1When the people complained, it displeased the LORD. The LORD heard it, and his anger was kindled. The fire of the LORD burned among them, and burned up those who were in the farthest parts of the camp.
2The people cried out to Moses. When Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire died down.
3He called the name of that place Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.
4The mixed crowd among them began to crave other food. The children of Israel also wept again, and said, "Who will give us meat to eat?"
5"We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for nothing, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic."
6"But now our soul is dried up. There is nothing at all before our eyes but this manna."
7The manna was like coriander seed, and its colour was like the colour of bdellium.
8The people went about and gathered it. They ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, 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 with it.
10Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent. The anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased too.
11Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? Why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?"
12"Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your arms, as a nursing father carries a baby at the breast, to the land you promised with an oath to their fathers'?"
13"Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep to me, saying, 'Give us meat, so that we may eat.'"
14"I am not able to carry all this people alone. It is too heavy for me."
15"If you deal with me like this, then kill me at once, I beg you, if I have found favour in your sight. Do not let me see my own misery."
16The LORD said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, men you know to be elders of the people and officers over them. Bring them to the tabernacle of the congregation, so that they may stand there with you."
17"I will come down and talk with you there. I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will carry the burden of the people with you, so that you do not carry it alone."
18"And say to the people, 'Make yourselves holy 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? It was good for us in Egypt. So the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat."
19"'You will not eat for one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,"
20"'but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and you are sick of it. For you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why did we ever come out of Egypt?'"
21Moses said, "The people I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot, and you have said, 'I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.'"
22"Shall the flocks and the herds be killed for them, to be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be enough for them?"
23The LORD said to Moses, "Has the LORD's hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will come true for you or not."
24Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. He gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and set them all around the tabernacle.
25The LORD came down in a cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit that was on him and gave it to the seventy elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, and did not stop.
26But two of the men stayed in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. The spirit rested on them. They were among those who were written down, but they had not gone out to the tabernacle. They prophesied in the camp.
27A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."
28Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, "My lord Moses, stop them."
29Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them."
30Then Moses went back into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
31A wind went out from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea. It let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits high above the face of the earth.
32The people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. The one who gathered least gathered ten homers. They spread them out all around the camp.
33While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.
34He called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved meat.
35The people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah to Hazeroth, and stayed at Hazeroth.