The burning: for that the
fire of the Lord had been kindled against them.

The burning... Hebrew, Taberah.

11:4. For 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?

A mixt multitude... These were people that came with them out of Egypt,
who were not of the race of Israel; who, by their murmuring, drew also
the children of Israel to murmur: this should teach us the danger of
associating ourselves with the children of Egypt, that is, with the
lovers and admirers of this wicked world.

11:5. We 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.

11:6. Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.

11:7. Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium.

Bdellium... Bdellium, according to Pliny, 1.21, c. 9. was of the colour
of a man's nail, white and bright.

11:8. And the people went about, and gathering it, ground it in a mill,
or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes thereof
of the taste of bread tempered with oil.

11:9. And when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the manna also
fell with it.

11:10. Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families, every one
at the door of his tent. And the wrath of the Lord was exceedingly
enkindled: to Moses also the thing seemed insupportable.

11:11. And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy servant?
Wherefore do I not find favour before thee? And why hast thou laid the
weight of all this people upon me?

11:12. Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou
shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to
carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou
hast sworn to their fathers?

11:13. Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude? They
weep against me, saying: Give us flesh that we may eat.

11:14. I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too
heavy for me.

11:15. But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me,
and let me find grace in thy eyes, that I be not afflicted with so great
evils.

11:16. And the Lord said to Moses: Gather unto me seventy men of the
ancients of Israel, whom thou knowest to be ancients and masters of the
people: and thou shal