TWO MEN WHO "PROPHESIED IN THE CAMP" (NUMBERS 11:26) · EXODUS & WILDERNESS

Eldad and Medad. The spirit rested on them in the camp, and Moses would not forbid them.

SCRIPTURE CALLS

Prophet

ERA

Exodus & wilderness c. 1450–1400 BC

IN THE DAYS OF

Moses

BOOK

None bears the name

HOW THE WORD CAME

Numbers 11 · The spirit in the camp

THE CALL

How the word first came

NUMBERS 11 · THE SPIRIT IN THE CAMP

“and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.”

Numbers 11:26 (KJV) →

HOW THE WORD KEPT COMING

  • "The spirit rested upon them", the same words used of the seventy at the tabernacle. Numbers 11:25–26
  • From the textNumbers says they "prophesied", but does not record anything they said. Numbers 11:26–27

BEFORE THE KINGS

Before Moses

LEADER OF ISRAEL, LAWGIVER AND PROPHET

Moses

“Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!”

Numbers 11:29 (KJV) →

PLACES

Where his story happened

  • The camp at Kibroth-hattaavah · The chapter’s camp is named in verse 34; the text does not name the place of the elders’ gathering separately.

COMPANIONS AND OPPONENTS

Who stood with him, and against him

Moses

Joshua

The seventy elders

HOW THE STORY ENDS

Scripture says, tradition says

SCRIPTURE SAYS

  • From the textScripture names them only in Numbers 11:26–27 and says nothing more of them. Numbers 11:26–27

TRADITION SAYS

No tradition is recorded here.

OPEN QUESTIONS

Where readers have differed

Yes, two of those chosen, who stayed in the camp

Keil (1871); Gray says this is how the verse "is generally understood"

Keil calls them "two of the persons who had been chosen", who "had remained behind in the camp, for some reason that is not reported".[4]

Of the wider body of elders, not of the seventy

Gray (1903)

Gray points out that verse 24 says the seventy went out to the tabernacle and verse 25 that the seventy received the spirit, and that Moses’ answer "implies that Eldad and Medad did not belong to the number". If the clause is original and not a later note, he says, it would be better to take "the registered" as "the whole body of elders from whom the seventy were chosen".[16]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 1

Numbers 11

PASSAGES · 1

Numbers 11:16–30

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not give their tribe or family, why they stayed in the camp, or what they said.
  • Nothing is said of them after Numbers 11:27.

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 1 (Genesis; Exodus 1–11) (1864), pp. 451–452 (Exodus 4:14–16).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 1 (Genesis; Exodus 1–11) (1864), p. 472 (Exodus 6:28–7:7).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 2 (1872 printing) (1872), p. 56 (Exodus 15:19–21).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 70–71 (Numbers 11:24–30).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 75–76 (Numbers 12:1–3).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 136 (Numbers 20:22–29); pp. 244–245 (Numbers 33:30–33 and Deuteronomy 10:6).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 158–161 (Balaam and his prophecies, introduction).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 165 (Numbers 22:5).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 168–169 (Numbers 22:20–22).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 192–194 (Numbers 24:17–18).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), pp. 394–396 (Deuteronomy 18:15–19).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, vol. 3 (1871 printing) (1871), p. 492 (Deuteronomy 32:48–52); pp. 517–518 (Concluding remarks on the composition of the Pentateuch).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (1872 printing of the 1865 translation) (1872), p. 308 (Judges 5:1).
  • George Foot Moore, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 130–132 (Judges 5, the date and author of the song).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), p. xlvi (Introduction §15).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 113–115 (Numbers 11:25–29).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 120–121 (Numbers 12:1).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 325–326 (Numbers 22:5).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 332–333 (Numbers 22:22).
  • George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers (International Critical Commentary) (1903), pp. 369–371 (Numbers 24:17–18).
  • S. R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy (International Critical Commentary) (1895), p. xxvii (Introduction §3) and pp. xlv–xlvi (Introduction §4, the date of Deuteronomy).
  • S. R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 119–120 (Deuteronomy 10:6–7).
  • S. R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy (International Critical Commentary) (1895), pp. 228–229 (Deuteronomy 18:15–19).
  • A. F. Kirkpatrick, The First Book of Samuel (Cambridge Bible for Schools) (1884), Introduction, ch. I, §§2–4 (the title, the author and the sources).
  • A. F. Kirkpatrick, The First Book of Samuel (Cambridge Bible for Schools) (1884), p. 219 (note on 28:11) and Appendix, Note VIII, pp. 244–245.
  • Origen, tr. Frederick Crombie, Against Celsus, book 1 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4) (1885), 1.59–60.
  • Origen, tr. Frederick Crombie, De Principiis (On First Principles), book 3 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4) (1885), 3.2.1.
  • Tertullian, tr. Peter Holmes, A Treatise on the Soul (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3) (1885), ch. 57.
  • Jerome, tr. W. H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W. G. Martley, Against Vigilantius (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 6) (1893), ch. 5.
  • J. B. Lightfoot and J. R. Harmer (eds. and trs.), The Apostolic Fathers (one-volume edition): The Shepherd of Hermas (1891), introduction, pp. 293–294; Vision 2.3, p. 409.

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