Numbers 11:24

And Moses went out,.... Either out of his own tent, about which the people assembled, complaining and weeping, Numbers 11:10; or rather, as Aben Ezra, out of the tabernacle of the congregation, and

And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.

Moses went out of the tabernacle, into which he entered to receive God’ s answers from the mercy-seat, . The seventy men, either they are called seventy from the stated number, though two of them were lacking, , as the apostles are called the twelve, , when one of that number was absent; or he is said to have gathered them, when he gave command to gather them. Round about the tabernacle; partly, that the awe of God might be imprinted upon their hearts, that they might more seriously undertake and more faithfully manage their high employment; partly, to gain them the more authority and respect from the people; and principally, because that was the place where God manifested himself, and gave his blessings, and therefore there he would bestow his Spirit upon them.

Numbers 11:24 And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.Ver. 24. And set them roundabout the tabernacle.] That the fear of the Lord might be upon them, &c., and that they might carry themselves worthy of God, who had set them in places of judicature. To the company of the Areopagites (judges in Athens) none were admitted, but wise, wealthy, and noble men, famous for good life and innoceney. Nay, men whose behaviour was intolerable, after they were chosen into the college of the Areopagites, abhorring and blushing at their former disposition, changed their natures and embraced virtue. δκνουντεςτηφυσειχρησθαι.

(24) And Moses went out . . . —i.e., as it should seem, from the tabernacle of the congregation, where he had been conversing with God. Round about the tabernacle.—This does not necessarily imply that the seventy men were placed so that they surrounded the whole of the tent of meeting. Comp. Exodus 7:24, where the word means on both sides of the river; also Job 29:5, where the same word is rendered about.

4–34. (I) The Manna and Quails. J . (II) The burden of the people too heavy for Moses. J . (III) The Spirit of ecstasy upon the elders. E . These verses should be studied in the following order: (I) Numbers 11:4-10; Numbers 11:13; Numbers 11:18-24 a (to ‘the words of the Lord’), 31–34. (II) Numbers 11:11-12; Numbers 11:14-15. (III) Numbers 11:16-17 a, 24b–30. It will be seen that the narratives (II) and (III) have no real connexion with (I). In the process of compilation two sentences were lost. The words ‘And Moses said unto Jehovah’ in Numbers 11:11 a are required for both narratives, and must be added for (I) at the beginning of Num 11:13. Similarly Numbers 11:18 (as Numbers 11:16) must begin ‘And Jehovah said unto Moses, say thou &c.’ If this is done, two distinct narratives emerge, and a fragment of a third: (I) The people being weary of manna murmured for flesh. Jehovah was angry and warned them that they would loathe the flesh when it came. Moses was incredulous that such a miracle could be performed. But a wind brought a mass of quails, and a plague was the result. (II) Moses found the care and guidance of the people a burden too heavy to bear, and prayed that he might die. (III) Jehovah took some of Moses’ spirit and put it upon seventy elders, so that they were filled with prophetic frenzy, including two who were not with the others in front of the Tent. Joshua wished Moses to forbid them, but he refused. (I) Numbers 11:4-10; Numbers 11:13; Numbers 11:18-24 a, 31–34. Manna and Quails. In Exodus 16 there is a more complete narrative of the manna, from P , where Numbers 11:35 (‘they did eat the manna … until they came into the borders of the land of Canaan’) shews that manna was not sent on two distinct occasions, but that the two narratives are parallel accounts. In the present chapter the sending of the manna is not related (see on Numbers 11:6). But it must not be concluded from this that our narrative is the sequel to that in Exodus 16; for (I) a description of the manna is given, as though it were a new phenomenon, in Numbers 11:7-9 as well as in Exodus 16:14; Exodus 16:31, and there are considerable differences in the two accounts; and (2) the laying of the pot of manna ‘before the Testimony’ (Exodus 16:34) shews that that narrative belongs to a time after the Testimony (i.e. the Decalogue) was given at Sinai. Thus both in P and J it is related that manna was sent after the departure from the mountain. Moreover, while P has this very full parallel account of the manna, it also has fragmentary references to the quails embedded in it. See Exodus 16:8 a (‘in the evening flesh to eat’), 12 (‘at even ye shall eat flesh’), 13a (‘at even the quails came up and covered the camp’). (II) Numbers 11:11-12; Numbers 11:14-15.

THE SEVENTY ELDERS ARE AND , Numbers 11:24-30. 24. Moses… told the people — In order to quiet their murmurings, not to secure a popular election of the seventy. Moses was the sole judge of their fitness. See Numbers 11:16, note.