Biblion Bible Commentary
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Would That All Were Prophets
Numbers 11:24-35
24 Moses went out, and told the people Yahweh’s words; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent. · WEB
Two men prophesy in the camp instead of at the tent, and Moses refuses to have them stopped.
The seventy are gathered and the Spirit comes on them, and they prophesy — but they did so no more Numbers 11:25. A single occurrence, which was enough to authenticate the appointment in public.
Two of the seventy never came out to the tent. Eldad and Medad remained in the camp, and the Spirit rested on them there, and they prophesied in the camp Numbers 11:26.
The text is careful to note that they were on the list. They had been chosen and had not attended, and the gift reached them anyway.
A young man runs to report it, and Joshua asks Moses to stop them: my lord Moses, forbid them! Numbers 11:28.
His motive is stated as loyalty, and it is worth naming what is behind it. Prophecy outside the sanctioned place, by men who did not turn up, looks like a threat to the authority of the man who did the appointing — and Joshua is protecting his master's position.
Moses' answer is the finest thing he says in the book.
Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh's people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them! Numbers 11:29.
He has just told God the burden of these people is crushing him and asked to die. Offered a chance to protect what remains of his standing, he wishes the gift on everyone. A man exhausted by a nation wants that nation to have what he has.
The prayer is answered centuries later in the terms he used, when a prophet announces that God will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, on sons and daughters, servants and handmaids Joel 2:28–29.
The quail then arrive, driven in by a wind and lying deep around the camp Numbers 11:31, and the people gather them for a day and a night and another day. And while the meat is still between their teeth, a plague strikes Numbers 11:33.
The place is named for what happened there — the graves of craving Numbers 11:34. They got exactly what they asked for, and the getting is what killed them.
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