Numbers 11 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The people started complaining openly about their hardships, and Yahweh heard it. When he heard, his anger burned hot, and fire from Yahweh blazed among them, consuming the edges of the camp.

The people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire died down.

They named that place Taberah, because Yahweh's fire had blazed among them.

The rabble among them had intense cravings, and even the Israelites started crying again, saying, "Who is going to give us meat to eat?

We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt — the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

But now our appetites are gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna."

The manna was like coriander seed and looked like bdellium resin.

The people would go around collecting it, then grind it in hand-mills or crush it in mortars. They would cook it in pots and make flatbread from it. It tasted like pastry made with olive oil.

When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

Moses heard the people crying, family after family, everyone at the entrance of their tent. Yahweh became very angry, and Moses was troubled.

Moses said to Yahweh, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What did I do wrong that you put the burden of all these people on me?

Did I conceive all these people? Did I give birth to them? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, like a caregiver carries a nursing baby, all the way to the land you promised their ancestors?

Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep crying to me, saying, "Give us meat to eat!"

I can't carry all these people by myself — it's too heavy for me.

If this is how you're going to treat me, just kill me now — please, if I've found any favor with you — and don't let me see my own ruin.

Yahweh said to Moses, "Gather seventy of Israel's elders for me — people you know to be elders and leaders among the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them stand there with you.

I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, so they can share the burden of these people with you. You won't have to carry it alone.

Tell the people: 'Get yourselves ready for tomorrow — you're going to eat meat. You cried in Yahweh's hearing, saying, "Who is going to give us meat? We had it so good in Egypt!" So Yahweh is going to give you meat, and you will eat it.

You won't eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days —

but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and makes you sick, because you rejected Yahweh who is right here among you, and cried in front of him saying, 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?'"

Moses said, "I'm surrounded by six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month'?

Would slaughtering all the flocks and herds be enough for them? Would catching all the fish in the sea be enough for them?"

Yahweh said to Moses, "Is Yahweh's arm too short? Now you'll see whether what I say happens or not."

Moses went out and told the people what Yahweh had said. He gathered seventy of the elders and stationed them around the tent.

Then Yahweh came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied — but they did not do so again.

Two men had stayed behind in the camp — one named Eldad and the other Medad. The spirit rested on them too (they were among those registered but hadn't gone out to the tent), and they prophesied right there in the camp.

A young man ran to Moses and reported, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!"

Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' assistant since he was young, spoke up: "Moses, my master, stop them!"

Moses said to him, "Are you jealous on my behalf? I wish all of Yahweh's people were prophets — that Yahweh would put his spirit on every one of them!"

Then Moses returned to the camp, along with Israel's elders.

A wind went out from Yahweh and drove quail in from the sea. It dropped them all around the camp, about a day's walk in every direction, piled about three feet deep on the ground.

The people were up all that day, all night, and all the next day gathering the quail. No one gathered less than sixty bushels. They spread them out all around the camp to dry.

The meat was still between their teeth — they hadn't even finished chewing — when Yahweh's anger burned against the people, and Yahweh struck them with a devastating plague.

They named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because that is where they buried the people who had craved.

From Kibroth-hattaavah, the people traveled to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.