Numbers 11 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The people started complaining about their troubles. The Lord heard their complaints. The Lord heard these things and became angry. Fire from the Lord burned among the people. The fire burned some of the areas at the edge of the camp.

² So the people cried to Moses for help. Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire stopped burning.

³ So that place was called Taberah. [156] The people gave the place that name because the Lord caused a fire to burn in their camp.

⁴ The foreigners that had joined the people of Israel began wanting other things to eat. Soon all the people of Israel began complaining again. The people said, “We want to eat meat!

⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt. That fish cost us nothing. We also had good vegetables like cucumbers, melons, chives, onions, and garlic.

⁶ But now we have lost our strength. We never eat anything—only this manna!”

⁷ (The manna was like small coriander seeds, and it looked like gum from a tree.

⁸ The people gathered the manna. Then they used rocks to crush it and cooked it in a pot. Or they ground it into a flour and made thin cakes with it. The cakes tasted like sweet cakes cooked with olive oil.

⁹ The manna fell on the ground each night when the ground became wet with dew.)

¹⁰ Moses heard the people complaining. People from every family were sitting by their tents and complaining. The Lord became very angry, and this made Moses very upset.

¹¹ Moses asked the Lord, “Lord, why did you bring this trouble on me? I am your servant. What did I do wrong? What did I do to upset you? Why did you give me responsibility over all these people?

¹² You know that I am not the father of all these people. You know that I did not give birth to them. But I must take care of them, like a nurse carrying a baby in her arms. Why do you force me to do this? Why do you force me to carry them to the land that you promised to our fathers?

¹³ I don’t have enough meat for all these people! And they continue complaining to me. They say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

¹⁴ I cannot take care of all these people alone. The burden is too heavy for me.

¹⁵ If you plan to continue giving me their troubles, then kill me now. If you accept me as your servant, then let me die now. Then I will be finished with all my troubles!”

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Bring to me 70 of the elders of Israel. These men are the leaders among the people. Bring them to the Meeting Tent. [157] Let them stand there with you.

¹⁷ Then I will come down and speak with you there. The Spirit [158] is on you now. But I will also give some of that Spirit [159] to them. Then they will help you take care of the people. In this way, you will not have to be responsible for these people alone.

¹⁸ “Tell these things to the people: Make yourselves ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you cried. The Lord heard your words when you said, ‘We need meat to eat! It was better for us in Egypt!’ So now the Lord will give you meat. And you will eat it.

¹⁹ You will eat it for more than one, or two, or five, or ten, or even twenty days!

²⁰ You will eat that meat for a whole month. You will eat the meat until you are sick of it. This will happen to you because you complained against the Lord. The Lord lives among you and knows what you need. But you cried and complained to him! You said, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”

²¹ Moses said, “Lord, there are 600,000 men walking around here. And you say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month!’

²² If we were to kill all of the sheep and cattle, then that would still not be enough to feed this many people for a month. And if we caught all the fish in the sea, it would not be enough for them!”

²³ But the Lord said to Moses, “Don’t limit the power of the Lord! You will see that I can do the things I say I can do.”

²⁴ So Moses went out to speak with the people. Moses told them what the Lord said. Then Moses gathered 70 of the elders (leaders) together. Moses told them to stand around the Tent.

²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. The Spirit [160] was on Moses. The Lord put that same Spirit on the 70 elders (leaders). After the Spirit came down on them, they began to prophesy. [161] But that was the only time these men ever did this.

²⁶ Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, did not go out to the Tent. Their names were on the list of elders (leaders), but they stayed in camp. But the Spirit also came on them, and they began prophesying [162] in camp.

²⁷ A young man ran and told Moses. The man said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in camp.”

²⁸ Joshua son of Nun said to Moses, “Moses, sir, you must stop them!” (Joshua had been Moses’ helper since Joshua was a boy.)

²⁹ But Moses answered, “Are you afraid the people will think that I am not the leader now? I wish that all the Lord’s people were able to prophesy. I wish that the Lord would put his Spirit [163] on all of them!”

³⁰ Then Moses and the leaders of Israel went back to the camp.

³¹ Then the Lord made a powerful wind to blow in from the sea. The wind blew quail [164] into that area. The quail flew all around the camp. There were so many quail that the ground was covered. The quail were about three feet deep on the ground. There were quail in every direction as far as a man can walk in one day.

³² {The people went crazy!} They went out and gathered quail all that day and all that night. And they gathered quail all the next day too! The smallest amount any person gathered was 60 bushels. Then the people spread the quail meat all around the camp {to dry in the sun}.

³³ People began to eat the meat, but the Lord became very angry. While the meat was still in their mouth, before the people could finish eating it, the Lord caused the people to become very sick. {Many people died and were buried in that place.}

³⁴ So the people named that place Kibroth Hattaavah. [165] They gave the place that name because that is the place they buried the people who had the strong desire for meat.

³⁵ From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.