Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 11:31
And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let [them] fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits [high] upon the face of the earth.
31. a wind from Jehovah ] He employed a wind to reduce the deluge (Genesis 8:1 P ), to bring and remove the locusts (Exo 10:13; Exo 10:19 J ), and to drive back the Red Sea (Exo 14:21 J ).
brought quails across from the sea ] Probably from the Gulf of Akaba. It is so understood by the writer of Psa 78:26 who speaks of the east and the south wind.
let them fall ] left them. The wind suddenly lessened, and the quails came down tired with their long flight. Some of them may have fallen to the ground exhausted, as was frequently the case in quail swarms; but the main body of them were hovering above the ground at a height of about two cubits ( c. one yard), and were easily netted. Quails fly northwards to Europe in large numbers in March, returning towards the end of September (see art. ‘Quails’ in Hastings’ DB. iv.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Num 11:31-35
They gathered the quails.
The quails
I. Israels complaint.
1. Its object was food.
2. Its nature was intense. Fell a lusting.
3. It was general.
4. It was accompanied with tears. A faint, weary, disappointed people. Tears, chiefly, of discontent.
5. It was associated with the retrospections of memory. We remember, &c. (Num 11:5). They should also have remembered some other things of that past. Their bondage, &c.
6. It made present things distasteful. There is nothing at all. There was a time when they did not call the manna nothing. Longing for what we have not tends to cause disparagement of things possessed.
II. Moses perplexity. Great popular leaders have often been perplexed by the unreasonable clamours of their followers. Have often been urged farther than their greater prudence and wisdom would have chosen. People have often damaged their own cause by exorbitant demands.
1. Moses displeased at the position in which he found himself. My wretchedness (Num 11:15). His faith faltered (Num 11:11-12). Especially displeased with the people (Num 11:10).
2. In his perplexity cried to the Lord. A good example. God a present help in trouble.
3. He acknowledges his own weakness (Num 11:21-22). He could not feed the people. It would be suicidal to kill the flocks and herds, even if they were enough. Needed for sacrifice; and the religious well-being of the people of most importance.
4. He receives comfort, and direction (Num 11:23).
III. Gods providence. Nature is His storehouse, in which He has garnered food for man and beast. He made all living things. Endowed them with habits and instincts. Made the quails. Ordained their migratory habits. Made and ruled the winds. When the quails came, the wind was ready. It fulfilled the word of God. The wonderful flight of birds. The scene in the camp. What was sent so abundantly seems to have been thanklessly received. Divine anger went with the gift. Many of the people died. Learn–
1. To pray for the blessing of contentment.
2. To seek the moderation of our desires.
3. To pray for grateful hearts.
4. To acknowledge the hand of God in the supply of our wants.
5. To be chiefly anxious for the supply of spiritual need. (J. C. Gray.)
The graves of lust
I. There are perpetual resurrections of easily besetting sins.
1. The side from which the temptation came to them (Num 11:4-6). This mixed multitude corresponds precisely to the troop of disorderly passions and appetites, with which we suffer ourselves to march through the desert of life. Passions, desires, ever mad for indulgence, and reckless, scornful of Divine law.
2. The special season when the easily besetting sin rose up and again made them its slave. It is a fact which all close students of human character must have observed, that there is a back-water of temptation, if I may so speak, which is more deadly than its direct assaults. You may fight hard against a temptation, and fight victoriously. You may beat it off, and then, when, weary with the conflict, you suffer the strain of vigilance to relax, it shall steal in and easily master the citadel, which lately it spent all its force in vain to win. Beware of your best moments, as well as of your worst; or rather the moments which succeed the best. They are the most perilous of all.
II. There comes a point in the history of the indulgence of besetting sins, when god ceases to strive with us and for us against them, and lets them. Have their way.
