Nehama Leibowitz (1982, pp. 118,119) suggests that in Shemot the people had just come out of Egypt so these complaints could be expected while in Bemidbar the people had been living with the protection of G-d for more than a year. Also, she writes that the “second occasion was no longer the first offense, they had been warned (?) and they should have known better.”
In the Anchor Bible Dictionary (Freedman, 1992, topic: covenant), they explain that in Shemot, the people had not yet made a covenant with G-d, while in Bemidbar the people had made a covenant that made them responsible for their actions.
Another possibility is that after the sin of the golden calf, G-d was less forgiving. The idea being that really the people should have been wiped out for the sin of the golden calf (Shemot 32:10), but G-d accepted Moshe's prayers to let them live. However, now G-d's tolerance for their sins was much lower so when they complained after the sin of the golden calf they were punished. Maybe this is the idea of Shemot 32:34 that when the people would sin, then it will be considered as being more grievous due to the sin of the golden calf.
A fourth possibility is that from Vayikra 17:3 it appears that the people had meat, and most likely the laws recorded in Vayikra 17 were told to Moshe just a month or so before the people are complaining for meat. Maybe the people’s complaint for meat was because Vayikra 17:5,6 required the people to bring their slaughtered animals to the mishkan/ ohel moed, and then the people would have had to give some of their meat to the priest. The meat was then no longer free, and maybe this was a reason for their complaints that they did not want to share their meat with the priests. Following this approach, G-d was angry here since the people were complaining since they did not want to bring the meat as sacrifices in the mishkan/ ohel moed, though they had been willing to offer sacrifices to satyrs, Vayikra 17:7. According to this idea, their complaints for meat also showed a desire not to worship G-d.
A fifth answer is that in Shemot 16:3 they had yet received the mahn, and they honestly thought they were going to die of starvation, but here they had been receiving the mahn for a year, and they were not on the verge of starvation.
Regardless of why G-d was angry with the people's request, their request was apparently fulfilled. 11:31 records that a wind, ruah, came and brought copious quantities of birds, which fell/ landed outside the camp. 11:32 then records that the people went out and collected the birds for thirty-six hours (continuous?), day, night and day, and then they placed and the birds around the camp in order to cure the meat to last a month (see Milgrom, 1990, p. 92 and Alter, 2004, p. 740) or to store the birds in an orderly fashion. However, then 11:33 records that the meat (birds) was in between their teeth and G-d killed the people.
Why were the people killed when they ate the birds? 11:18-20 records that G-d was upset with the people, but G-d did not say the people were going to die from eating meat, but that the people would loath the meat. 11:18-20 records that the people would eat meat for thirty days, but in the end, the people ate meat for less than one day. In addition, why would G-d provide huge quantities of birds if the people would barely eat the birds? If the request for meat was inappropriate, why did G-d agree to grant the meat?
The Ramban (on 11:19, also see Seforno on 11:33) suggests that there were two groups of people who desired to eat meat, but not everybody died. One group, the wicked, the asafsuf, died immediately, while the not as bad, ate the meat for a month until they became sick of it. This approach is problematic since 11:33,34 records that the people died, ha-am, and does not distinguish between the asafsuf, who are only mentioned in 11:4, and the rest of the nation.
Instead, the answer to all the questions is that G-d was going to give sufficient meat/ birds for the people to eat for a month, as stated in 11:18-20, and that is why such large quantities of birds fell outside the camp. However, the people sinned after the birds fell near the camp, and this is why they were killed. 11:32 records three actions by the people, which apparently caused G-d to punish them.
One action relates to the people’s response to G-d’s instructions to Moshe. When G-d responded to the people’s request, he told Moshe to tell the people that the people were to mekadesh the following day and eat meat, 11:18. This command to be mekadesh was presumably for people to separate from their spouses (see Shemot 19:10-15), which would show their ability to control their desires. We do not know if they did this, but we do know that the people did not follow G-d’s instructions with regard to the birds since they did not eat the birds the following day, but two days later.
After Moshe told the people G-d’s instruction in 11:18, the prophesizing of the seventy people outside of the camp occurred, 11:24-29, and only afterwards the birds descended by the camp. We know this since 11:30 records that Moshe, who had been outside the camp in his personal tent with the seventy people, went into the camp after being informed that Eldad and Medad were prophesying as he could not have remained outside the camp when the numerous birds were descending outside the camp.
Accordingly, at best, these birds began arriving in the afternoon after G-d had given the instructions to the people, or maybe they only came later at night, as by the first occurrence of the birds, Shemot 16:13 records that they came at night. Also, such large quantities of birds would have taken quite some time to descend. In addition, 11:32 records that the people got up, va-yakam, which would refer to the people getting up in the morning. We see that the birds fell during the night after Moshe had told the people G-d’s instructions as recorded in 11:18. Yet, the people did not eat the birds that day as 11:32 records that the people spent the entire day, the night and the following day gathering birds. It was only a day after the birds fell (two days after hearing G-d’s instructions) did the people start to eat the birds. Thus, the first possible sin of the people was that people did not follow G-d’s instructions after G-d had agreed to give them meat since they ate the meat two days after hearing G-d’s instructions, while they were supposed to have eaten the meat on the day after hearing the instructions.
