Numbers 11:17

17. I will come down Not figuratively, but by a literal descent in the pillar of cloud, as in Numbers 11:25. Chaldee, “I will manifest myself.” Targum of Palestine, “I will be revealed in the glory of my shekinah.” There is no record of the words of Jehovah to Moses on this occasion.

I will take of the spirit The Hebrew for take is an unusual word here, signifying to divide into portions. The elders were to share, but probably in a less degree, the charismata, or special gifts of wisdom and administration which Moses possessed. There was to be no diminution of the endowment of Moses. The Targum of Palestine says: “I will amplify the spirit of prophecy that is upon thee, and bestow it upon them.” Hence Origen and Theodoret take occasion to compare Moses to a lamp at which seventy others were lighted without diminishing its lustre. Dr. Adam Clarke, however, queries whether Moses did not lose a measure of his gifts at this time because he had undervalued them, in accordance with the great law that a spiritual gift unused or slighted declines.