1324 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Moses got him into the camp,.... From the door of the tabernacle, where he had been settling the elders in their office, and now betook himself to the camp of Israel, perhaps to look more particularly into the affair of Eldad and Medad, and settle that, and put them among the elders; for they were of them that were written, whose names were...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there went forth a wind from the Lord,.... Both an east wind and a south wind, according to Psalms 78:26; either first one wind, and then another; one to bring the quails, or whatever are meant, to a certain point, and then the other to bring them to the camp of Israel; or a southeast wind, as the Jewish writers interpret it: however, it was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the people stood up all that day,.... The day on which they fell in the morning: and all [that] night; the night following: and all the next day; after that, even the space of thirty six hours: and they gathered the quails; not took them flying, as the Jewish writers suggest, before observed, but from the earth where they fell, in order to lay...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And while the flesh [was] yet between their teeth,.... When they had just got it into their mouths, and were about to bite it: ere it was chewed; or "cut off"; or cut into pieces by the "incisores", or fore teeth, and then ground by the "molares", or grinders, and so became fit to be swallowed. Both quails and locusts were eaten as food; the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah,.... That is, Moses called it so, or it was called by the children of Israel, and by others in later times, by this name, which signifies "the graves of lust"; dug by lust, or which lust was the cause and occasion of, and where those that indulged it were buried, as follows: because there they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[And] the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth,.... After having stayed there a month or more, as is gathered from Numbers 11:20; and abode at Hazeroth; at least seven days, as appears from Numbers 12:15; which, according to Bunting (g), was eight miles from Kibrothhattaavah, or Taberah, which were the same place. (g) Travels, p....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO NUMBER 12 In this chapter we have an account of Aaron and Miriam speaking against Moses, and for what reason, whose amiable character is given, Numbers 12:1; and of the Lord's calling them to him, and rebuking them for it, giving an excellent testimony to Moses, and then departing in anger, Numbers 12:4; and of Miriam's being...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses,.... Miriam is first mentioned, because she was first in the transgression, and so was only punished; Aaron was drawn into the sin by her, and he acknowledged his fault, and was forgiven: it must be a great trial to Moses, not only to be spoken against by the people, as he often was, but by his near...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they said, hath the Lord, indeed spoken only by Moses?.... They own he had spoken by him; this was so notorious that it could not be denied: hath he not spoken also by us? are we not prophets as well as he? the Lord spake to Aaron while he was in Egypt, and had made him a good spokesman in his name, and bore this testimony of him, that he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now the man Moses [was] very meek,.... So that they might say anything against him, and he not be affronted, nor resent any injury; and this therefore is introduced as a reason why the Lord undertook the cause, and vindicated him, resenting the obloquies of Miriam and Aaron against him; because he knew he was so exceeding meek, that he himself...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam,.... As one greatly provoked, and highly displeased, and which was shown at once; and in order to prevent the complaint getting among the people, and spreading, which might have been of bad consequence, as they were pretty much disposed to murmur and mutiny; as also to show...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud,.... Which was over the most holy place of the tabernacle, and which was a symbol of the presence of the Lord; and who is said to come down, because that was above the tabernacle; whereas he came, as is next expressed, and stood [in] the door of the tabernacle; where he set up his tribunal, and called...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said, hear now my words,.... The Targum of Jonathan reads, "I beseech you"; and Jarchi says, this particle always so signifies; but it is not so agreeable to the language of the divine Being: if there be a prophet among you; not as making a doubt of it, but rather allowing that there was, and that there were others besides Moses, as even...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
My servant Moses [is] not so,.... Or such a prophet; he is not so used; it was not in such a manner the Lord spake to him; not in visions and dreams, as he had to Abraham and Jacob, and did to others in later times: who [is] faithful in all mine house; in the house of Israel, or among that people which were the Lord's family, where Moses was a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
With him will I speak mouth to mouth,.... And face to face, as he had done, Exodus 33:11; in a free, friendly, and familiar manner, as one friend speaks to another, without injecting any fear or dread, and consternation of mind, which was sometimes the case of the prophets; or without a middle person, a mediator, as Aben Ezra, not by means of an...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them,.... Which might be visible by some outward token, as by lightning from the cloud, or, however, what follows was sufficient to show it: and he departed; from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, where he had stood in the pillar of cloud for some time; but as soon as he had given his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle,.... Not from off the door of the tabernacle, as Aben Ezra, for that is implied in the last clause of Nu 12:9, but from off that part of the tabernacle, the most holy place, where it had used to abide; but now it went up higher in the air, or removed at some distance from thence, which was a further...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Aaron said unto Moses, alas, my lord!.... The word for "alas" is generally interpreted by the Jewish writers as a note of beseeching and entreating, as it is here by the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, "I beseech thee, my lord,'' or "upon me, my lord" (k), be all the blame; such was his tenderness to his sister, and the compassion he had on...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let her not be as one dead,.... As she was in a ceremonial sense, being to be shut up and excluded from the society of people, and as defiling by touching as a dead carcase; and, in a natural sense, her flesh, by the disease upon her, was become as dead flesh, putrid and rotten, and unless miraculously cured it would issue in her death: of whom...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Moses cried unto the Lord,.... With a loud voice, and with great earnestness and importunity, being heartily affected with the miserable condition Miriam was in: saying, heal her now, O God, I beseech thee; in the original text it is, "O God now, heal her now"; for the same particle is used at the close as at the beginning of the petition; and...