Numbers 11:3

Num 11:3 And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

Ver. 3. The name of the place Taberah.] So to perpetuate the memory of the people’s sin, and God’s judgment. Alterius perditio, tua sit cautio.

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.

Num 11:3. He called the place Taberah — That is, burning, because of this fire; and it was called Kibroth-hattaavah on another account. It is no unusual thing in Scripture for persons and places to have two or more names. Both these names were imposed as monuments of the people’s sin, and of God’s just displeasure. This passage is well improved by St. Paul, (1Co 10:10-12,) to caution us against discontent and murmuring.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, burning.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(3) Taberah—i.e., burning, a word cognate to the verb which is rendered burnt in Num_11:1 and in this verse.

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

And he called the name of the place Taberah,.... That is, "burning": Moses called it so; or it may be rendered impersonally, it was called (s) so in later times by the people:

because the fire of the Lord burnt among them; to perpetuate the, memory of this kind of punishment for their sins, that it might be a terror and warning to others; and this history is indeed recorded for our caution in these last days, that we murmur not as these Israelites did, and were destroyed of the destroyer, Co1 10:10.

(s) "et vocatum est", Tigurine version, Fagius, Piscator.

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

Taberah - i. e. “burning:” not the name of a station, and accordingly not found in the list given in Num. 33, but the name of the spot where the fire broke out. This incident might seem (compare Num 11:34) to have occurred at the station called, from another still more terrible event which shortly followed, Kibroth-hattaavah.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The burning. Hebrew tabherah. (Challoner) --- Calmet uses no reason for confounding this station with that mentioned [in] ver. 34.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Tabera, from this fire; as it was called Kibroth-hattaa-vah from another occasion, Num 11:34,35; 33:16; as it is no new thing in Scripture for persons and places to have two names. Both these names were imposed as monuments of the people’s sin, and of God’s just judgment. See Deu 9:7,22,24.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Taberah is simply a local designation of the spot in the end of the camp where the burning occurred. The entire camp took the name of Kibroth-hattaavah — the graves of lust, caused by divine justice avenging the rebellion of Israel. Hence Taberah is not in the list of stations in Num_33:16, nor is there any mention of a removal from Taberah to Kibroth-hattaavah.

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

and he called the name of the place Taberah. Or Taberah (hrebT). This name does not occur in the list of stations in chapter 33, which mentions nothing between Sinai and Kibroth-Hattaavah. It would seem probable, however, that the conflagration occurred while Israel was encamped, or else there could hardly have been a burning "in the end of the comp." We may therefore suppose either that Tabeerah was some spot in the immediate neighbourhood of Sinai whither the people gathered for their first long march; or that it was one of the halting-places on the "three days" journey" not mentioned in the list, because that journey was considered as all one; or that it was the same place afterwards called Kibroth-Hatta-avah. There is nothing in the narrative to decide a question which is in itself unimportant. It is necessary to remember that where the ancient and local names derived from marked natural features were not available, such names as Tabeerah given to the halting-places of so vast a host must have had a very loose significance.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Taberah - This fire; as it was called Kibroth-hattaavah from another occasion, ver. 34, 35, and chap. xxxiii, 16. It is no new thing in scripture for persons and places to have two names. Both these names were imposed as monuments of the peoples sin and of God's just judgment.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

From this judgment the place where the fire had burned received the name of "Tabeerah," i.e., burning, or place of burning. Now, as this spot is distinctly described as the end or outermost edge of the camp, this "place of burning" must not be regarded, as it is by Knobel and others, as a different station from the "graves of lust." "Tabeerah was simply the local name give to a distant part of the whole camp, which received soon after the name of Kibroth-Hattaavah, on account of the greater judgment which the people brought upon themselves through their rebellion. This explains not only the omission of the name Tabeerah from the list of encampments in Num 33:16, but also the circumstance, that nothing is said about any removal from Tabeerah to Kibroth-Hattaavah, and that the account of the murmuring of the people, because of the want of those supplies of food to which they had been accustomed in Egypt, is attached, without anything further, to the preceding narrative. There is nothing very surprising either, in the fact that the people should have given utterance to their wish for the luxuries of Egypt, which they had been deprived of so long, immediately after this judgment of God, if we only understand the whole affair as taking place in exact accordance with the words of the texts, viz., that the unbelieving and discontented mass did not discern the chastising hand of God at all in the conflagration which broke out at the end of the camp, because it was not declared to be a punishment from God, and was not preceded by a previous announcement; and therefore that they gave utterance in loud murmurings to the discontent of their hearts respecting the want of flesh, without any regard to what had just befallen them.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

The People Lust for Flesh

v. 4. And the mixed multitude that was among them, the camp-followers, the rabble that had joined the host of Israel when the Lord led His people forth, fell a-lusting, was seized with a violent longing for some of the sensual delights that lay behind them; and the children of Israel, to whom the dissatisfied feeling soon spread, also wept again, remarked with reference to Exo 16:3, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? They still had their herds and flocks, but the consumption of meat from these animals had to be reduced in the wilderness; moreover, their appetite was whetted for other delicacies.

v. 5. We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, for nothing, as they state in dissatisfied exaggeration; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic, the form of the enumeration showing with what a longing they thought of these delights of the stomach;

v. 6. but now our soul is dried away, an expression intended to convey the utmost disgust and loathing; there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. Their lustful desire demanded rich and appetizing foods and a more frequent change in the bill of fare.

v. 7. And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium.

v. 8. And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, in the small hand-mills such as were in use in the Orient, Mat 24:41, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil, like choice pastry made with oil.

v. 9. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. Cf Exo 16:14-15; Exo 16:31. This notice concerning the manna as a very acceptable, delicious food is here inserted by Moses to show the base ingratitude of the people. It is equally base and damnable ingratitude, if Christians become tired of the food of the Gospel and express their loathing by word or deed.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

AND HE [Moses] CALLED THE NAME OF THAT PLACE TABERAH (Burning). [The meaning thereof is that] he called the place on which the fire came down in the uttermost part of the camp by that name, and they did not journey from that place, for whilst still encamped there they fell a lusting, Verse 4. [for flesh], and called the name of the city or place Kibroth-hattaavah (the graves of lust).

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.