10:35. And when the ark was lifted up, Moses said: Arise, O Lord, and
let thy enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee, flee from
before thy face.
10:36. And when it was set down, he said: Return, O Lord, to the
multitude of the host of Israel.
Numbers Chapter 11
The people murmur and are punished with fire. God appointeth seventy
ancients for assistants to Moses. They prophesy. The people have their
fill of flesh, but forthwith many die of the plague.
11:1. In the mean time there arose a murmuring of the people against the
Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And when the Lord heard it
he was angry. And the fire of the Lord being kindled against them,
devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp.
11:2. And when the people cried to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and
the fire was swallowed up.
11:3. And he called the name of that place, The burning: for that the
fire of the Lord had been kindled against them.
The burning... Hebrew, Taberah.
11:4. For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them, burned
with desire, sitting and weeping, the children of Israel also being
joined with them, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat?
A mixt multitude... These were people that came with them out of Egypt,
who were not of the race of Israel; who, by their murmuring, drew also
the children of Israel to murmur: this should teach us the danger of
associating ourselves with the children of Egypt, that is, with the
lovers and admirers of this wicked world.
11:5. We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers
come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and
the garlic.
11:6. Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.
11:7. Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium.
Bdellium... Bdellium, according to Pliny, 1.21, c. 9. was of the colour
of a man's nail, white and bright.
11:8. And the people went about, and gathering it, ground it in a mill,
or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes thereof
of the taste of bread tempered with oil.
11:9. And when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the manna also
fell with it.
11:10. Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families, every one
at the door of his tent. And the wrath of the Lord was exceedingly
enkindled: to Moses also the thing seemed insupportable.
11:11. And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy servant?
Wherefore do I not find favour before thee? And why hast thou laid the
weight of all this people upon me?
11:12. Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou
shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to
carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou
hast sworn to their fathers?
11:13. Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude? They
weep against me, saying: Give us flesh that we may eat.