The second possible sin was that the people had complained that they had such a craving for meat that they remembered Egypt in a positive manner, 11:4,5. Yet, when the meat came and they had a chance to eat the meat, they waited a full day, as we explained above, to eat the birds/ meat. What happened to their craving for meat? Just like they were able to hold back from eating meat for one day, they could have held back for a month or so until they got to the land of Israel. The people’s actions showed that the craving for meat was just a pretext for complaining about the Exodus from Egypt.
The third possible sin in 11:32 is that by gathering all the quantities of birds, the people were showing a lack of faith in G-d. G-d had told them that they would have meat for thirty days, which means that they only had to gather enough birds to eat that day, and then the next day they could go out to gather more birds. This would have been like the mahn as each day they went out to get the mahn, Shemot 16:16-21. Accordingly, by gathering the birds in such large quantities, this showed that the people did not believe that G-d would provide more birds if needed.
Note, the people died when the meat was still in the teeth which means that they did not swallow the food or have a chance to enjoy the taste of the birds. This would be a measure for measure punishment since the people had complained about the taste of the mahn, 11:6.
Did all the people eat the birds at the exact same time? Presumably no. What then happened to the people who were not the first people to eat the birds? Would they have eaten the birds after seeing that other people died had died immediately when eating the birds? I'm guessing no, who would take that chance? This means that some of the people who gathered the birds to eat, had to sit and stare at the birds. I doubt that that they were even willing to burn the birds since they would have been scared of what would happen to them. This group of people even knew that the birds were tasty since they had eaten them before in Shemot 16, but this just increased their punishment. For these people, G-d did not kill them and they suffered by having to stare and smell the meat for a month.
With this understanding, the phrase in 11:20 that the meat "would come out of their nostrils" is not referring to the meat itself but to the smell of the meat that either the meat smelled good or the meat became rancid, see Ibn Ezra on 11:20. In either event, the birds/ meat became loathsome to those people who had to hold back from eating the birds. Note, had the people not sinned, then the people would have eaten meat for a month, and eating so much meat would have made the meat loathsome to them (diminishing marginal utility).
In addition, 11:34 records that the people who had not eaten the birds had to bury the people who had begun to eat the birds, “the cravers.” Maybe this burying was also a punishment since the survivors would have realized that had they eaten first they would have died. Also, this burying might have been a way to remind the people what Egypt was really like, a place where they had to bury their male children who had been killed by the Egyptians.
Bibliography:
Alter, Robert, 2004, The five books of Moses: A translation and commentary, New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Freedman, David Noel, 1992, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Leibowitz, Nehama, 1982, Bemidbar, translated and adapted by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization
Milgrom, Jacob, 1990, The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.
The second possible sin was that the people had complained that they had such a craving for meat that they remembered Egypt in a positive manner, 11:4,5. Yet, when the meat came and they had a chance to eat the meat, they waited a full day, as we explained above, to eat the birds/ meat. What happened to their craving for meat? Just like they were able to hold back from eating meat for one day, they could have held back for a month or so until they got to the land of Israel. The people’s actions showed that the craving for meat was just a pretext for complaining about the Exodus from Egypt.
The third possible sin in 11:32 is that by gathering all the quantities of birds, the people were showing a lack of faith in G-d. G-d had told them that they would have meat for thirty days, which means that they only had to gather enough birds to eat that day, and then the next day they could go out to gather more birds. This would have been like the mahn as each day they went out to get the mahn, Shemot 16:16-21. Accordingly, by gathering the birds in such large quantities, this showed that the people did not believe that G-d would provide more birds if needed.
Note, the people died when the meat was still in the teeth which means that they did not swallow the food or have a chance to enjoy the taste of the birds. This would be a measure for measure punishment since the people had complained about the taste of the mahn, 11:6.
Did all the people eat the birds at the exact same time? Presumably no. What then happened to the people who were not the first people to eat the birds? Would they have eaten the birds after seeing that other people died had died immediately when eating the birds? I'm guessing no, who would take that chance? This means that some of the people who gathered the birds to eat, had to sit and stare at the birds. I doubt that that they were even willing to burn the birds since they would have been scared of what would happen to them. This group of people even knew that the birds were tasty since they had eaten them before in Shemot 16, but this just increased their punishment. For these people, G-d did not kill them and they suffered by having to stare and smell the meat for a month.
With this understanding, the phrase in 11:20 that the meat "would come out of their nostrils" is not referring to the meat itself but to the smell of the meat that either the meat smelled good or the meat became rancid, see Ibn Ezra on 11:20. In either event, the birds/ meat became loathsome to those people who had to hold back from eating the birds. Note, had the people not sinned, then the people would have eaten meat for a month, and eating so much meat would have made the meat loathsome to them (diminishing marginal utility).
In addition, 11:34 records that the people who had not eaten the birds had to bury the people who had begun to eat the birds, “the cravers.” Maybe this burying was also a punishment since the survivors would have realized that had they eaten first they would have died. Also, this burying might have been a way to remind the people what Egypt was really like, a place where they had to bury their male children who had been killed by the Egyptians.
Bibliography:
Alter, Robert, 2004, The five books of Moses: A translation and commentary, New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Freedman, David Noel, 1992, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Leibowitz, Nehama, 1982, Bemidbar, translated and adapted by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization
Milgrom, Jacob, 1990, The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.