Numbers 11:13

Summary

Numbers 11:13 presents Moses' complaint to God, asking rhetorically where he could obtain meat for the entire people. He explains his distress by quoting the people's own words: they weep before him demanding meat to eat.

Key words

• me'Ayin ("from where?", H9006+H0370) — an interrogative construction combining "from" with "where," forming the rhetorical question that opens the verse. It expresses impossibility rather than a genuine request for information.
• baSar ("meat", H1320) — a masculine singular noun appearing twice in the verse (lines 5 and 24), once in Moses' question and once inside the people's quoted demand, linking his complaint directly to their words.
• yivKu ("they are weeping", H1058) — a qal imperfect verb, third person masculine plural, denoting an ongoing or repeated action. The imperfect aspect suggests continuous or habitual weeping rather than a single event.
• teNah ("give", H5414G) with paragogic he (H9012) — a qal imperative with an emphatic suffix (the paragogic he), intensifying the command form. This is the people's direct speech, quoted within Moses' own speech.
• no'Khelah ("let us eat", H0398) — though morphologically glossed here as an infinitive, this cohortative-type form expresses the intended result of receiving meat: the people's stated purpose in demanding it.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a rhetorical question followed by a causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A), which itself contains an embedded quotation. Moses first asks me'Ayin li baSar ("from where to me meat"), a construction lacking a verb of possession — literally "from-where to-me meat" — placing the burden of impossibility on his own lack of resources. The phrase latet lekhol-ha'Am hazZeh ("to give to all this people") specifies the scale of the demand: not a few individuals but kol ("all", H3605) the people.

The causal clause explains Moses' outburst: ki yivKu 'aLai ("for they weep upon/against me"), using the imperfect yivKu to indicate persistent action. The preposition 'aLai ("upon me") with the first-person suffix marks the weeping as directed at Moses personally, not merely a general lament. The infinitive lemor ("saying") introduces direct speech, shifting from Moses' voice to the people's exact words: teNah-Lanu baSar ("give to us meat"), an imperative intensified by the paragogic he, followed by veno'Khelah ("and let us eat"), stating the people's purpose.

The repetition of baSar in both Moses' question and the people's quoted demand creates a verbal link between his complaint and their original request, embedding their voice within his own speech to God.