Numbers 11:13

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Whence should I have flesh to give to all this people? for they weep to me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

מֵאַ֤יִן

ʼayin

H370

“from · where”

Preposition + Particle, Interrogative

Appears 16× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 29:4

Full BDB Definition

Origin: probably identical with H369 in the sense of query (compare H336 )

TWOT: 75f

where?, whence?

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

15: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מֵאַ֤יִן where H370 — appearing just 16 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מֵאַ֤יִן where H370 occurs in 16 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

5 verbs
4 nouns
1 pronoun
3 prepositions
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

לָתֵ֖ת Qal · Infinitive Construct
יִבְכּ֤וּ Qal · Imperfect
לֵאמֹ֔ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
תְּנָה Qal · Imperative
וְנֹאכֵֽלָה Qal · Cohortative

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בָּשָׂ֔ר flesh H1320 ×2
לָתֵ֖ת to give H5414 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 24 words from the Hebrew and 23 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 15 Hebrew tokens and 18 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 11:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Matthew 15:33 The disciples said to him, "Where should we get so many loaves in a deserted place as to satisfy so great a multitude?"
Mark 8:4 His disciples answered him, "From where could one satisfy these people with bread here in a deserted place?"
Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."
John 6:5–9 Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?"

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 11:13 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

מֵאַ֤יִן לִי֙ בָּשָׂ֔ר לָתֵ֖ת לְכָל הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֑ה כִּֽי יִבְכּ֤וּ עָלַי֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר תְּנָה לָּ֥נוּ בָשָׂ֖ר וְנֹאכֵֽלָה

Whence should I have flesh to give to all this people? for they weep to me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 11:13 Septuagint · lemma form

πόθεν ἐγώ κρέας δίδωμι πᾶς ὁ λαός οὗτος ὅτι κλαίω ἐπί ἐγώ λέγω δίδωμι ἐγώ κρέας ἵνα ἐσθίω

Whence have I flesh to give to all this people? for they weep to me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

מְנַן לִי בִּשְׂרָא לְמִיתַּן לְכָל עַמָא הָדֵין אֲרֵי בָּכַן עֲלַי לְמֵימַר הַב לָנָא בִשְׂרָא וְנֵיכוּל

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

מִינָן לִי בִּשְרָא לְמִתַּן לְכָל עַמָא הָדֵין אֲרוּם בָּכַן עָלַי לְמֵימָר הַב לָנָא בִּשְרָא וְנֵיכוּל

Whence am I to find meat to give all this people? for they are cry crying to me, say saying Give us flesh that we may eat.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 11:13 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Num 11:13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

Ver. 13. Whence should I have flesh.] Lust is unsatisfiable; to go about it, is to go about an endless piece of work; it is to cast oil into the fire to quench it.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Whence should I have flesh . . .?—Moses does not justify the murmuring of the people, and was doubtless conscious of their sinfulness. At the same time, he displays a spirit of discontent, and almost of despair, at God’s dealings with himself; and he appears to treat the demand of the Israelites. for flesh as one which was not altogether unreasonable.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people?.... This seems to countenance the Israelites in their lusting after flesh, as if it was no evil in them, and as if it was but right they should have what they desired, though it was out of his power to give it them:

for they weep unto me, saying, give us flesh, that we may eat; he seems to pity them, whereas he ought to have reproved them for their murmurings and ingratitude, and put them in mind of the manna which was provided for them every day, and with which they ought to have been content.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

13. Whence should I have flesh — The eye of Moses had certainly fallen from God to himself. His faith had fallen from the supernatural to the natural. He had forgotten that this was God’s work, and that he might be trusted now and forever. Moses is not the only good man who has imagined that the crank of the universe is turned by his hand.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

Where can I find meat to give to all this people?

Moses used this question to complain that it was impossible for him to give meat to all the people. AT: "I cannot possibly find enough meat to give to all these people." (See: Rhetorical Question)

I cannot bear all these people alone

Moses speaks of leading and providing for the people as if he were carrying them. AT: "I cannot provide for all these people alone" (See: Metaphor)

They are too much for me

This is an idiom. AT: "This responsibility is too difficult for me" (See: Idiom)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 15 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼayin (“where”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʼayin carries the sense “where.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 29:4 shares the word «where» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“flesh” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «לָתֵ֖ת» is Qal Infinitive Construct. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 15 Hebrew ↔ 18 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“flesh” occurs 2× in this single verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 15 words in this verse.