Numbers 11:4-6 · Bible study
Numbers 11:4-6 Commentary: The Craving That Consumed Israel
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Study Numbers 11:4-6: the mixed multitude incites craving for Egyptian food, exposing the dangers of discontent and spiritual contamination.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The mixed multitude triggered Israel to crave Egyptian food, leading them to despise God's daily provision of manna in the wilderness.
- Key words: Asaphsuph (rabble, collected multitude), hit'avu ta'avah (craved intensely, cognate accusative in Hithpael), nafshenu yevashah (our appetite is dry).
- Main debate: Whether the mixed multitude were proselytes or mere hangers-on; whether the craving was for meat generally or for the specific foods listed.
- Theological theme: The danger of unholy alliances and the way discontent with God's provision opens the door to spiritual contamination.
- Best use: A cautionary passage for preaching on gratitude, spiritual influence, and the selective memory that distorts God's past goodness.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
4Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?
5We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
6But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”
WEB World English Bible 2000
4The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?
5We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic;
6but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.”
KJV King James Version 1769
4And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
6But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
4And the mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt for nought; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:
6but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all save this manna to look upon.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
4And the rabble who are in its midst have lusted greatly, and the sons of Israel also turn back and weep, and say, `Who doth give us flesh?
5We have remembered the fish which we do eat in Egypt for nought, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick;
6and now our soul is dry, there is not anything, save the manna, before our eyes.'
Darby Darby Bible 1890
4And the mixed multitude that was among them lusted; and the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who will give us flesh to eat?
5We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic;
6and now our soul is dried up: there is nothing at all but the manna before our eyes.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
4For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them, burned with desire, sitting and weeping, the children of Israel also being joined with them, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.
6Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Numbers 11:4
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that the 'mixed multitude' (asaphsuph) triggered the crisis. Barnes calls the word equivalent to 'riff-raff', a mob of strangers who had attached themselves to Israel at the exodus (Exodus 12:38). Clarke and Gill note that these were people with little knowledge of God, and they were the first to complain. The Israelites then joined them, weeping for the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic they had eaten in Egypt 'for nothing.'
Calvin observes that the people magnified humble fare as if it were luxury, precisely to scorn God's present gift of manna. Keil and Delitzsch point out that the craving was for flesh generally, not just fish or vegetables, and that the list represents the ordinary, accessible delicacies of Egypt. The cry 'our soul is dried away' (verse 6) uses nephesh to mean appetite or life-force, and yevashah (dry) to express a sense of being parched, even as they were sustained daily by heavenly bread.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The mixed multitude initiated a craving that spread to all Israel, leading them to complain against God's provision of manna and to long for the food of Egypt — a pattern of discontent that Scripture consistently warns against.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Who were the 'mixed multitude'? | All traditions agree they were non-Israelites who came out of Egypt with the people (Exodus 12:38). | Some, like Gill, think they were proselytes in name only; others, like Barnes, see them as a 'mob of people scraped together' with no real faith. The text is not specific. |
| Was the craving sinful in itself? | All sides agree the craving became sin because it rejected God's provision and stirred rebellion. | Some commentators emphasize the intensity, the Hithpael verb and cognate accusative show a worked-up, deliberate lust. Others focus on the content: wanting normal food was not wrong, but demanding it in the wilderness showed lack of trust. |
| Did the people actually eat fish and vegetables 'for nothing' in Egypt? | Fish and produce were cheap and abundant in Egypt, so the claim had some basis. | Clarke and Keil accept the description as basically accurate about the food supply. Calvin sees exaggeration: the people were 'magnifying things of little value' to justify complaint. Gill notes the price of fish was small but the cost of slavery was enormous. |
| Is the manna described here the same as in Exodus 16? | Both accounts describe manna as a supernatural provision from God. | The Cambridge Bible sees them as parallel traditions (J and P) from different sources, not sequential events. Most conservative commentators treat them as two accounts of the same continuous provision. |
Historical & Cultural Context
The 'mixed multitude' (asaphsuph, from a root meaning 'to collect, gather') appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It refers to the non-Israelite crowd that came out of Egypt with the Israelites, Egyptians and others from a range of nations (Exodus 12:38). These people had no covenant history with Yahweh and no stake in the promise to Abraham. They were camped among the tribes, sharing resources but not faith.
