Discovery BoxNumbers 11:18-19 
Context11:18 “And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves 1 for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing 2 of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, 3 for life 4 was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat. 11:19 You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,
Numbers 11:32
Context11:32 And the people stayed up 5 all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, 6 and they spread them out 7 for themselves all around the camp.
1 tn The Hitpael is used to stress that they are to prepare for a holy appearance. The day was going to be special and so required their being set apart for it. But it is a holy day in the sense of the judgment that was to follow.
2 tn Heb “in the ears.”
3 tn Possibly this could be given an optative translation, to reflect the earlier one: “O that someone would give….” But the verb is not the same; here it is the Hiphil of the verb “to eat” – “who will make us eat” (i.e., provide meat for us to eat).
4 tn The word “life” is not in the text. The expression is simply “it was for us,” or “we had good,” meaning “we had it good,” or “life was good.”
5 tn Heb “rose up, stood up.”
6 sn This is about two thousand liters.
7 tn The verb (a preterite) is followed by the infinitive absolute of the same root, to emphasize the action of spreading out the quail. Although it is hard to translate the expression, it indicates that they spread these quail out all over the area. The vision of them spread all over was evidence of God’s abundant provision for their needs.
