14aI am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me.
15 If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now—if I have found favor in Your sight—and ado not let me see my wretchedness!”
The Seventy Elders
16 So the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me aseventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and bofficers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you.
17 Then I will come down and talk with you there. aI will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put thesame upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.
18 Then you shall say to the people,1 ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept ain the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For itwas well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.
19 You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,
20abut for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have bdespised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, c“Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” ’ ”
21 And Moses said, a“The people whom I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’
22aShall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?”
23 And the Lord said to Moses, a“Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether bwhat I say will happen to you or not.”
24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he agathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle.
25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed thesame upon the seventy elders; and it happened, awhen the Spirit rested upon them, that bthey prophesied, although they never did so again.
26 But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who ahad not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp.
27 And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
NUMBERS. This book is so called because it contains an account of the enumeration and arrangement of the Israelites. The early part of it, from the first through the tenth chapters, appears to be a supplement to Leviticus, being occupied with relating the appointment of the Levites to the sacred offices. The journal of the march through the wilderness is then given as far as Numbers 21:20; after which the early incidents of the invasion are narrated. One direct quotation only from this book (Numbers 16:5) is made in the New Testament (II Timothy 2:19); but indirect references to it by the later sacred writers are very numerous.
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