Numbers 11

Verse 1. Fatigue. Hebrew simply, “and the people were like those who complain of evil, or who seek pretexts, inwardly, in the ears of the Lord.” S. Jerom explains this evil to mean the fatigue of the journey, which lasted for three days together. Calmet.—Hence, some who were ready to lay hold of every pretext, took occasion to murmur, and to contrast their present wearisome life with the false pleasures of Egypt. The people of that country were now desirous of returning, and prevailed upon many of the Hebrews to join with them, verse 4. Bible.—They were chiefly those who were farthest from the ark, the dregs of the people; though some pretend that the uttermost part means the principal men of the camp. See Genesis 48:2. “The fire devoured one part of the camp.” Sept.

Verse 2. Up, as rain is by the earth. Amos 9:5.

Verse 3. The burning. Hebrew tabherah. Challoner.—Calmet uses no reason for confounding this station with that mentioned, verse 34.

Taberah means “burning”

Verse 4. For, seems, however, to connect the burning of some with the destruction of many more, who had eaten the quails, as if both judgments took place at the same encampment. Septuagint render the Hebrew “and a mixt rabble among them, desired greatly; and sitting, cried, as well as the Israelites, and said,” and so forth Bible.—A mixt multitude. These were people that came with them out of Egypt, who were not of the race of Israel: who, by their murmuring, drew also the children of Israel to murmur: this should teach us the danger of associating ourselves with the children of Egypt; that is, with the lovers and admirers of this wicked world. Challoner.—This verse may relate a different history from the preceding ones, as the punishment was of another kind. D.—The murmurers were burnt to death. Bible.

Verse 5. Fish. The Nile abounds in fish, which they might catch freely. The fish of the lake Mœris, brought a considerable revenue to the king of Egypt. Herod. ii. 149. The Hebrews had dwelt also near the Mediterranean Sea. Fish was formerly in greater esteem than it is at present. The priests of Egypt abstained from it, (Herod. ii. 37,) and the people from such as had scales, and from eels, because they believed they were sacred. (ib. Calmet. lxxii.). Porphyrius and Ovid even maintain that they refrained from all fish, as well as the Syrians. But they had not probably carried their superstition so far, in the days of Moses.—Garlic. These things are much more delicious and wholesome in hot countries. The Greeks fed much on cucumbers and garlic. Aristophanes.—The Turks still delight in them, eating the former raw with sour milk, (which would be very dangerous in our climate), and onions, which are as good as our pears. Spon. Bellon. iii. 18, and so forth The wounded Machaon feasts upon onions, and so forth Iliad ix. The Egyptians afterwards scrupled to eat leeks and onions. Calmet.—Porrum & cepe nefas violare … O sanctas gentes! quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis—Numina. Juven. Sat. xv. But in the earlier ages Moses represents them as accustomed to such food. Bible.

Verse 6. Dry, like people quite worn out for want of food. Psalms 101:5. 12. Lamen. 4:8.—Nothing. An exaggeration. We are disgusted with this light food. Calmet.—They wished not only for the taste, but also for the colour, of other meats. Menochius.—How often do we imitate their folly, when we are disgusted with the bread of life! Bible.

Verse 7. Bdellium. Bdellium, according to Pliny, (l. xxi. chapter 9,) was of the colour of a man’s nail, white and bright; ( Challoner.) or like wax, (B. xii. 9,) between white and yellow. It might resemble a tarnished pearl or ivory in colour, and coriander-seed in shape.

Bdellium is a resin extracted from certain African trees.

Verse 8. Oil; or, when unprepared, like flour and honey. Exodus 16:31. Calmet.

Verse 10. By. Hebrew “for.” Jonathan and others endeavour to excuse their ancestors, by saying that they wept because they were forbidden to marry their near relations.—His tent. Some explain the Hebrew of the tent of Moses. But the Israelites more probably staid at home.

Verse 12. Nurse. We often read of men nursing or watching over others. 4 Kennicott. 10:5. Esther 2:11. Thus kings shall nurse the Church. Isaiah 49:23. Calmet.—All who have authority should treat their subjects with love. Menochius.

