Bible Commentaries

And the mixt ^a multitude that [was] among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

(a) Which were of those strangers that came out of Egypt with them, (Exodus 12:38).

We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt ^c freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:

(c) For a final price, or good cheap.

But now our soul [is] ^d dried away: [there is] nothing at all, beside this manna, [before] our eyes.

(d) For the greedy lust of flesh.

And the manna [was] as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of ^e bdellium.

(e) Which is a white pearl, or precious stone.

And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found ^f favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?

(f) Or, how have I displeased you?

Have I ^g conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the ^h land which thou swarest unto their fathers?

(g) Am I their father, that no one may have charge of them but I?

(h) Of Canaan promised by another to our fathers.

And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy ⁱ sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

(i) I would rather die than see my grief and misery daily increased by their rebellion.

And I will come down and talk with thee there: ^k and I will take of the spirit which [is] upon thee, and will put [it] upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear [it] not thyself alone.

(k) I will distribute my spirit among them, as I have done to you.

And say thou unto the people, ^l Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for [it was] well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.

(l) Prepare yourselves that you may be clean.

[But] even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have ^m despised the LORD which [is] ⁿ among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?

(m) Or, cast him off, because you refused manna, which he appointed as most suitable for you.

(n) Who leads and governs you.

And Moses said, The people, ^o among whom I [am], [are] six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.

(o) Of whom I have charge.

And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that [was] upon him, and gave [it] unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, [that], when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not ^p cease.

(p) From that day the spirit of prophecy did not settle them.

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, [one] of his ^q young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, ^r forbid them.

(q) Or, a young man whom he had chosen from his youth.

(r) Such blind zeal was in the apostles, (Mark 9:38) ; (Luke 9:44).

And the people stood up all that day, and all [that] night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten ^s homers: and they spread [them] all abroad for themselves round about the camp.

(s) Of Homer, read (Leviticus 27:16) also it signifies a heap, as in (Exodus 8:14) ; (Judges 15:16).