The Complaints of the People
The people complain about hardship, and the LORD's anger appears as fire on the outskirts of the camp. When Moses prays, the fire stops, and the place receives a name that remembers what happened.
S1oon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. 2And the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. 3So that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD had burned among them.
Craving rises from the rabble and spreads through Israel into weeping for meat. The people speak longingly of Egypt's food and reduce the wilderness to weariness with manna alone.
4Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat? 5We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”
The text lingers over the manna's appearance, the ways it is prepared, and its rich taste. What the people despise is shown to be steady and tangible provision.
7Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin. 8The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil. 9When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.