Ex. 18:21-23

[ 14 ] Ex. 24:9

[ 15 ] See Ex. 19:10, 15

[ 16 ] Ps. 106:15 (KJV)

[ 17 ] Prov.10:22

[ 18 ] Eccl.3:13; 5:19

[ 19 ] Insertion is mine

[ 20 ] Ps. 78:26-27

[ 21 ] Ps. 78:31