The food list in verse 5 is not a rich person's menu but a poor person's memory. Fish from the Nile and its canals was abundant and cheap, available even to slaves, as Keil and Delitzsch note from classical sources. Cucumbers and watermelons grew in flooded fields after the Nile's subsidence, providing cooling refreshment in the heat. Leeks, onions and garlic were staple flavourings for a diet that was otherwise monotonous. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown observe that Lower Egypt, where the brick-kilns stood, gave easy access to Mediterranean fish and canal fishing. The people remembered these foods 'for nothing' (chinam), either free or very cheap, but their memory edited out the cost of their slavery.
The wilderness of Paran offered none of this. The manna (described in verses 7-9 as resembling coriander seed and tasting like fresh oil) was reliable and sufficient, but it was the same every day. Calvin argues that the people's problem was not hunger but lust, an inordinate craving that made God's provision look like deprivation. The placement of this episode right after the fire at Taberah (verses 1-3) shows how quickly the people turned from terror to complaint.
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note no significant textual variants for Numbers 11:4-6. The word asaphsuph (mixed multitude) appears only here in the Hebrew Bible, but the reading is secure across manuscripts. The cognate accusative construction hit'avu ta'avah ('they lusted a lusting') is preserved consistently. The list of foods in verse 5 is stable across traditions, with the same seven items appearing in Hebrew, Greek and Latin witnesses.
Reception History
This passage has been read across traditions as a sobering warning about the danger of unholy associations and the power of collective discontent. Early Jewish interpreters connected the mixed multitude to later troubles in the wilderness, seeing them as a source of ongoing rebellion. Christian commentators from the patristic period onward have used the passage to teach about contentment and the danger of looking back at a life without God as if it were better. The specific list of foods, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic, became proverbial for the kind of trivial, earthly desires that choke gratitude for spiritual provision. In Reformation-era works, Calvin and Henry both highlight how easily the people forgot the miracle of manna when their appetites spoke louder than their faith. Modern readers continue to find in these verses a mirror for their own tendency to romanticize the past while grumbling about God's present gifts.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The company you keep shapes your cravings. The mixed multitude introduced discontent. Israel had walked through the Red Sea, but they listened to voices with no memory of deliverance.
- Memory can be a weapon or a wound. The people recalled Egyptian food but forgot Egyptian slavery. Selective memory always feeds ingratitude.
- God's provision looks small only to those who want something else. The manna was a daily miracle, but they called it 'nothing at all' because it was not what they demanded.
Five-point outline
- The catalyst: strangers in the camp who did not share Israel's history with God (v.4).
- The spread: a craving that moved from the fringe to the whole people (v.4).
- The content: a detailed list of ordinary foods, remembered as luxuries (v.5).
- The complaint: 'our soul is dried away', a dramatic overstatement born of desire (v.6).
- The contrast: manna from heaven seen as worthless compared to Egyptian produce (v.6).
Illustration hooks
- The restaurant menu in the famine: Someone who has enough to eat but scrolls photos of food they cannot have, and the meal they have becomes tasteless.
- The old job you hated: After leaving a difficult workplace, you catch yourself missing the camaraderie at lunch, forgetting why you left. The brain edits out the pain.
- Kids on a road trip: A family passes a fast-food sign, and suddenly the packed sandwiches taste like cardboard. The craving is not about the food, it is about wanting something other than what is in front of you.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it wrong to miss things from my past, even if God has done something new?
- How do I know if a desire is a normal appetite or a dangerous craving?
- What do I do when someone else's discontent starts to infect my own heart?