1. God has great patience with the weaknesses and sins of the flesh. But it is a dreadful mistake to suppose that therefore He thinks lightly of them. He regards them as sins that must be conquered, and, no matter by what sharp discipline, extirpated and killed. He knows that, if tolerated, they become the most deadly of spiritual evils, and rot body and spirit together in hell.
2. Hence all the severer discipline by which the Lord seeks to purge them, the various agencies by which He fights with us and for us against their tyrannous power. What is life but one long discipline of God for the cleansing of the flesh? Are not the after-pains of departed sensual joys among its chief stings and thorns?
3. Left alone by God. God does not curse us; He leaves us to ourselves; that is curse enough, and from that curse what arm can save us! We will have it, and we shall have it. We leap through all the barriers which He has raised around us to limit us, yea, though they be rings of blazing fire, we will through them and indulge our lust; and in a moment He sweeps them all out of our path–perhaps roses spring to beguile, where flames so lately blazed to warn.
III. The end of that way is, inevitably and speedily, a grave. The grave of lust is one of the most awful of the inscriptions on the headstones of the great cemetery, the world. In how many do we now search in vain for fruits whose flowers once bloomed there; for generous emotions, swift responses to the appeals of sorrow, unselfish ministries, and stern integrity? How many have learnt now to laugh at emotions which once had a holy beauty in their sight; to fence skilfully with appeals which once would have thrilled to the very core of their hearts; to grasp at advantages which once they would have passed with a scornful anathema, and to clutch at the gold which was once the glad instrument of diffusing benefits around! Yes! there are graves enough around us–graves of passion, graves of self-will, graves of lust. Beware, young men; young women, beware! Beware! for the dead things buried in these graves will not lie quiet; they stir and start, and ever and anon come forth in their ghastly shrouds and scare you at your feasts. No ghosts so sure to haunt their graves as the ghosts of immolated faculties and violated vows. The memories which haunt the worn-out worldlings bed of impotence or lust are the true avengers of Heaven. The brain loses power to repel them, but retains power to fashion them. Once it could drive away thoughts and memories; now it can only retain them, and fix them in a horrid permanent session on their thrones. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
The Israelites sin and punishment
I. Their sin many consider a trifle. Certainly it was not of that character which the judgment inflicted on them would lead us to anticipate. We read here of no enormous transgression, or daring violation of Gods law. All they were guilty of, was a strong desire for something which God had not given them. Something evil, you will say perhaps, but not so; it was one of the most harmless things they could have desired. The Lord had provided them with manna for their support; they were weary of manna and wanted flesh. The children of Israel, we read, wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
1. You see, then, the nature of the sin we have before us. It is a sin of the heart–coveting, desiring; and that not slightly, but very eagerly, with the full bent of the mind. It is not spiritual idolatry, though it is like it. That is making too much of what we have; this is making too much of what we want.
2. Look at the cause or spring of Israels sin. Their desire for flesh was a desire springing up amidst abundance. It had its origin, not in their necessities, but m their vile affections, their own unsubdued, carnal minds.
3. Observe next the occasion of Israels sin. Oh, dread the mixed multitude. Stand in fear of worldly-minded professors of Christs gospel. They will teach you to lust for the things you now despise. They will drive, if not the fear, yet the peace of God from your hearts, and all they will give you in exchange for it will be a craving, aching soul, a share in their own restlessness and discontent.
4. Mark the effect of their sin, its immediate effect, I mean, on their own minds. It made them completely wretched. The truth is, the mind of man cannot long bear a strong and unchecked desire. It must be gratified or have a prospect of being gratified, or it consumes the soul. Perhaps we may say, this is one main ingredient in the misery of hell–a longing, and a longing, and a longing still, for something that can be never had.
5. Notice one thing more in this craving of the Israelites–its sinfulness or guilt. Wherein, then, did its sinfulness lie? In the twentieth verse, God tells us. He pronounces it a contempt of Himself. Moses is commanded to go to the weeping people, and say to them, Ye have despised the Lord which is among you. And how had they despised Him?
