The Demand for Meat and Moses’ Despair

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Next, the mixed crowd that was with them grew greedy for an easier life; while the people of Isra'el, for their part, also renewed their weeping and said, "If only we had meat to eat!

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We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt - it cost us nothing! -and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic!

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But now we're withering away, we have nothing to look at but this man."

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The man, by the way, was like coriander seed and white like gum resin.

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The people would go around gathering it and would grind it up in mills or pound it to paste with mortar and pestle. Then they would cook it in pots and make it into loaves that tasted like cakes baked with olive oil.

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When the dew settled on the camp during the night, the man came with it.

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Moshe heard the people crying, family after family, each person at the entrance to his tent; the anger of ADONAI flared up violently; and Moshe too was displeased.

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Moshe asked ADONAI, "Why are you treating your servant so badly? Why haven't I found favor in your sight, so that you put the burden of this entire people on me?

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Did I conceive this people? Was I their father, so that you tell me, 'Carry them in your arms, like a nurse carrying a baby, to the land you swore to their ancestors?'

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Where am I going to get meat to give to this entire people? - because they keep bothering me with their crying and saying, 'Give us meat to eat!'

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I can't carry this entire people by myself alone - it's too much for me!

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If you are going to treat me this way, then just kill me outright! - please, if you have any mercy toward me! -and don't let me go on being this miserable!"

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