Bible Strands
Numbers 11:18
And say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, because you have cried out in the hearing of the LORD, saying: ‘Who will feed us meat? For we were better off in Egypt!’ Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses relays God’s command to the Israelites to consecrate themselves for the next day because their complaints about lacking meat have reached the Lord. This instruction follows God’s promise to share Moses’ governing burden with seventy elders.
The words — The imperative הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ (hitkadshu) literally means “sanctify yourselves,” requiring ritual preparation before receiving the promised provision. The noun בָּשָׂר (basar) denotes the specific “meat” the people demanded and the Lord will supply.
The thread — The call to consecration echoes Moses’ earlier instruction in Exodus 19:10 for the people to wash their garments before God’s descent. The people’s longing for Egypt’s meat recalls their complaint in Exodus 16:3 and reflects the heart-rejection described in Acts 7:39.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate obedience and ritual preparation before receiving divine provision, rather than demanding the promised meat. It confronts readers with the cost of treating God’s past deliverance as a bargaining chip for comfort.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, 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.
Cross-references
- Exodus 19:10 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes
- Exodus 16:3 “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”
- Acts 7:39 But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
- Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.
- Numbers 11:4 Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?
- Genesis 35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.
- Exodus 19:15 “Be prepared for the third day,” he said to the people. “Do not draw near to a woman.”
- Numbers 14:2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!
- Joshua 7:13 Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.
- Judges 21:2 So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, lifting up their voices and weeping bitterly.