August 5, 2013, Reading

Numbers 11:4-15

4 The rabble who had joined the people were feeling the pangs of hunger, and the Israelitesbegan to weep again. ‘Who will give us meat to eat?’ they said.

5 ‘Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic!

6 But now we are withering away; there is nothing wherever we look except this manna!’

7 The manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium.

8 The people went round gathering it, and ground it in a mill or crushed it with a pestle; it was then cooked in a pot and made into pancakes. It tasted like cake made with oil.

9 When the dew fell on the camp at night-time, the manna fell with it.

10 Moses heard the people weeping, each family at the door of its tent. Yahweh’s anger was greatly aroused; Moses too found it disgraceful,

11 and he said to Yahweh: ‘Why do you treat your servant so badly? In what respect have I failed to win your favour, for you to lay the burden of all these people on me?

12 Was it I who conceived all these people, was I their father, for you to say to me, “Carry them in your arms, like a foster-father carrying an unweaned child, to the country which I swore to give their fathers”?

13 Where am I to find meat to give all these people, pestering me with their tears and saying, “Give us meat to eat”?

14 I cannot carry all these people on my own; the weight is too much for me.

15 If this is how you mean to treat me, please kill me outright! If only I could win your favour and be spared the sight of my misery!’