While there, the people began to complain again about the manna. Apparently God had stopped giving them quail each week and they began thinking about the fish and foul and meat they had had in Egypt. Once more they complained among themselves. Soon Moses heard of all the grumbling and weeping. Both Moses and God were very displeased. Again Moses complained about having to bear the whole load of these people. He was so discouraged that he asked God to take his life if he had to go on bearing this burden alone.

God told Moses to gather together seventy of the elders of integrity and He would give them a portion of the same spirit He had given Moses. As for the people, God would give them what they wanted.

God told Moses to tell the people that the next day they would have flesh to eat; not just for a day, not for two days, nor five, ten or twenty days, but for a full month! They would have so much flesh to eat it would come out of their nostrils! They would eat so much that it would become loathsome to them!

Moses said, "There are 600,000 men of fighting age, plus women and children and the old. Shall we kill all of the flocks and herds we brought with us? Or shall all of the fish of the sea be caught to satisfy them?"

God said to Moses, "Has My hand grown short? I will show you whether My word will be done!"

Moses called the seventy elders he had chosen to come to the tabernacle and when they were there the Holy Spirit came to them. Two of the elders were not able to get there, but the Holy Spirit came to them anyway. Now Joshua, the son of Nun, was very loyal to Moses and felt this was wrong because they had not been with Moses at the time. Moses told Joshua, "Don't be jealous for my sake, I wish that the Lord would give His Spirit to all of the people!"

The next day God brought a wind over the camp that blew in quail! In a circle a day's journey all directions from the camp and within the camp, God piled the quail three feet deep!

All that day, and the following night, and all the next day the people gathered quail so that the one who gathered the least amount gathered 60 bushels. Some of the people were so filled with lust for meat that they didn't even wait to bleed and cook the meat, as God's law says we are to do. As these lust filled people ravenously sank their teeth into the first of the quail, God's anger was kindled and He brought a great plague upon them. Those who had lusted died and were buried there. Then Moses and the people traveled on to Hazeroth.

As Numbers 12:3 tells us; "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." As we have seen, meekness is not weakness. It happened that Moses had married a Cushite woman, which greatly displeased Moses' brother Aaron and sister Miriam. They saw this as a weakness and also interpreted his meekness as weakness. They felt it would be best if they were to take over for Moses, or at least be equal to him. "Has the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? Has he not spoken also by us?" they said.

God, who hears everything, heard them discussing this and spoke to Moses and Aaron and Miriam. "Come out to the tabernacle of the congregation!" He ordered them.

When they arrived, God came down in the pillar of cloud, "Listen to Me:" He told them, "If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. But My servant Moses is not just a prophet, he is faithful in all My house. I speak face to face with him, visibly, and not in dark speeches; and he alone among men will look at My very likeness. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?"

And God's anger was against Miriam and Aaron, and the cloud departed. Miriam became leprous. Aaron saw this and begged Moses, "Alas, my lord, I implore, don't blame us for this sin; we have done foolishly, and we have sinned. Don't let her remain as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed." This was as hard on Aaron as on Miriam because they had grown up together and were very close.

Moses was also horrified and prayed to God for his sister's healing.

God replied, "If her father had spit in her face, shouldn't she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again."

Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days. Then God healed her and she was brought back in.

The people stayed in Hazeroth until the seven days were over and then they journeyed to the wilderness of Paran.