Quotes About Community

Then the tabernacle was taken down, and the Gershonites and the Merarites set out, transporting it.

Then the divisions of the camp of Reuben set out under their standard, with Elizur son of Shedeur in command.

Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai was over the division of the tribe of Simeon,

and Eliasaph son of Deuel was over the division of the tribe of Gad.

and Abidan son of Gideoni was over the division of the tribe of Benjamin.

Pagiel son of Ocran was over the division of the tribe of Asher,

and Ahira son of Enan was over the division of the tribe of Naphtali.

This was the order of march for the Israelite divisions as they set out.

Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of Mosesí father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said: ëI will give it to you.í Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised good things to Israel.”

“I will not go,” Hobab replied. “Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people.”

“Please do not leave us,” Moses said, “since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes.

If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the LORD gives us.”

And when it came to rest, he would say: “Return, O LORD, to the countless thousands of Israel.”

The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.

So Moses asked the LORD, “Why have You brought this trouble on Your servant? Why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid upon me the burden of all these people?

Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth, so that You should tell me, ëCarry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries an infant,í to the land that You swore to give their fathers?

I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Bring Me seventy of the elders of Israel known to you as leaders and officers of the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them stand there with you.

And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put that Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

But Moses replied, “Here I am among 600,000 men on foot, yet You say, ëI will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.í

So Moses went out and relayed to the people the words of the LORD, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed that Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but they never did so again.

Two men, however, had remained in the camp—one named Eldad and the other Medad—and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those listed, but they had not gone out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp.

A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”