🔢WEB · Numbers 11:20
What does Numbers 11:20 mean?
"but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”"
— Numbers 11:20 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you don’t bear it yourself alone.
“Say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore Yahweh will give you meat, and you will eat.
You will not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days,
but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”
Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.’
Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”
Yahweh said to Moses, “Has Yahweh’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”
Explanation
Numbers 11:20 comes from God's response to Israel's complaint about food in the wilderness. The people had grown tired of manna and wept for meat, specifically recalling the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic they had eaten in Egypt. God tells Moses that He will indeed give them meat—so much of it that they will eat quail not for a day or two, but for an entire month, until it becomes physically repulsive to them, coming out their very nostrils. This graphic image conveys not blessing but judgment: what they begged for will become their punishment.
The book of Numbers records Israel's journey from Sinai toward the Promised Land, and this episode takes place early in that journey when the people's faith is repeatedly tested by hardship. Moses, serving as mediator between God and the people, had just cried out to God in his own frustration, overwhelmed by the burden of leading a complaining nation. God's response addresses both Moses's need for help (by appointing seventy elders) and the people's demand for meat. The context makes clear that the people's complaint was not simply about hunger—it was about who they trusted for provision and how good it had been.
Theologically, the key point is expressed in the phrase "you have rejected Yahweh who is among you." God had been faithful to
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