In three respects.
1. They had low thoughts of His power. Who, they asked, shall give us flesh to eat? Who can give it?
2. And their conduct involved in it a making light of His goodness. They had evidently lost sight at this time of all He had done for them, or if not so, they lightly esteemed what He had done.
3. And then there was also here a despising of Gods authority.
II. Look at the conduct of them insulted God towards them in consequence of their sin.
1. He granted their desire. We are told again and again that it displeased Him, that His anger was kindled greatly against the people on account of it; but how does He show His displeasure? He begins with giving them the very thing they wish for; He works a miracle to give it them; He gives it them to the utmost extent of their desires, and beyond them. But what was God really doing all this while? He was only vindicating His aspersed honour.
2. The Lord took vengeance on these Israelites, and this in a fearful manner and at a very remarkable time. It is often the will of God to make our sin our punishment. We eagerly crave something; He gives us what we crave, and when we have it, He either takes away from us all our delight in it, and so bitterly disappoints us, or else He causes it to prove to us a source of misery. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The judgments of God sometimes come very suddenly
In the midst of their lusts and pleasures, behold how Gods judgments come upon them. They had feasted a long time, and had glutted themselves with their flesh; now their sweet meat had sour sauce. The doctrine arising from hence is this, that the judgments of God do oftentimes fail upon men and women very suddenly before they be aware, when they least of all think or imagine of the day of wrath (Job 20:5-7; Job 21:17; Psa 73:19; Isa 30:13; Exo 12:29; Dan 5:30; Luk 12:20). The destruction of the wicked shall come as a whirlwind (Amo 1:14).
1. This is plain, because they have through Gods long-suffering increased the number, weight, and measure of their sins, and thereby compel the Lord to bring His judgments suddenly upon them.
2. God respecteth herein the benefit of others toward whom He hath not used as yet so long patience, to the end that they, seeing others fall into sudden destruction, may learn thereby not to abuse His patience, lest they also be suddenly destroyed (Dan 5:22).
The uses follow.
1. See from hence the happy estate of all such as think of the day of their reckoning betimes, and prepare their garments that they be not taken naked. Such are out of danger, and have no cause to fear wrath and judgment.
2. It serveth to teach us that we should not envy at the peace and prosperity of the wicked, neither fret at the flourishing estate of the ungodly that live in their sins, for howsoever they be for a time forborne, yet thereby they are the more hardened in their sins, till a far greater judgment come upon them. Therefore envy not at them though they grow great, for suddenly shall the judgments of God tulle hold upon them, and arrest them as guilty of death, and then they shall perish speedily; so that there is no reason to grieve or grudge at their prosperity.
3. From hence ariseth comfort to the faithful.
4. It is our duty to watch and attend with all care for the time of judgment. (W. Attersoll.)
The graves of lust
I. It is the tendency of lust to shorten life and to bring men to an untimely grave. Our animal desires are good servants; but, when they gain the mastery, they are fearful tyrants, loading the conscience with guilt and the body with disease, ruining life, and making eternity a hell. The Romans, it is said, held their funerals at the Gate of Venus, to teach that lust shortens life. The pleasures of sin are dearly bought.
II. Let us record some of our feelings as we contemplate the graves of lust.
1. The one is of intense pity, that man should be so foolish as to live in sin when he knew how it would end; that life should be so wasted, and opportunities lost, &c.
2. The other is of awful solemnity. He is gone; but whither? He has given up the ghost; but where is he?
Let us all–
1. Ascertain whether or no we are on the way to this grave.
2. Resolve through the help of God that we will not be there. Seek Jesus Christ. He, and He only, can rescue us from the power, the curse, and the consequences of sin. (David Lloyd.)
Inordinate desires
What we inordinately desire, if we obtain it, we have reason to fear that it will be some way or other a grief and cross to us. God sufficed them first, and then plagued them.
