Numbers 11:6-10

11:6 But now we ¹  are dried up, ²  and there is nothing at all before us ³  except this manna!” 11:7 (Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. 11:8 And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it with mills or pounded it in mortars; they baked it in pans and made cakes of it. It tasted like fresh olive oil. ⁴  11:9 And when the dew came down ⁵  on the camp in the night, the manna fell ⁶  with it.)

Moses’ Complaint to the Lord

11:10 ⁷ Moses heard the people weeping ⁸  throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and when the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, Moses was also displeased. ⁹ 

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¹ tn Heb “our souls.”

² sn The Hebrews were complaining both about the bland taste of the manna and dehydration – they were parched in the wilderness.

³ tn Heb “before our eyes,” meaning that “we see nothing except this manna.”

⁴ tn Heb “And its taste was like the taste of fresh olive oil.”

⁵ tn The temporal clause is constructed of the infinitive construct from יָרָד (yarad) with a temporal preposition, followed by the subjective genitive.

⁶ tn Heb “came down.”

⁷ sn Moses begins to feel the burden of caring for this people, a stubborn and rebellious people. His complaint shows how contagious their complaining has been. It is one thing to cry out to God about the load of ministry, but it is quite another to do it in such a way as to reflect a lack of faith in God’s provision. God has to remind the leader Moses that he, the Lord, can do anything. This is a variation on the theme from Exodus – “who am I that I should lead….”

⁸ tn The participle “weeping” is functioning here as the noun in the accusative case, an adverbial accusative of state. It is explicative of the object.

⁹ tn Heb “it was evil in the eyes of Moses.”