THE RABBLE — a reduplicated form built on asaf, 'to gather,' so roughly 'the collected-collection.' A hapax: it occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, only at Numbers 11:4 (already on these pages), where it names whoever started the craving for meat. Most read it as the 'mixed multitude' (erev rav) that came up out of Egypt alongside Israel at Exodus 12:38 (already on these pages) — non-Israelites travelling with the camp — though this verse never says so, and the text immediately adds that the children of Israel joined in the weeping. KJV 'the mixt multitude'; NWT 'the mixed crowd.' The contempt is audible in the sound of the word itself. → first discussed at Num 11:4