1. To save the reputation of His own power, that it might not be said, He had cut them off because He was not able to suffice them. And–
2. To show us the meaning of the prosperity of sinners; it is their preparation for ruin. They are fed as an ox for the slaughter. (Matthew Hearty, D. D.)
Graves of desire
The last thing that most people would desire is a grave, and yet how often does desire conduct to death! We will notice several manifestations of irregular and destructive desire, and, in conclusion, show how desire may be directed and chastened.
I. There is unseasonable desire. The desire of the people for flesh was not unnatural, not illegal in itself, but it was unseasonable. This is a common fault of ours, to desire legitimate things in times and places which are not convenient.
1. There is the impatience of youth. The course of life with many in these times reminds us of the days when we were lads, and when in the early morning we went a distance to school, taking our dinner with us; then appetite was keen, and it was no unusual thing to devour our dinner on the way to school, starving for the rest of the day. It is thus with thousands of infatuated ones a little later on; in the greediness of their heart they devour and waste their portion in the morning of life, and then starve through the long tedious day, or else go down to a premature grave. I say to my young brethren, wait, rein in your desires, move slowly, and every joy of life shall be yours in turn. Haste is of the devil, is a saying in the East popularly ascribed to Mahomet himself. We may accept the saying in the matter before us; let youth be moderate, deliberate, avoiding all feverishness, drawing slowly on the resources of life.
2. There is the eagerness, of manhood. We should do little in life without intensity, but there are times when we may with advantage take in sail, and give ourselves time for rest and reflection. It is certainly unseasonable to bring our business life in any shape into the Lords Day. It is also unseasonable to allow worldly cares and ambitions to invade those spaces which are so necessary for our domestic and intellectual life. God grants us spaces for rest and thought in the home, in the chamber; and it is exhaustive, indeed, when our overweening worldliness excludes the possibilities of solitary and social life. Some men fill their annual holidays with anxieties until they are no holidays at all. And there are days of personal affliction, of domestic sorrows, of national calamity, when it is our solemn duty to pause in the race for riches and think of lifes larger meaning.
3. There is the greed of age. Old men often come to the grave sooner than they need because they will not let the world go. They cling to ambition, although it wastes their strength and peace; they cling to business, they are pushing, grasping, hoarding as ever, although such application fast saps a life already tottering; they cling to pleasure, they will still wear the wreath of roses on their white hair, although to them it is the most fatal wreath of all.
II. There is immoderate desire. We may pursue a right object with inordinate appetite. The Israelites were not content with the simple, pearly, wholesome food God gave them–they wanted something more piquant. They got what they wanted–and a grave. In all generations how many fall the same way.
1. There is the immoderateness of our literature. We must feast on the romantic, the sensational, the morbid, the exaggerated. Out of this excess of imaginative literature come great evils. The reading public live in a world of fancy, sentiment, passion; and this feverish unreality in the hours of retirement gives birth to much of that practical immoderation which is the curse of our age. I do not say abandon this literature of romance; but I do say restrain and chasten your imagination, for be sure this habit of wild dreaming is at the root of much of that general intemperance of life which hurries many to the grave.
2. There is the immoderation of our style of living. A writer was finding fault the other day with the present style of gardening. He complained that we have rooted up the old fragrant flowers–lavender, pinks, marigolds, mignonette, and gone in for crude patches of red and blue and yellow; that we have swept away sweet shrubs and bits of lawn for the sake of violet ribbon-borders and vulgar carpet-bedding. But does not our Italian gardening largely reflect our social life? Are we not often found renouncing sweet, simple methods of living for a showy, ostentatious style which brings with it little joy?
3. There is the immoderateness of our appetite. Thousands are digging their grave with their teeth, and scooping it out with their glass.
4. There is the immoderateness of business. Immoderation in other directions often drives men to unnatural eagerness in business. In haste to be rich they pierce themselves through with many sorrows.
