The Seventy Elders. 16Then the LORD said to Moses: Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders and authorities among the people, and bring them to the tent of meeting. When they are in place beside you, 17I will come down and speak with you there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will confer it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself.

18To the people, however, you shall say: “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, when you shall have meat to eat. For in the hearing of the LORD you have cried, ‘If only we had meat for food! Oh, how well off we were in Egypt!’ Therefore the LORD will give you meat to eat, 19and you will eat it, not for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days, 20but for a whole month—until it comes out of your very nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected the LORD who is in your midst, and in his presence you have cried, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”

21But Moses said, “The people around me include six hundred thousand soldiers; yet you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.’ 22Can enough sheep and cattle be slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 23The LORD answered Moses: Is this beyond the LORD’s reach? You shall see now whether or not what I have said to you takes place.

The Spirit on the Elders. 24So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. Gathering seventy elders of the people, he had them stand around the tent. 25The LORD then came down in the cloud and spoke to him. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied^* but did not continue.

26Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in the camp, yet the spirit came to rest on them also. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; and so they prophesied in the camp. 27So, when a young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp,” 28Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said, “My lord, Moses, stop them.” 29But Moses answered him, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the people of the LORD were prophets! If only the LORD would bestow his spirit on them!” 30Then Moses retired to the camp, along with the elders of Israel.

The Quail. 31There arose a wind^f from the LORD that drove in quail from the sea and left them all around the camp site, to a distance of a day’s journey and at a depth of two cubits upon the ground.^* 32^g So all that day, all night, and all the next day the people set about to gather in the quail. Even the one who got the least gathered ten homers^* of them. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, the LORD’s wrath flared up against the people, and the LORD struck them with a very great plague. 34So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah,^* because it was there that the greedy people were buried.

35From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth, where they stayed.

The Signs Come to Pass. 9As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed his heart. That very day all these signs came to pass…. 10^* From there they arrived at Gibeah, where a band of prophets met Saul, and the spirit of God rushed upon him, so that he joined them in their prophetic ecstasy.^f 11When all who had known him previously saw him in a prophetic state among the prophets, they said to one another, “What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”^g 12And someone from that district responded, “And who is their father?” Thus the saying arose, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” 13When he came out of the prophetic ecstasy, he went home.

Silence About the Kingship. 14Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where have you been?” Saul replied, “Looking for the donkeys. When we could not find them, we went to Samuel.” 15Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me, then, what Samuel said to you.” 16Saul said to his uncle, “He assured us that the donkeys had been found.” But Saul told him nothing about what Samuel had said about the kingship.

The Coming of the Spirit. 1^* When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.^a 2And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind,^* and it filled the entire house in which they were.^b 3Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,^* which parted and came to rest on each one of them.^c 4And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues,^* as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.^d

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. 6At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?^e 8Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language? 9We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, 11both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”^f 12They were all astounded and bewildered, and said to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others said, scoffing, “They have had too much new wine.”^g

The Advocate. 15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.^j 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate^* to be with you always,^k 17the Spirit of truth,^* which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.^l 18I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.^* 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.^m 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.ⁿ 21Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”^o 22Judas, not the Iscariot,^* said to him, “Master, [then] what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”^p 23Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.^q 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.