Numbers 11:1-34 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:1-3

Here is, I. The people's sin. They complained, Num. 11:1. They were, as it were, complainers. So it is in the margin. There were some secret grudgings and discontents among them, which as yet did not break out in an open mutiny. But how great a matter did this little fire kindle! They had received from God excellent laws and ordinances, and yet no sooner had they departed from the mount of the Lord than they began to quarrel with God himself. See in this, 1. The sinfulness of sin, which takes... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:4-15

These verses represent things sadly unhinged and out of order in Israel, both the people and the prince uneasy. I. Here is the people fretting, and speaking against God himself (as it is interpreted, Ps. 78:19), notwithstanding his glorious appearances both to them and for them. Observe, 1. Who were the criminals. (1.) The mixed multitude began, they fell a lusting, Num. 11:4. The rabble that came with them out of Egypt, expecting only the land of promise, but not a state of probation in the... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:16-23

We have here God's gracious answer to both the foregoing complaints, wherein his goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious. I. Provision is made for the redress of the grievances Moses complains of. If he find the weight of government lie too heavy upon him, though he was a little too passionate in his remonstrance, yet he shall be eased, not by being discarded from the government himself, as he justly might have been if God had been extreme to mark what... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:24-30

We have here the performance of God's word to Moses, that he should have help in the government of Israel. I. Here is the case of the seventy privy-counsellors in general. Moses, though a little disturbed by the tumult of the people, yet was thoroughly composed by the communion he had with God, and soon came to himself again. And according as the matter was concerted, 1. He did his part; he presented the seventy elders before the Lord, round the tabernacle (Num. 11:24), that they might there... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:31-35

God, having performed his promise to Moses by giving him assessors in the government, thereby proving the power he has over the spirits of men by his Spirit, he here performs his promise to the people by giving them flesh, proving thereby his power over the inferior creatures and his dominion in the kingdom of nature. Observe, 1. How the people were gratified with flesh in abundance: A wind (a south-east wind, as appears, Ps. 78:26) brought quails, Num. 11:31. It is uncertain what sort of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:1

And when the people complained ,.... Or "were as complainers" F16 ×›×ž×ª×× × ×™× "ut conquerentes injuste", Montanus, Fagius, Vatablus; "ut qui vaba moliuntur", Drusius. ; not merely like to such, but were truly and really complainers, the ×› , "caph", here being not a note of similitude, but of truth and reality, as in Hosea 5:10 . This Hebraism is frequent in the New Testament, Matthew 14:5 . What they complained of is not said, it being that for which there was no... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:2

And the people cried unto Moses ,.... And entreated him to pray for them, being frightened at the fire which consumed many of them, lest it should spread and become general among them: and when Moses prayed unto the Lord ; as he did, in which he was a type of Christ, the mediator between God and man, the advocate of his people, an intercessor for transgressors: the fire was quenched ; it stopped and proceeded no further; as through Christ's mediation God is pacified with his people... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:3

And he called the name of the place Taberah ,.... That is, "burning": Moses called it so; or it may be rendered impersonally, it was called F19 ויקרא "et vocatum est", Tigurine version, Fagius, Piscator. so in later times by the people: because the fire of the Lord burnt among them ; to perpetuate the, memory of this kind of punishment for their sins, that it might be a terror and warning to others; and this history is indeed recorded for our caution in these last days, that we... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:4

And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting ,.... These came out of Egypt with them, Exodus 12:38 ; having either contracted affinity with them, or such intimacy of conversation, that they could not part, or being proselyted to the Jewish religion, at least in pretence; these were not only Egyptians, but a mixture of divers people, who having heard or seen the wonderful things done for Israel, joined them in hopes of sharing the blessings of divine goodness with them; so... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:5

We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely ,.... Fish was food the Egyptians much lived upon; for though Herodotus says the priests might not taste of fish, the common people ate much; yea, he himself says that some lived upon nothing else but fish gutted and dried in the sun; and he observes, that the kings of Egypt had a great revenue from hence F23 Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 37,92,149. ; the river Nile, as Diodorus Siculus F24 Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 32. says, abounded... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:1-3

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:4-15

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:16-23

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:24-30

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 11:31-35

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:1

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:2

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:4

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:5

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