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Numbers 11 Bible study: The Spirit on the seventy
The Hebrew word for the Spirit the LORD put on the seventy elders (11:25) is the word for the wind that brought the quail (11:31): ruach. And when Joshua said of two men prophesying in the camp, "forbid them!", Moses answered, "I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets" (11:28-29). John once told Jesus, "we forbade him", and Jesus said, "Don’t forbid him" (Mark 9:38-39).
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“Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!””
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“In Numbers 11, Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp, not at the Tent.”
Is that in Numbers 11, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Fire at the edge of the camp
The camp has just set out from "the Mount of the LORD" (10:33), and the next thing Numbers tells is this: "The people were complaining in the ears of the LORD" (11:1). The chapter doesn't say what about. "When the LORD heard it, his anger burned; and the LORD’s fire burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp" (11:1). Then comes a pattern Numbers will repeat: "The people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire abated" (11:2). Later, when the LORD sends snakes (21:6), the people come to Moses again, and "Moses prayed for the people" (21:7). The place was called Taberah, "because the LORD’s fire burned among them" (11:3).
Where it leads to Jesus
"Don’t forbid him"
Numbers 11:28leads toMark 9:38-40
Joshua, "the servant of Moses", said of Eldad and Medad, "My lord Moses, forbid them!" (11:28), and Moses answered, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets" (11:29). John told Jesus, "Teacher, we saw someone who doesn’t follow us casting out demons in your name; and we forbade him, because he doesn’t follow us" (Mark 9:38). Jesus said, "Don’t forbid him" (Mark 9:39), "For whoever is not against us is on our side" (Mark 9:40). Luke tells it too (Luke 9:49-50). Neither Gospel mentions Numbers 11, so setting the two side by side is a reading: some hear the same lesson in both, that God's work isn't kept to those gathered around the leader; others read Jesus' words on their own, about those who act in his name.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 11
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 11 is waiting in Favor
- Egypt, remembered
- Not able alone
- Two in the camp
- "Has the LORD’s hand grown short?"
- The graves of craving, remembered
- "As they also lusted"
- 19 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Numbers 11 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
רוּחַruachsay ROO-akh
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "breath, wind, spirit". It comes six times in this chapter. Five times it is the Spirit: "I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them" (11:17); "When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied" (11:25); on Eldad and Medad, "the Spirit rested on them" (11:26); and Moses' wish, "that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" (11:29). The sixth is the wind: "A wind from the LORD went out and brought quails from the sea" (11:31). The same word is "God’s Spirit" over the waters (Genesis 1:2), and the wind after the flood: "God made a wind to pass over the earth" (Genesis 8:1).
For your group
Numbers 11 Bible study questions
- 1"We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing" (11:5). When have you remembered the past as better than it was, and what did it do to how you saw the present?
- 2Moses said, "I am not able to bear all this people alone" (11:14), and the LORD gave him others to bear it with him (11:17). What are you carrying alone right now, and who could help you bear it?
- 3Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp, not at the Tent (11:26), and Joshua said, "forbid them!" (11:28). When have you been uneasy with God working through someone outside your group, and what does Moses' answer (11:29) say to that?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 11 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home