Why the Seventy Elders Belong to God Among Thirteen Holy Things

"To put the burden of all this people upon me" (Numbers 11:11). The Omnipresent answered him and said to him: At once, "Gather Me seventy men, etc." (Numbers 11:16) — that they should bear this burden, the elders. This is one of thirteen things that are written to the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, and these are they: the silver, and the gold, and the priests, and the Levites, and Israel, and the firstborn, and the altar, and the heave-offering (terumah), and the anointing oil, and the Tent of Meeting, and the kingdom of the house of David — as it is written, "for I have seen among his sons a king for Me" (1 Samuel 16:1) — and the sacrifices, and the elders, as it is written, "Gather Me [seventy men of the elders of Israel]." "Whom you know to be the elders of the people and its officers" (Numbers 11:16). He said to him: those officers who were beaten on behalf of Israel in Egypt, as it is said, "and the officers of the children of Israel were beaten" (Exodus 5:14) — those, in place of the beating, shall receive greatness.