Leading a Discussion
This passage shows how quickly discontent spreads and how memory can be twisted to serve our cravings. The people did not need meat, they needed to trust the God who had brought them out of Egypt. As you work through these questions, pay attention to where your own memory might be editing out hard truths.
Discussion questions
- What does the phrase 'the mixed multitude' tell you about who started this complaint? Why does that detail matter for understanding how sin spreads?
- Read verse 5 slowly. Which word stands out most to you: 'freely' (or 'for nothing')? What does it reveal about how the people remembered Egypt?
- The Israelites wept (v.4). Was the weeping real, or performative? How do you tell the difference in your own life?
- Verse 6 says 'our soul is dried away.' What does that language suggest about how craving affects the whole person, body, mind and spirit?
- Compare this passage with Psalm 106:14 ('but gave in to craving in the desert'). What warning does Scripture keep repeating about desire out of control?
- Where in your current circumstances are you most tempted to call God's provision 'nothing at all' because it is not what you wanted?
- What practical habits might help you remember God's past faithfulness when a new desire starts to feel urgent?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Exodus 12:38 | A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and even very much livestock. |
| Leviticus 24:10 | The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp. |
| Leviticus 24:11 | The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. |
| Nehemiah 13:3 | It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel. |
| Psalms 78:18 | They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire. |
| Psalms 78:20 | Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?” |
| Psalms 106:14 | but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. |
| Romans 13:14 | But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke identifies the mixed multitude gathered from Egypt as the first to complain, not the Israelites themselves. He then stresses that the missing foods — fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic — were genuine delicacies in Egypt, far superior to northern varieties, making the loss reasonable.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin stresses the sheer irrationality of Israel's complaint: God's fire had barely stopped burning among them, yet they immediately demanded meat. He sees their lust as so blinding that they called themselves dried up while manna, God's free and easy gift, still lay at their feet. For Calvin, this shows how insatiable desire makes even abundant blessings taste like nothing.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Cambridge Bible School treats this chapter as three separate stories woven together by a later editor. The manna and quails episode, Moses' complaint about bearing the people alone, and the Spirit falling on the seventy elders each came from different sources and were not originally connected at all.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva annotators stress that the people's craving for meat was not an innocent desire but a willful rejection of God's daily provision. They despised the manna God gave freely and instead longed for the food of their Egyptian bondage, revealing a heart more attached to the fleshpots of slavery than to the Lord who had freed them.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill stresses that the lusting began with the mixed multitude, foreign proselytes who joined Israel out of self-interest, and their influence corrupted the Israelites into craving flesh. He sees this as a warning: ungodly companions in the community stir up discontent and lead believers to despise God's generous provision and prefer worldly gratifications.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB notes that the Israelites' craving for Egyptian food was not merely a longing for variety but an impeachment of God's provision. Their disgust with the manna, despite it being a plentiful, free, and excellent gift, revealed deep ingratitude and a rebellious spirit dishonoring to God.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch traces the people's craving back to the mixed multitude who brought a longing for Egypt's cheap, flavorful foods. The manna was a pleasant, sweet bread from heaven, but it lacked the sharp and sour flavors that sinful, restless human nature craves. This inward perversion made the people despise simple, clean sustenance and desire stimulating variety.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange sees in Numbers 11 a three-stage rebellion that exposes the deep gap between God's called people and true spiritual character. He connects the murmuring, the craving for Egypt, and even Moses' despair to similar failures in later Christian movements, arguing that outward organization cannot substitute for inward transformation.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry sees this scene as a double breakdown: the people grumble against God himself despite his glorious works, and Moses, their leader, collapses under the burden to the point of begging for death. Both the congregation and the prince are in desperate unrest, and nothing is in order.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley highlights that Israel's special covenant with God should have prevented their complaining. He notes that "flesh" here includes fish, and that the Egyptians' worship of fish and vegetables made those foods cheap for Israel. Their physical craving is explained as discontent and inordinate appetite, not genuine need.