¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders^(A) who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people.^(B) Have them come to the tent of meeting,^(C) that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you^(D) there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them.^(E) They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.^(F)

¹⁸ “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves^(G) in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed,^(H) “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!”^(I) Now the Lord will give you meat,^(J) 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^(K)—because you have rejected the Lord,^(L) who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”^(M)

²¹ But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men^(N) 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?”^(O)

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

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^(R) and spoke with him,^(S) and he took some of the power of the Spirit^(T) that was on him and put it on the seventy elders.^(U) When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied^(V)—but did not do so again.

The Right of the Firstborn

¹⁵ If a man has two wives,^(A) and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,^{(B) 16} when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.^{(C) 17} He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double^(D) share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength.^(E) The right of the firstborn belongs to him.^(F)