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Numbers 11
In the mean time there arose a murmuring of the people
against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue.
And when the Lord heard it he was angry. And the fire
of the Lord being kindled against them, devoured them
that were at the uttermost part of the camp.
And when the people cried to Moses, Moses prayed to
the Lord, and the fire was swallowed up.
And he called the name of that place, The burning: for
that the fire of the Lord had been kindled against them.
For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them,
burned with desire, sitting and weeping, the children
of Israel also being joined with them, and said: Who
shall give us flesh to eat?
We remember the Ash that we ate in Egypt free cost:
the cucumbers come into our mind, and the melons, and
the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.
Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.
A Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour
of bdellium.
And the people went about, and gathering it, ground
it in a mill, or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it
in a pot, and made cakes thereof of the taste of bread
tempered with oil.
and when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the
manna also fell with it.
Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families,
every one at the door of his tent. And the wrath of
the Lord was exceedingly enkindled: to Moses also the
thing seemed insupportable.
And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy
servant? wherefore do I not find favour before thee?
and why hast thou laid the weight of all this people
upon me ?
Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them,
that thou shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom
as the nurse is wont to carry the little infant, and
bear them into the land, for which thou hast sworn to
their fathers?
Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude?
they weep against me, saying: Give us flesh that we
may eat.
I am not able alone to bear all this people, because
it is too heavy for me.
But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to
kill me, and let me find grace in thy eyes, that I be
not afflicted with so great evils.
And the Lord said to Moses: Gather unto me seventy men
of the ancients of Israel, whom thou knowest to be ancients
and masters of the people: and thou shalt bring them
to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and shalt
make them stand there with thee,
That I may come down and speak with thee: and I will
take of thy spirit, and will give to them, that they
may bear with thee the burden of the people, and thou
mayest not be burthened alone.
And thou shalt say to the people: Be ye sanctified :
to morrow you shall eat flesh: for I have heard you
say: Who will give us flesh to eat? it was well with
us in Egypt. That the Lord may give you flesh, and you
may eat:
Not for one day, nor two, nor five, nor ten, no nor
for twenty.
But even for a month of days, till it come out at your
nostrils, and become loathsome to you, because you have
cast off the Lord, who is in the midst of you, and have
wept before him, saying: Why came we out of Egypt?
And Moses said: There are six hundred thousand footmen
of this people, and sayest thou: I will give them flesh
to eat a whole month?
Shall then a multitude of sheep and oxen be killed,
that it may suffice for their food? or shall the fishes
of the sea be gathered together to fill them?
And the Lord answered him: Is the hand of the Lord unable?
Thou shalt presently see whether my word shall come
to pass or no.
Moses therefore came, and told the people the words
of the Lord, and assembled seventy men of the ancients
of Israel, and made them to stand about the tabernacle.
And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him,
taking away of the spirit that was in Moses, and giving
to the seventy men. And when the spirit had rested on
them they prophesied, nor did they cease afterwards.
Now there remained in the camp two of the men, of whom
one was called Eldad, and the other Medad, upon whom
the spirit rested; for they also had been enrolled,
but were not gone forth to the tabernacle.
And when they prophesied in the camp, there ran a young
man, and told Moses, saying: Eldad and Medad prophesy
in the camp.
Forthwith Josue the son of Nun, the minister of Moses,
and chosen out of many, said: My lord Moses forbid them.
But he said: Why hast thou emulation for me? O that
all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would
give them his spirit!
And Moses returned, with the ancients of Israel, into
the camp.
And a wind going out from the Lord, taking quails up
beyond the sea brought them, and cast them into the
camp for the space of one day's journey, on every side
of the camp round about, and they flew in the air two
cubits high above the ground.
The people therefore rising up all that day, and night,
and the next day, gathered together of quails, he that
did least, ten cores: and they dried them round about
the camp.
As yet the flesh was between their teeth, neither had
that kind of meat failed: when behold the wrath of the
Lord being provoked against the people, struck them
with an exceeding great plague.
And that place was called, The graves of lust: for there
they buried the people that had lusted. And departing
from the graves of lust, they came unto Haseroth, and
abode there. |
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