Hitherto things had gone pretty well in Israel; little interruption had been given to the methods of God’s favour to them since the matter of the golden calf; the people seemed teachable in marshalling and purifying the camp, the princes devout and generous in dedicating the altar, and there was…

Here is, I. The people’s sin. They complained, Num. 11:1. They were, as it were, complainers. So it is in the margin. There were some secret grudgings and discontents among them, which as yet did not break out in an open mutiny.

These verses represent things sadly unhinged and out of order in Israel, both the people and the prince uneasy. I. Here is the people fretting, and speaking against God himself (as it is interpreted, Ps. 78:19), notwithstanding his glorious appearances both to them and for them. Observe, 1.

We have here God’s gracious answer to both the foregoing complaints, wherein his goodness takes occasion from man’s badness to appear so much the more illustrious. I. Provision is made for the redress of the grievances Moses complains of.

We have here the performance of God’s word to Moses, that he should have help in the government of Israel. I. Here is the case of the seventy privy-counsellors in general.

God, having performed his promise to Moses by giving him assessors in the government, thereby proving the power he has over the spirits of men by his Spirit, he here performs his promise to the people by giving them flesh, proving thereby his power over the inferior creatures and his dominion in…