How Moses Chose the Seventy Elders by Lot and Eldad and Medad

Another interpretation of "Gather to Me seventy men" (Numbers 11:16): When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Gather to Me seventy men," Moses said: How shall I do this, to bring from all the tribes? If I bring five from each tribe, they do not add up to the number of seventy — they are only sixty. And if I bring six from each tribe, they add up to the number of seventy-two. And if I bring five from this tribe and six from that tribe, I impose jealousy among the tribes. What did Moses do? Rabbi Judah says: He took seventy slips and wrote on them "Elder," and he took another [two] blank slips, mixed them, and placed them in an urn. And he said to them: Come and take your slips. Whoever drew a slip on which "Elder" was written knew that he had been appointed an elder, and whoever drew a blank slip knew that he had not been appointed an elder. Rabbi Nehemiah said to him: There would still be controversy, for one could say to him: Where is the slip on which "Elder" was written? Had it been there, it would have come up in my hand. Rather, how did he do for them? Rabbi Nehemiah said: He took seventy-two slips and wrote on them "Elder," and another seventy-two blank slips, and he mixed them and placed them in an urn. He said to them: Come and take your slips. If a slip on which "Elder" was written came up in his hand, he knew that he had been appointed an elder; and if a blank one came up in his hand, he knew that he had not been appointed. And the appointed officer would say to him: Behold, there is another slip there on which "Elder" is written; had you been fit to be appointed, it would have come up in your hand. When Moses did this, the elders were appointed. Eldad and Medad were there, and they diminished themselves. They said: We are not worthy to be in the number of the elders. And because they diminished themselves, they were found to exceed the elders in five matters.