(1) How fatal all this immoderation is to health! We fret for money, drinking blood out of a golden basin; we are anxious to be great, and the path of glory leads to the grave; we are mad to seize the flowers of pleasure, and find the flowers of the churchyard.
(2) How fatal is all this immoderation to happiness I There are thousands of successful merchants who after immense toil and sacrifice have secured wealth and position, and now they are distressed to find they have no power to eat what cost so much to get together. They have whatsoever their soul desireth, but they cannot taste any sweetness in it. Moderation is the secret of all life. Our health, our happiness, our character, our destiny, are bound up with self-restraint. Live with circumspection, live slowly, live by line and square, and you shall realise life at its best here, and then the life everlasting.
III. There is illegal desire. Fixing our eye on forbidden things and lusting after them. How beautiful they seem, how desirable! and yet they eat as doth a canker. They lead to a premature grave. The wicked do not live out half their days. They lead to a dishonoured grave (Ecc 8:10). They lead to a hopeless grave. Such awake to shame and everlasting contempt. Do not hide it from yourselves for an hour that death is the price of touching forbidden things. Are you tempted by unlawful pleasure? see the skeleton behind the flowers. By unlawful gain? see the field of blood behind the pieces of silver. By unlawful greatness? see the shroud wrapped up in the purple. By unlawful indulgence? see that at the devils banquet the sexton is head waiter. Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished will have finished you. This is the dismal eternal order; and no secrecy, no strength, no skill on your part can disturb the programme or avert the penalty. Wherein, then, lies our safety? In reducing all desire to a minimum? Some of our sceptical writers counsel this but it is not the philosophy of Christianity. The infinity of desire is a grand characteristic of our nature which it is no part of our duty to destroy. Christianity leaves intact our boundless desire, whilst it teaches us moderation in all worldly things. It does this by fixing our attention on our inner life. It assures us that the deep, final satisfaction is not in our senses, but in our spirit; that we find the full and ultimate delight of life as our inner self grows in truth anal goodness and love. It does this by fixing our hope on the heavenly life. The pilgrim is not likely to be too deeply engrossed about the tent curtains, tent pegs, tent cords. Think much of that greater life, and you shall not think overmuch about things which perish in the using. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The true nursing-father
It was but three days march from Sinai, and the people encamped on a site which was ever memorable in their history, as recalling one of the gravest, saddest scenes in the experiences of the wilderness journey. We are only, however, now concerned in the incident so far as it affects the character of Moses.
I. The test beneath which Moses broke down, But in the case of Moses there was surely an outbreak of impatience which was hardly justifiable. He loved the people, but his love was not strong enough to sustain the terrific test to which it was exposed. He pitied them, but beneath the scorching sun of their repeated provocations that pity dried up like waters which are absorbed in the desert heat.
II. The parallel in Christian experience.
1. We also have need to beware of the influence of the mixed multitude. Had it not been for these, Israel had walked with God, and been satisfied with His provision on their behalf. It was from them that the discontent proceeded. There are many professing Christians who have the form of godliness, but deny its power, and who pass freely in and out among the children of God. It is among these that we may expect to hear complaints that religion is dry and irksome, or rapturous descriptions of the food of Egypt, or special pleadings that there should be a mingling of the delights of the Egyptian world, which should have been left behind for ever, with the manna which God lays on the dew of the desert floor. Their influence is all the stronger in that they appeal to tendencies within us, which are so susceptible to their call.
2. We must distinguish between appetite and lust. The appetites have been implanted within us to maintain the machinery of life. If it were not for their action, we should neglect food and rest and exercise, and many other things necessary to our well-being. But in us all appetite is apt to run up into lust. In other words, we seek satisfaction, not for the necessary supply of our physical needs, but for the momentary pleasure which accompanies the gratification of appetite itself. Our motive is not the obtaining of some lawful and necessary end, but the titillation of taste and sense. Appetite has, therefore, to be curbed with a strong hand, lest it become inordinate passion, for the moment we take pleasure in the indulgence of appetite for its own sake, and apart from the legitimate end for which it was intended by the Almighty, we begin to tread a path that leads swiftly down to the bottomless pit.
