It is roughly 1445 b.c. in the Sinai Peninsula. Nomads drag heavy basalt grinding stones across scorched gravel. The desert heat beats down relentlessly on the encampment. People scrape pale, sticky resin from the earth and beat it in heavy mortars. A harsh wind howls off the sea. Exhaustion settles deep in their bones. A heavy dread hangs over the tents as men and women weep openly outside their doorways. The Maker sends a consuming fire to the edges of the camp. The Lord also provides seventy elders to share the crushing administrative burden.
Moses faces a sprawling mutiny. Over six hundred thousand men demand better field rations. The mixed multitude remembers the free fish and cucumbers of Egypt. They despise the daily harvest of manna. Moses reaches his breaking point and asks the Almighty to kill him. The Lord instructs him to gather seventy proven men at the tent of meeting. He takes some of the spirit resting on Moses and places it on them. A sudden wind drives a massive flock of quail from the water. The birds drop three feet deep across a day's journey in every direction.
The resulting graves at Kibroth Hattaavah serve as a permanent geographical warning. Starving men gather roughly sixty bushels of dead birds each and spread the meat across the desert floor to cure. The human craving for variety overrides basic survival instincts. They gorge themselves before the flesh can be properly prepared. The ensuing plague strikes while the meat remains wedged between their teeth. A sudden influx of unchecked resources routinely destroys those who lack discipline.
A man who complains about the daily rations keeping him alive will eventually choke on the feast he demanded.
The Israelites marched forward leaving a sprawling cemetery in the hot sand. The ungrateful dead remained buried at the coordinates of their own greed while the survivors broke camp for Hazeroth.