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Counsels on Diet and Foods
in which God had placed him to the people,—that of a nursing father,
who should make the sufferings of the people his own....
The Lord directed Moses to gather before him seventy of the elders,
whom he knew to be the elders of the people. They were not to be
those only in advanced years, but men of dignity, sound judgment, and
experience, who were qualified to be judges, or officers. “And bring
them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there
with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there; and I will
take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them, and
they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not
thyself alone.
“And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against tomor-
row, and ye shall eat flesh; for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord.
saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt;
therefore, the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not
eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty
days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it
be loathsome unto you; because that ye have despised the Lord which
is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, Why came we forth
out of Egypt?
“And Moses said, The people among whom I am, are six hundred
thousand footmen; and Thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they
may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and herds be slain for them,
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to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for
them, to suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord’s
hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to
pass unto thee or not.”...
“And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought 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. 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 for themselves
round about the camp.
“And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, the wrath of the
Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people
with a very great plague.”