46 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Numbers 11 This chapter informs us of the complaints of the people of Israel, which brought the fire of the Lord upon them, and consumed many of them; and which, at the intercession of Moses, was quenched, and the place from thence called Taberah, Numbers 11:1; and of the lusting of the mixed multitude after flesh, to increase...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And [when] the people complained,.... Or "were as complainers" (p); not merely like to such, but were truly and really complainers, the כ, "caph", here being not a note of similitude, but of truth and reality, as in Hosea 5:10. This Hebraism is frequent in the New Testament, Matthew 14:5. What they complained of is not said, it being that for...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Hitherto things had gone pretty well in Israel; little interruption had been given to the methods of God's favour to them since the matter of the golden calf; the people seemed teachable in marshalling and purifying the camp, the princes devout and generous in dedicating the altar, and there was good hope that they would be in Canaan presently....
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: Interpreters cannot make out what they had to complain of. The curse of labour had been removed; they did not earn their bread with the sweat of their face, for it fell from heaven every day. They were at no expense for clothing; and though they journeyed, their feet did not swell. I suppose...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the people cried unto Moses,.... And entreated him to pray for them, being frightened at the fire which consumed many of them, lest it should spread and become general among them: and when Moses prayed unto the Lord; as he did, in which he was a type of Christ, the mediator between God and man, the advocate of his people, an intercessor for...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them. And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: All evil seems to begin there, among “the mixt multitude”, as it does among those church members who are...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he called the name of the place Taberah,.... That is, "burning": Moses called it so; or it may be rendered impersonally, it was called (s) so in later times by the people: because the fire of the Lord burnt among them; to perpetuate the, memory of this kind of punishment for their sins, that it might be a terror and warning to others; and this...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the mixed multitude that [was] among them fell a lusting,.... These came out of Egypt with them, Exodus 12:38; having either contracted affinity with them, or such intimacy of conversation, that they could not part, or being proselyted to the Jewish religion, at least in pretence; these were not only Egyptians, but a mixture of divers people,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? Even the true people of God caught the infection of the scum that was mixed with them, and they fell weeping, and said, —
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely,.... Fish was food the Egyptians much lived upon; for though Herodotus says the priests might not taste of fish, the common people ate much; yea, he himself says that some lived upon nothing else but fish gutted and dried in the sun; and he observes, that the kings of Egypt had a great revenue...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: Fine stuff that to recollect! “Why!” say you, “you have read before something very much like that.” I am reading another record; but there is no originality in grumbling; it is always the same old thing over again....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But now our soul is dried away,.... Meaning their bodies, which, for want of flesh food, they pretended had no moisture in them, or they were half starved, and in wasting and consuming circumstances: [there is] nothing at all besides this manna [before] our eyes; which in itself was a truth and matter of fact; they had nothing to look to, and live...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. Here they pour contempt upon the bread of angels, upon the food of heaven, upon the benison of God. Oh, what will men not complain of?
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the manna [was] as coriander seed,.... Not in colour, for that is black or darkish, whereas the manna was white, as is generally observed; of which [See comments on Exodus 16:31]; however it might be like the coriander, because of its form and figure, being round, and because of its quantity, being small, Exodus 16:14; Some think the mustard...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. A fine white colour, like a pearl.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[And] the people went about and gathered [it],.... Went about the camp on all sides, where it fell in plenty; this they did every morning, and this was all the trouble they were at; they had it for gathering, without any expense to them: and ground [it] in mills: in hand mills, as Aben Ezra; for though it melted through the heat of the sun, and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. At first they thought it was like wafers made with honey. Getting more used to it, they, perhaps, described it quite as accurately, but not quite so sweetly; they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night,.... As it usually, and even constantly did: the manna fell upon it; as constantly, and had thereby a clean place to fall on; and then another dew fell upon that, which kept it the cleaner still, and from any vermin creeping upon it; see Exodus 16:14; so careful was the Lord of this their provision,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. God took care to preserve his precious gift, encasing each single particle of it within a drop of dew, which gave it freshness. And when truth comes to us encased in the dew of the Spirit, how sweet is its taste! May it be so to us whenever we feed on Christ!
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families,.... So general was their lusting after flesh, and their discontent for want of it; and so great their distress and uneasiness about it, that they wept and cried for it, and so loud and clamorous, that Moses heard the noise and outcry they made: every man in the door of his tent: openly...