¹⁸ And say to the people, ^(A)‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? ^(B)For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, ²⁰ but a whole month, ^(C)until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, ^(D)“Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” ²¹ But Moses said, ^(E)“The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ ^22 (F)Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” ²³ And the Lord said to Moses, ^(G)“Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether ^(H)my word will come true for you or not.”

Quail and a Plague

³¹ Then a ^(A)wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside 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^[a] above the ground. ³² And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten ^(B)homers.^[b] And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. ^33 (C)While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and ^(D)the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague.