John Calvin Commentary Numbers 11:18

"And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh; for ye have wept in the ears of Jehovah, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore Jehovah will give you flesh, and ye shall eat." — Numbers 11:18 (ASV)

And say you to the people, Sanctify yourselves. This is another part of the answer given concerning the matter under consideration, namely, that the people should prepare themselves to satiate their greediness. Although the word קדש²⁶ kadesh, signifies to prepare, yet its literal meaning seems most appropriate here. I have therefore retained the word sanctify, which is, however, used ironically here, for Moses does not exhort them to purge themselves from all defilements and piously and sincerely to receive the grace of God, but he chastises their profane and brutal gluttony.

Others translate it simply, as if it were said, "Whet your teeth, and make ready your bellies." But, in my judgment, a reproof is implied, because they are polluted by a foul and wicked desire, so as to be incapable of receiving God’s paternal favor. For you shall eat flesh follows, because your weeping and complaining has reached the ears of God. By these words he signifies that by their persistent cries they had provoked God’s anger, so that they should devour nothing but deadly food.

Soon afterwards it is stated more clearly that by their insolence they had deserved to be destroyed by the bounty of God. For a whole month, he says, you shall gormandize, till it come out of your nostrils, and it be loathsome to you. Thus he compares them to those gluttons who so overwhelm themselves with gluttony that they are obliged soon afterwards to vomit what they have eaten too greedily, or who abominate the taste of their superfluous luxuries, as if they were something filthy.

This is what is meant by "to come out," or "to be blown out, at the nostrils." זרא²⁷ tzara, which we have translated abomination, properly means dispersion; but Moses indicates by it that they shall vomit, or spit it out, like something unfit to be swallowed.

If any should object that it is said in Psalm 78:30, They were not yet estranged from their lust, this is easily resolved by understanding that their unrestrained gluttony is rebuked there,²⁸ as if he called them gluttons (gurgites), whom no abundance can satisfy. Therefore the Prophet says that although they were bursting with excess, they were not satiated but were so inflamed by their boundless voracity that God’s vengeance alone could repress it.

But the reason alleged for this is especially to be observed: because they had rejected God, who was in the midst of them. By these words, the excuse of error or oversight is barred. For if, for the purpose of testing their patience, God had withdrawn His power, the terror they conceived at His absence might perhaps have been excusable. But now, when they knew by sure experience that their means of subsistence were supplied by Him, they betray their deliberate wickedness by despising His present beneficence.

For God being in the midst of them is equivalent to His giving manifest signs both of His infinite power and His paternal favor. These words show us that the more immediately God manifests His grace to us, the more inexcusable we are if we disparage it when it is thus liberally offered to us.

What follows might appear not to deserve severe reproof, namely, that they "wept before God." But the enormity of the sin is specified directly afterwards, that is, that they were vexed by their departure from Egypt. For this was not merely to repudiate the deliverance, which they had so greatly longed for, but to quarrel with God because He had listened to their cry and had condescended to redeem them from their wretched and lost condition.

²⁶ If קדש may be said to signify to prepare, it can only be so rendered when the preparation is by sanctifying. — W. may be said to signify to prepare, it can only be so rendered when the preparation is by sanctifying. — W.

²⁷ זרא (loathsomeness) is said by S. M. to be an irregular form of (loathsomeness) is said by S. M. to be an irregular form of זרה; and he renders it dispersion, agreeably with the acknowledged meaning of the root ; and he renders it dispersion, agreeably with the acknowledged meaning of the root זרה. This account of the word has the sanction of modern lexicographers. — W.. This account of the word has the sanction of modern lexicographers. — W.

²⁸ Que la le Sainct Esprit deteste leur gourmandise desbordee;” that there the Holy Spirit marks His detestation of their unbridled gluttony. — Fr..