Matthew Poole and continuators on Numbers 11:1

1 AND when the people complained , it displeased the LORD, and the LORD heard it, and his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp .

Or, murmured, the occasion whereof seems to be their last three dayes journey in a vast howling wilderness, without any benefit, and thereupon the remembrance of their long abode in the wilderness and the prospect and fear of many other tedious and fruitless and dangerous journeys, whereby they were like to be long delayed from coming to that rest that land of milk and honey which God had promised them, and which they thirsted after.

(i. e.) A fire sent from God in an extraordinary manner, possibly from the pillar of cloud and fire, or from heaven, as 2 King. 1. 12.

Either because the sin began there among the mixt multitude, who probably had their place there, or amongst those who were feeble and weary with their last journey and therefore hindmost in the march: or in mercy to the people, whom he would rather awaken to repentance than utterly destroy, and therefore he sent it into the skirts not the heart and midst of the camp.

Marginal references: Or, were as it were complainers; Heb. it was evil in the [illegible: 1+ letters]ars of, &c.; Psal. 78. 21.