Verse 14. For me. Had he not the judges, whom Jethro advised him to appoint? But all matters of consequence were still brought to Moses. He was made answerable for all things.

Verse 15. Evils. Hebrew “my misfortune.” The Rabbins say their, or thy, was formerly written, but corrected by the scribes. Calmet.—Moses fears the anger of God falling upon the people. Bible.—It is very wonderful that the Hebrew text here retains the feminine pronoun att, instead of atta; thy, thee; as if Moses were addressing himself to some woman; and this absurd peculiarity is more absurdly accounted for, by saying that Moses was “so exasperated during this his address to the divine Being, as to be incapable of pronouncing both syllables!” The same mistake occurs, 1 Kennicott. 24:19. Kennicott i. 412. God does not reprehend Moses as guilty of any disrespect or pusillanimity. Bible.—The holy man prays with due submission to the will of the most High. Worthington.

Verse 16. Seventy men. This was the first institution of the council or senate, called the Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy, or seventy-two senators or counselors. Challoner.—Calmet calls this in question. Dissert. on the Police, and so forth Moses chose these senators from among the officers, whom he had before set over the people, (Exodus 18) or from those who had superintended their affairs in Egypt, according to the Rabbins, (Exodus 3:14,) who say that the traditions explaining the law were entrusted to them. Jarchi, and so forth—Ancients; a title of authority in the East. See Genesis 50:7. It was not so necessary that they should be far advanced in year, as that they should be men of prudence and of consummate virtue. These qualifications received a great increase, when they were filled with the spirit of God. Calmet.—They were thus authorized to decide controversies peremptorily, and to consult God, like Moses, being endued also with a prophetic spirit. Menochius.

Verse 17. Thy spirit. Saint Augustine (q. 18) reads “of the spirit which is on thee;” (Sept.) referring it to the indivisible spirit of God, so that these ancients received what was sufficient for them, while Moses suffered no diminution. Thus one lamp communicates light to another, without being impaired. Orig. hom. 6. Theodoret (q. 18,) also adds, that a person confers baptism on thousands, and yet loses no part of the grace himself. Selden (Syn. ii. 4,) shews that the Jews explain this spirit of a certain emanation of divine light, or inspiration, which causes the prophets to speak. They have not in general, a distinct belief of the blessed Trinity. “I will make an increase of the spirit, which is upon thee, and will place it upon them.” Chal. verse 25.

Verse 18. Sanctified. Prepare yourselves to receive flesh. The word is often used in this sense. Jeremiah 6:4, and so forth Onkelos.—Cease to murmur, and bewail your sin. Calmet.

Verse 20. Of days complete. So two years of days, means two full years. 1 Maccabees 1:30.—Loathsome to you. “Indigestible” Sym. “Bilious.” Septuagint “Till it become loathsome to you, and a source of scandal, (Chal.) or of dispersion, as some translate the Heb.

Verse 21. People, able to bear arms. Bible.—In all there were above two millions. Calmet.

Verse 22. Fishes. Moses does not distinguish them from flesh, no more than Saint Paul does 1 Corinthians 15:39. Fish was not formerly allowed on fasting days. Calmet.

Verse 23. Unable: Hebrew “shortened.” Septuagint “insufficient.” Moses had expresed his astonishment, not his doubts; though the words might convey the latter idea to us more than his behaviour in Calmet. 20:10. But God sees the heart.—To pass. Hebrew may be also, “hath called thee;” ( Calmet.) Septuagint “shall come upon thee,” and execute the thing, as soon as thou shalt promise it. Bible.

Verse 25. Afterwards. Some give a contrary meaning to the Heb., with the Sept., Syr., and so forth: “They prophesied, (on that occasion) but they did not continue” to do so; except when they were favoured with the influence of the spirit. When it was requisite, they were enabled to declare God’s will and his praise to the people. Calmet.—Saul is said to have prophesied when he praised God, 1 Kennicott. 10:5. 10. Menochius.

