Explanation: Numbers 11 contains several events, of which the central event is God's provision of quail for Israel to eat for a whole month. When the chapter opens, the people are in the Wilderness of Paran, having left Mount Sinai after the LORD had finished instructing them in his law and had established their worship institutions, including the Tabernacle and the priesthood. There, in the Wilderness of Paran, they once again manifest the rebellious spirit that was with them from the time they left the land of Egypt. As the narrative unfolds in successive chapters, this spirit will cost the generation of those who were 20 and above the right to enter the promised land (Numbers 14:26-38), and they will die in the wilderness.
     The first incident in the chapter was a complaint by the people -- of what nature, we are not told. But the LORD heard it and sent a fire among them which consumed those who were in the outermost parts of the camp. The LORD relented when the people cried to Moses; and the name of the place was called Taberah, which means "burning" (1-3).
     The next incident, which is the sending of the quails, covers the rest of the chapter, with an interruption in the midst of the account where the LORD sends aid to Moses to help him judge and rule the nation. The quail incident began when the mixed multitude (i.e., Egyptians and others who had escaped with Israel) began lusting for the kind of food they had in Egypt - fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. They claimed that their soul had "dried away" because they had nothing to eat but manna (4-6).
     The narrative breaks off briefly, at this point, to describe the manna and how the people gathered it and prepared it in various ways, and how it fell during the night into the camp (7-9).
     The discontent spread from the mixed multitude throughout the camp. And the people stood in the doors of their tents and wept. This angered the LORD and Moses. And Moses offered his own complaint to the LORD about how heavy his burden was because of the people; and he requested to die rather than continue to be so wretched (10-15).
      In response, the LORD had Moses assemble seventy elders at the door of the Tabernacle where he would put the spirit that was upon Moses upon the seventy. Also, he told Moses to tell the people that they would have flesh to eat for a month. This startled Moses to the point of incredulity; but the LORD assured him it would happen (16-23).
     Moses then told these words to the people and gathered the seventy elders. And the LORD came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and poured out his Spirit on the seventy; and they prophesied without ceasing (24-25).
     This happened also to Eldad and Medad who had stayed in the camp; and when Joshua heard it he asked Moses to forbid it. But Moses said that he wished that all of the LORD's people would prophesy (26-30).
     Then a wind went forth from the LORD and brought quail into the camp (compare a similar incident in Wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:13). And the people gathered quail for two days. But before they could chew their first mouthful the LORD sent a very great plague upon them. And they called the name of the place Kibrothhattaavah ("the graves of lust"). Previously, the LORD demonstrated his power and his grace, to encourage them. But, here, when they committed the same sin in an even more egregious fashion, the LORD judged them (31-34).
     And from there they went to Hazeroth (35).
     [ Sermons: Robert S Rayburn. Various. ]
     [ Illustration: The image above depicts a type of quail (Colinus virginianus) similar, possibly, in appearance to those that the LORD sent into the camp of the Israelites, which may have been of the Coturnix vulgaris, or common quail, variety. ]

     ³¹ And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and bought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. ³² And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad [and they are spreading out, spreading out] for themselves round about the camp. ³³ And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. ³⁴ And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted. ³⁵ And the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.

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