Kibroth Hattaavah
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Kibroth-hattaavah (Hebrew: קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה) means the graves of the longing or of the lust, and is one of the places the Israelites stopped in the wilderness during the Exodus. It was probably in the Wadi Murrah, and has been identified with the Erweis el-Ebeirig, where the remains of an ancient encampment have been found, about 30 miles north-east of Sinai, and exactly a day's journey from 'Ain Hudherah.
Here began the troubles of the journey. First, complaints broke out among the people, probably at the heat, the toil, and the privations of the march; and then God at once punished them by fire, which fell on one edge of the camp, and killed many people, but ceased at the intercession of Moses (Numbers 11:1, 2).
Then a disgust fell over the multitude at having nothing to eat but the manna day after day, no change, no meat, no fish, no high-flavoured vegetables, no luscious fruits... The people loathed the "insubstantial food," and cried out to Moses, "Who will feed us meat?!" In this emergency Moses, in despair, cried unto God. An answer came. God sent "a prodigious flight of quails, on which the people satiated their gluttonous appetite for a full month. Then punishment fell on them: they loathed the food which they had desired; it bred disease in them; the divine anger aggravated the disease into a plague, and a heavy mortality was the consequence. The dead were buried without the camp; and in memory of man's sin and of the divine wrath this name, Kibroth-hattaavah, the Graves of Lust, was given to the place of their sepulchre" (Num. 11:34, 35; 33:16, 17; Deut. 9:22; comp. Ps. 78:30, 31)., Rawlinson's Moses, p. 175.
From this encampment they journeyed in a north-eastern direction to Hazeroth.
This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
| Previous Station: Desert of Sinai |
the Exodus Stations list |
Next Station: Hazeroth |
See also Kibroth-hattaavah inscriptions e.g.
Page 5, The Bible and World History, [1]
Pages 60–68, 132–135 of The Signature of God by Grant R. Jeffrey