Verse 26. Forth, being lawfully hindered, ( Calmet.) or out of humility. Saint Jerome ep. 127.

Verse 27. Man. The Rabbins say, without proof, that he was Gersom, the son of Moses, and that the two prophets were half-brothers of the lawgiver, and foretold his death and the persecutions of Gog, and so forth Calmet.—Hermas (11. 2.) refers to some of their predictions: “The Lord is nigh to those who are converts.” See Psalms 33:19. Bible.—But they prophesied probably, by announcing only, as men inspired, the praises of God and sentiments of piety, without diving into futurity. Calmet.—Theodoret (q. 21) thinks they were not of the 70 judges, but equal in dignity to them. Cotelier.

Verse 28. Chosen among the seventy, and designed, from his youth, to be the general, and successor of Moses; the Hebrew may be understood in all these senses. See Exodus 17:10. Calmet.—Josue was afraid lest they had assumed this air of authority in opposition to Moses. Saint John addressed our Saviour, under the same impressions of zeal, Luc. 9:49.

Verse 30. Camp of the people, from the tabernacle, which was in the midst of it. Bible.

Verse 31. Sea; the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The wind blew from the south-west to the west with respect to Moses, or from the south with respect to Jerusalem. Ps 77:26. Many quails are found about Rinocorura, and some have imagined that these had continued during winter at the bottom of the waters, as they say swallows do. Bochart i. 15. God had sent the Hebrews a similar provision for one day, about the same season of the year. Exodus 16:13.—Flew. The Hebrew says simply, “as it were two cubits upon the earth;” whether they were heaped one upon the other to that height, or, as it is more probable, ( C). they flew only so much above the ground, an might easily be killed. Bible.—The Septuagint call them ortygometra, the leader, or the largest sort of quails. Suppose twenty of them filled a bushel, or the thirtieth part of a corus, each person would have at least 6,000 quails; and if there were three million people, they must have had 18,000 million such birds. Menochius.—Philo takes notice, that the Jews were very fond of this food; and Aristotle (Anim. viii. 12,) says, their flesh is as good as that of woodcocks. Tirinus.

A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.

Verse 32. Cores. Hebrew “Chomarim,” each of contained 100 gomers. One gomer was the daily allowance of manna for each person, and of course their must have been sufficient quails for one hundred days. But Moses tells us that each one collected at least ten times that quantity, or as much has he could eat for 1,000 days. Bochart therefore supposes, that only each family, of ten people, gathered so much: or the Hebrew should be rendered heaps, as the core, or chomer, is not a proper measure for birds, but for corn and liquors. The Septuagint Syr. and so forth have “heaps.” We need not have recourse to a new creation of these birds, as their numbers are very surprising. Plin. x. 23. In Italy above 100,000 have been caught in one day, within the space of 5,000 paces. Blond. The Psalmist compares the number brought on this occasion, to the dust, or to the sand of the sea-shore. Ps 77:27.—Dried them in the sun, having first salted them, as the Egyptians did. Calmet. Athenæus.—Many quails are found in Egypt, and around the Arabian Gulf. Josep. iii. D.

1 homer is about 220 liters or 6 bushels

Verse 33. Plague of fire, verse 3, Ps 77:21. Calmet. a Lapide.—Failed, after the month was expired. Menochius.—They had been accustomed to live upon manna, which was a light food, during the space of a year; and now eating greedily of this flesh, their stomachs were overcharged, and they died of an indigestion. Calmet.—The Rabbins say, God punished their gluttony by death, and obliged the rest of the Hebrews to abstain from all flesh, except from that of the peace-offerings, till they entered the promised land. Seld. Syn. ii. 4.

Verse 34. The graves of lust; or the sepulchres of concupiscence: so called from their irregular desire of flesh. In Hebrew Kibroth Hattaavah. Challoner.—Hence Saint Augustine observes that, “it is not a matter of so much moment to be heard by God. For some he hears in his wrath, granting their requests, while he refuses to comply with some petitions of his friends.” D.

Kibroth Hattaavah means “graves of lust”