HEBREW WORD STUDY – CRAVINGS – SHE’ELAH שאל Shin Aleph Lamed
Numbers 11:4-5: “And the mixt multitude that [was] among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? (5) We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely…”
Psalms 106:15: “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”
Let me share with you something I found very interesting in the Midrash Rabbah and the Talmud in Yoma 75a. Numbers 11:4 indicates that there was a mix multitude among the children of Israel during the Exodus. This could have very well have been the Hyksos or the Sea People who had once overthrown the Egyptian ruler and set up their own dynasty until the Egyptians overthrew them. You will find many history books still refer to them as Egyptians as they were well integrated into the Egyptian culture and land when they took power. They ruled about the same time as Joseph which may explain the willingness to make a foreigner a prime minister as the Pharaoh himself was likely a foreigner. Then when the Egyptians took power again with a Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph” the Hebrews and Hyksos were enslaved to prevent them for revolting again.
When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt a contingency of Hyksos joined them to escape the bondage although they failed to really accept the Hebrew God. As a result of this foreign element continually led the Hebrews away from God until God resolved the issue in a way we might call poetic justice. These foreigners were not satisfied with eating manna every day they wanted more, despite the fact that clearly, God was sending them a miracle every day in supplying them with manna. But they also wanted meat to eat so God gave them meat, tons of it when he sent a wind to bring in mounds of quail and it says in Numbers 11:20 that there would enough quail to last a month. However, it was not like the manna which came every day but he sent a whole month supply at one time. The people greedily gathered their supply. In verse 31 we learn the Lord sent a great plague killing off these greedy people. My guess is the Lord indeed sent a great plague because as we all know the meat of a fowl does not last long, especially in the desert. They apparently ate it raw and died of food poisoning.
What I discovered from reading the Talmud and Midrash Rabbah is that Psalms 106:15 is making a reference to this story of the quail. The word request in Psalms 106:15 is she’elah in Hebrew which your lexicons will tell you means request, thing asked for or demand. The Talmud however, gives the rendering as a craving. God gave them what they craved but put razon (a plague) in their soul. In other words, God gave them their desire or soulish craving but with it came a disease, likely food poisoning.
But the sages draw something else from this. The manna also fulfilled their cravings. In other words, the manna changed in their mouth into any taste they desired or craved. But it did not look like what they desired. It wasn’t enough that it satisfied their taste, but it had to look like what it tasted. The Talmud also taught that manna was the perfect food. The body used every molecule of the manna such that there was no waste or bodily elimination. Hence no problem of sanitation during their journey. There was no problem with spoilage in the desert. But that was not enough for the people they wanted things just right for their fleshly or soulish desires.
The Talmud also teaches from verse 5 that when they asked for fish, this was really an idiom for sex. They just did not lust for meat but sexual vice as well. They wanted the freedom to practice forbidden sexual relationships. This meant, not only perverted sexual relationships but the Hyksos men and women were desiring intermarriage and sexual relationships with the Hebrews which was forbidden.
Jesus warned against conforming to this world’s system which refers to the many perversions of this world and its ungodly practices. In Romans 1:24: “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:” God has His reasons for forbidding us to practice the lust and uncleanness of our hearts. He knows what it leads to, we know what it leads to. Yet, we live in an age that if we call smoking or pre-marital sex a sin, we are being legalistic. If a person wants to take the risk, let them do it, God will forgive. Sure He will forgive, but you will still have to pay the price for indulging in your forbidden fleshly desires. It wasn’t the quail that was sinful, it was the rebellion against God, not being satisfied with what God had given them.
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