Numbers 11:4-5

Complaints about Food

11:4 ¹ Now the mixed multitude ²  who were among them craved more desirable foods, ³  and so the Israelites wept again ⁴  and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ⁵  11:5 We remember ⁶  the fish we used to eat ⁷  freely ⁸  in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

Numbers 11:2

11:2 When the people cried to Moses, he ⁹  prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. ¹⁰ 

Numbers 23:15-16

23:15 And Balaam ¹¹  said to Balak, “Station yourself here ¹²  by your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord there. 23:16 Then the Lord met Balaam and put a message ¹³  in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.”

Psalms 143:6

143:6 I spread my hands out to you in prayer; ¹⁴ 

my soul thirsts for you in a parched ¹⁵  land. ¹⁶ 

[11:4]  ¹ sn The story of the sending of the quail is a good example of poetic justice, or talionic justice. God had provided for the people, but even in that provision they were not satisfied, for they remembered other foods they had in Egypt. No doubt there was not the variety of foods in the Sinai that might have been available in Egypt, but their life had been bitter bondage there as well. They had cried to the Lord for salvation, but now they forget, as they remember things they used to have. God will give them what they crave, but it will not do for them what they desire. For more information on this story, see B. J. Malina, The Palestinian Manna Tradition. For the attempt to explain manna and the other foods by natural phenomena, see F. W. Bodenheimer, “The Manna of Sinai,” BA 10 (1947): 1-6.

[11:4]  ² tn The mixed multitude (or “rabble,” so NASB, NIV, NRSV; NLT “foreign rabble”) is the translation of an unusual word, הֲָאסַפְסֻף (ha’safsuf). It occurs in the Hebrew Bible only here. It may mean “a gathering of people” from the verb אָסַף (’asaf), yielding the idea of a mixed multitude (in line with Exod 12:38). But the root is different, and so no clear connection can be established. Many commentators therefore think the word is stronger, showing contempt through a word that would be equivalent to “riff-raff.”

[11:4]  ³ tn The Hebrew simply uses the cognate accusative, saying “they craved a craving” (הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה, hit’avvu ta’vah), but the context shows that they had this strong craving for food. The verb describes a strong desire, which is not always negative (Ps 132:13-14). But the word is a significant one in the Torah; it was used in the garden story for Eve’s desire for the tree, and it is used in the Decalogue in the warning against coveting (Deut 5:21).

[11:4]  ⁴ tc The Greek and the Latin versions read “and they sat down” for “and they returned,” involving just a change in vocalization (which they did not have). This may reflect the same expression in Judg 20:26. But the change does not improve this verse.

[11:4]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew expresses the strong wish or longing idiomatically: “Who will give us flesh to eat?” It is a rhetorical expression not intended to be taken literally, but merely to give expression to the longing they had. See GKC 476 §151.a.1.

[11:5]  ⁶ tn The perfect tense here expresses the experience of a state of mind.

[11:5]  ⁷ tn The imperfect tense would here be the customary imperfect, showing continual or incomplete action in past time.

[11:5]  ⁸ tn The adverb “freely” is from the word חָנַן (khanan, “to be gracious”), from which is derived the noun “grace.” The word underscores the idea of “free, without cost, for no reason, gratis.” Here the simple sense is “freely,” without any cost. But there may be more significance in the choice of the words in this passage, showing the ingratitude of the Israelites to God for His deliverance from bondage. To them now the bondage is preferable to the salvation – this is what angered the Lord.

[11:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “Moses.”

[11:2]  ¹⁰ sn Here is the pattern that will become in the wilderness experience so common – the complaining turns to a cry to Moses, which is then interpreted as a prayer to the Lord, and there is healing. The sequence presents a symbolic lesson, an illustration of the intercession of the Holy Spirit. The NT will say that in times of suffering Christians do not know how to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for them, changing their cries into the proper prayers (Rom 8).

[23:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:15]  ¹² tn The verse uses כֹּה (koh) twice: “Station yourself here…I will meet [the Lord] there.”

[23:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “word.”

[143:6]  ¹⁴ tn The words “in prayer” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the psalmist is referring to a posture of prayer.

[143:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” See Ps 63:1.

[143:6]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “my soul like a faint land for you.” A verb (perhaps “thirsts”) is implied (see Ps 63:1). The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition -כְּ (kÿ, “like”) to -בְּ (bÿ, “in,” see Ps 63:1; cf. NEB “athirst for thee in a thirsty land”). If the MT is retained, one might translate, “my soul thirsts for you, as a parched land does for water/rain” (cf. NIV, NRSV).