Numbers 11 · a question people ask
Are Taberah and Kibroth Hattaavah two places or one?
Numbers 11 names both: Taberah, where the fire burned (11:3), and Kibroth Hattaavah, where the people who lusted were buried (11:34). Readers answer in two main ways. Both agree that each name comes from what happened there, and that the people went on from Kibroth Hattaavah to Hazeroth (11:35).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Two places
Some read two stops. Each has its own naming: "The name of that place was called Taberah" (11:3), and "The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah" (11:34). Moses names them separately: "At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath" (Deuteronomy 9:22).
Numbers 11:3 · Numbers 11:34 · Deuteronomy 9:22
One place, two names
Others read one camp with two names. The list of Israel's stops goes straight from Sinai to Kibroth Hattaavah, with no Taberah: "They traveled from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in Kibroth Hattaavah" (Numbers 33:16). And Numbers 11 records no journey between the fire (11:3) and the quail (11:31); the next journey is "From Kibroth Hattaavah" (11:35).
Numbers 33:16-17 · Numbers 11:3 · Numbers 11:31 · Numbers 11:35
The verses
“The name of that place was called Taberah, because the LORD’s fire burned among them.”
“The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted. From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth; and they stayed at Hazeroth.”
“They traveled from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in Kibroth Hattaavah. They traveled from Kibroth Hattaavah, and encamped in Hazeroth.”
“At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.”