¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you^(A) there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them.^(B) They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.^(C)

¹⁸ “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves^(D) in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed,^(E) “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!”^(F) Now the Lord will give you meat,^(G) and you will eat it. ¹⁹ You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, ²⁰ but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it^(H)—because you have rejected the Lord,^(I) who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”^(J)

²¹ But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men^(K) on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ ²² Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”^(L)

²³ The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short?^(M) Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.^(N)”

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud^(O) and spoke with him,^(P) and he took some of the power of the Spirit^(Q) that was on him and put it on the seventy elders.^(R) When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied^(S)—but did not do so again.