🔢WEB · Numbers 11:28
What does Numbers 11:28 mean?
"Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, forbid them!”"
— Numbers 11:28 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.
But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested on them; and they were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp.
A young man ran, and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, forbid them!”
Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh’s people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!”
Moses went into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
A wind from Yahweh went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.
Explanation
Numbers 11:28 comes in the middle of a story about the Spirit of God being distributed beyond Moses to seventy elders of Israel. In plain language, this verse tells us that when two men, Eldad and Medad, began prophesying in the camp even though they had not gone out to the tent with the other elders, Joshua reacted with alarm. Joshua, described here as Moses' servant and one of his chosen or trusted young men, urged Moses to stop them, essentially saying, "My lord Moses, forbid them!"
The context matters a great deal. Moses had been complaining to God that the burden of leading the complaining, meat-craving Israelites in the wilderness was too heavy for him alone. God responded by instructing Moses to gather seventy elders at the tent of meeting, where God would take some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on them, so they could share the load of leadership. When this happened, the seventy elders prophesied. But Eldad and Medad, who were among those chosen but had stayed in the camp rather than going to the tent, also received the Spirit and prophesied right there in the camp. A young man ran and reported this to Moses, and that is when Joshua stepped in with his objection, evidently wanting to protect Moses' unique authority and keep prophecy properly localized and controlled.
Theologically, this moment reveals something important about how God's Spirit works: it is not bound by human expectations of order, location, or credentials. Eldad and Medad had not gone through the "proper channel" of appearing before the tent of meeting, yet
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