Sifrei Bamidbar 98

(Bamidbar 11:32) "And the people rose all that day … hamamit": Read it not "hamamit" ("he that gathered least"), but "hamemuat" (the "least" among them, i.e., the indolent and the lame), gathered ten kor." (Ibid.) "Vayishtechu lahem shatoach": R. Yehudah says: Do not read it thus ("vayishtechu"), but "vayishchatu"("and they slaughtered"): We are hereby taught that what descended for them required shechitah (ritual slaughter). Rebbi says: This (derivation) is not needed, for it is already written (Psalms 78:27) "And he rained down upon them meat like dust and winged birds like the sand of seas." What, then, is the intent of "Vayishchetu lahem shatoach"? That it came down in layers (mashtichim). I might think that just as they gathered much, so, they ate much of it; it is, therefore, written (Bamidbar, Ibid. 11:33) "The flesh was yet between their teeth." He (the eater) did not finish biting it before his soul left him, as it is written (Psalms, Ibid. 31) "They had not yet been estranged from their craving; their food was still in their mouth, when the wrath of G-d rose against them and He smote their fattest." (Bamidbar, Ibid.) "And the wrath of the L-rd burned against the people, and the L-rd smote the people with a very great plague." We are hereby apprised that the L-rd sent against them a sore plague, the like of which had not been seen since the day they left Egypt." (Ibid. 34) "And he called the name of that place 'Kivroth Hata'avah' ("the graves of the lust"). I might think that this is its name of yore; it is, therefore, written (Ibid.) "for there they buried the people that lusted." It was thus called because of the event. (Ibid. 35) "From Kivroth Hata'avah the people traveled to Chatzeiroth, and they abode in Chatzeiroth": Now were there two Chatzeiroth, one from which they traveled and one in which they camped? But (the intent is) once Israel began to travel, they did not continue before they heard that Miriam became leprous and they turned back and camped behind them — wherefore, (Ibid. 12:16) "And afterwards the people traveled from Chatzeiroth" — "and they abode in Chatzeiroth."