² There in the desert they started complaining to Moses and Aaron, ³ “We wish the Lord had killed us in Egypt. When we lived there, we could at least sit down and eat all the bread and meat we wanted. But you have brought us out here into this desert, where we are going to starve.”

^4 (A) The Lord said to Moses, “I will send bread^[a] down from heaven like rain. Tell the people to go out each day and gather only enough for that day. That's how I will see if they obey me. ⁵ But on the sixth day of each week they must gather and cook twice as much.”

⁶ Moses and Aaron told the people, “This evening you will know that the Lord was the one who rescued you from Egypt. ⁷ And in the morning you will see his glorious power, because he has heard your complaints against him. Why should you grumble to us? Who are we?”

⁸ Then Moses continued, “You will know it is the Lord when he gives you meat each evening and more than enough bread each morning. He is really the one you are complaining about, not us—we are nobodies—but the Lord has heard your complaints.”

⁹ Moses turned to Aaron and said, “Bring the people together, because the Lord has heard their complaints.”

¹⁰ Aaron was speaking to them, when everyone looked out toward the desert and saw the bright glory of the Lord in a cloud. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹² “I have heard my people complain. Now tell them that each evening they will have meat and each morning they will have more than enough bread. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.”

¹³ That evening a lot of quails came and landed everywhere in the camp, and the next morning dew covered the ground. ¹⁴ After the dew had gone, the desert was covered with thin flakes that looked like frost. ^15 (B) The people had never seen anything like this, and they started asking each other, “What is it?”^[b]

Moses answered, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

The People Grumble about Being Hungry

⁴ One day some foreigners among the Israelites became greedy for food, and even the Israelites themselves began moaning, “We don't have any meat! ⁵ In Egypt we could eat all the fish we wanted, and there were cucumbers, melons, all kinds of onions, and garlic. ⁶ But we're starving out here, and the only food we have is this manna.”

^7 (A) The manna was like small whitish seeds ^8-9 (B) and tasted like something baked with sweet olive oil. It appeared at night with the dew. In the morning the people would collect the manna, grind or crush it into flour, then boil it and make it into thin wafers.

¹⁰ The Israelites stood around their tents complaining. Moses heard them and was upset that they had made the Lord angry. ¹¹ He prayed:

I am your servant, Lord, so why are you doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this? You've made me responsible for all these people, ¹² but they're not my children. You told me to nurse them along and to carry them to the land you promised their ancestors. ¹³ They keep whining for meat, but where can I get meat for them? ¹⁴ This job is too much for me. How can I take care of all these people by myself? ¹⁵ If this is the way you're going to treat me, just kill me now and end my miserable life!

Seventy Leaders Are Chosen To Help Moses

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses:

Choose 70 of Israel's respected leaders and go with them to the sacred tent. ¹⁷ While I am talking with you there, I will give them some of your authority, so they can share responsibility for my people. You will no longer have to care for them by yourself.

¹⁸ As for the Israelites, I have heard them complaining about not having meat and about being better off in Egypt. So tell them to make themselves acceptable to me, because tomorrow they will have meat. ^19-20 In fact, they will have meat day after day for a whole month—not just a few days, or even 10 or 20. They turned against me and wanted to go back to Egypt. Now they will eat meat until they get sick of it.

²¹ Moses replied, “At least 600,000 grown men are here with me. How can you say there will be enough meat to feed them and their families for a whole month? ²² Even if we butchered all our sheep and cattle, or caught every fish in the sea, we wouldn't have enough to feed them.”

²³ The Lord answered, “I can do anything! Watch and you'll see my words come true.”

The Lord Sends Quails

³¹ Some time later the Lord sent a strong wind that blew quails in from the sea until Israel's camp was completely surrounded with birds, piled up about a meter high for many kilometers in every direction. ³² The people picked up quails for two days—each person filled at least ten large baskets. Then they spread them out to dry. ³³ But before the meat could be eaten, the Lord became angry and sent a deadly disease through the camp.

³⁴ After they had buried the people who had been so greedy for meat, they called the place “Graves for the Greedy.”^[a]

³⁵ Israel then broke camp and traveled to Hazeroth.