🔢WEB · Numbers 11:10
What does Numbers 11:10 mean?
"Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and Yahweh’s anger burned greatly; and Moses was displeased."
— Numbers 11:10 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
The manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium.
The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.
When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.
Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and Yahweh’s anger burned greatly; and Moses was displeased.
Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?’
Where could I get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’
Explanation
Numbers 11:10 describes a scene of collective complaint among the Israelites during their wilderness journey. Moses hears the people weeping, not privately or in isolated pockets, but throughout their families, with each man standing at the entrance of his own tent. This public, widespread weeping signals a community-wide grievance rather than an isolated incident. The verse then tells us of two reactions: Yahweh's anger burns greatly, and Moses himself becomes displeased. Both God and His appointed leader are troubled by what is happening among the people.
The context is essential to understanding this verse. The Israelites have been delivered from Egyptian slavery and are being sustained by God with manna, bread from heaven, as they travel toward the Promised Land. Despite this provision, the people in this chapter begin craving the food they remember from Egypt — fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic — and they complain that the manna is insufficient and monotonous. This is not the first time the Israelites have grumbled against God's provision; a pattern of complaint has been building throughout Exodus and Numbers. Moses, as the mediator between God and the people, bears the weight of leading a discontented and difficult community. The book of Numbers itself is traditionally attributed to Moses and recounts Israel's forty years of wandering, largely as a consequence of unbelief and rebellion.
Theologically, this verse highlights the seriousness of ingratitude toward God's provision. The people's weeping is not over lack of sustenance — they have real food from heaven —
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