TRV
The Demand for Meat and Moses’ Despair
Numbers 11:4-15
4
Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?
5
We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
6
But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”
7
Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.
8
The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.
9
When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.
10
Then Moses heard the people of family after family weeping at the entrances to their tents, and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was also displeased.
11
So Moses asked the LORD, “Why have You brought this trouble on Your servant? Why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid upon me the burden of all these people?
12
Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth, so that You should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers?
13
Where can I get meat for all these people? For they keep crying out to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’
14
I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me.
15
If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”
Settings