Numbers 11:24-30

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

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 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 the sanctuary where he had been conversing with God, about the affairs complained of both by the people and by himself; so the Targum of Jonathan says, he went out of the tabernacle, the house of the Shechinah or divine Majesty: and told the people of the words of the Lord ; what he had... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:25

And the Lord came down in a cloud ,.... In a cloud of glory, or a glorious one, as the Targums; either in the same that went before the people in the wilderness, or in one distinct from it, and only used on this occasion, as a visible token of the presence of God: and spake unto him ; to Moses, talked with him, as he said he would, Numbers 11:17 , and took of the Spirit which was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders ; See Gill on Numbers 11:17 , and it came to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:26

But there remained two of the men in the camp ,.... Of the seventy who were summoned, that came not out of the camp of Israel to the tabernacle when the rest did: the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad : who, according to the Targum of Jonathan, were brethren of Moses by his mother's side; for it says, they were the sons of Elizaphan the son of Parnac, whom Jochebed the daughter of Levi brought forth at the time that Amram her husband dismissed her, and she... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:27

And there ran a young man ,.... From the camp to the tabernacle, who had heard Eldad and Medad prophesy; which he thought was not right, being done without the knowledge and approbation of Moses, and in a private tent in the tabernacle, not among the elders, but the common people: who this young than was is not material to know; some of the Rabbins, as Jarchi says, affirm he was Gershon the son of Moses; whoever he was, no doubt, it was with a good design, consulting the glory of God and the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:28

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses ,.... That waited upon him, and ministered to him, and executed his orders, especially in civil things, and was to be his successor: one of his young men ; not that Joshua was a young man in age, for he must be now between fifty and sixty years of age; see Gill on Exodus 33:11 ; nor does the word necessarily suppose that those men were young among whom Joshua was; but choice excellent persons, the principal servants of Moses, at the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:29

Moses said unto him, enviest thou for my sake ?.... Lest his authority should be weakened, and his honour lessened, because they began not to prophesy in his presence, and at the tabernacle, and among the rest of the elders, and so seemed not to have received of the Spirit that was upon him, and to be independent of him: would God that all the Lord's people were prophets ; this is not to he understood in the most absolute sense, as if Moses wished that every individual person among the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 11:30

And Moses got him into the camp ,.... From the door of the tabernacle, where he had been settling the elders in their office, and now betook himself to the camp of Israel, perhaps to look more particularly into the affair of Eldad and Medad, and settle that, and put them among the elders; for they were of them that were written, whose names were put down for elders in the paper Moses had written for that purpose, and in the summons that were given; or more generally to do public business, to... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 11:25

When the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied - By prophesying here we are to understand their performing those civil and sacred functions for which they were qualified; exhorting the people to quiet and peaceable submission, to trust and confidence in the goodness and providence of God, would make no small part of the duties of their new office. The ideal meaning of the word נבא naba is to pray, entreat, etc. The prophet is called נביא nabi , because he prays, supplicates, in... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 11:27

Eldad and Medad do prophesy, etc. - read more

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