3. Let us guard against the resurrection of easily besetting sins. We say to ourselves that certain forms of sin have died down within us, anal will never trouble us more. We have grown out of them. But at that very moment the ghastly shape of that temptation is at hand, to assert perhaps even more than its olden force. You can never be sure of yourself. The suggestion that a certain form of temptation can have no further power over you is of the devil, and should excite you to greater watchfulness. Inordinate desire, murmuring and mistrust, are linked in the closest association. When one of these enters the window of the heart, it goes round to open the door to the other two. Oh, how often have we grieved our heavenly Father! Have we not had days of provocation and temptation in the wilderness?
III. The contrast between the servant and the father. Moses repudiated the office of the nursing-father. He could not sustain its responsibilities. But his failure only serves to bring out into distincter relief a touching conception of the Fatherhood of God. Forty years afterwards, as the aged lawgiver, at the foot of Pisgah, was summing up the results of his experience, he said, Thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bare his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came unto this place (Deu 1:31; Isa 63:9; Act 13:18, R.V. marg.). Moses patience gave out in a twelvemonth, Gods lasted till His work was done, and the people were safely deposited in the land of promise. If only the true story of our lives were written, it would be the most astounding record of Gods forbearing and pitying love. Truly, He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. But let us beware: there comes a time in the history of besetting sin when God ceases to strive against it. He gave them the quails they asked, flesh to the full. You may be mad for gold, and gold may pour in; mad for pleasure, and the golden barges wait to waft you on the swelling current; mad for applause, and it is yours till you are surfeited. God does not curse you, He leaves you to yourself, and that is curse enough. It is best to let our Father choose. His choice as to route and manna and length of daily journey must be the best. And when our yearnings are in opposition to His wise provision, let us quench them and yield our will about them. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Uncontrolled desires
In what a solemn manner does this teach us the danger of uncontrolled desires! We have often thought what a beautiful prayer that is, Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel (Psa 20:4), when offered for one whose heart is subdued, and whose desires are concentrated on the fulfilment of Gods promises. But would it not be an awful prayer for one whose heart is full of unhallowed desires, who longs, like Israel of old, only for earthly things? Oh, we should take heed what we desire, and for what we pray. You may ask for some earthly gift–it may be worldly prosperity, it may be wealth, or it may be for some other gift–some far higher, but still earthly gift–and because you are very intent upon it, God may give it you: and then the fulfilment of that desire may become a most terrible snare to you. The gift, whatsoever it be, may become your idol, may let down your affections to earth; and thus, whilst your prayers have been granted, God has sent leanness withal into your soul. Oh, it is exalted mercy, that God does not grant all our desires–that He so often sets aside some desires, and greatly disappoints others. We are prone to fret at this, but it is a part of a merciful plan, whereby He would bring us to rest in Himself. Oh, then, through grace, I will turn away from earth, with all its treasures, and from the creature, whatever its attractions be. I will turn to Jesus. In Him I cannot be disappointed. His love is altogether pure, altogether satisfying. (G. Wagner.)
The punishment of a gratified desire
Among the passengers on the St. Louis express was a woman very much overdressed, accompanied by a bright looking nurse-girl and a self-willed, tyrannical boy of about three years. The boy aroused the indignation of the passengers by his continued shrieks and kicks and, screams, and his viciousness towards the patient nurse. He tore her bonnet, scratched her hands, and finally spat in her face, without a word of remonstrance from the mother. Whenever the nurse manifested any firmness, the mother chided her sharply. Presently, the mother composed herself for a nap; and about the time the boy had slapped the nurse for the fiftieth time, a wasp came sailing in, and flew on the window of the nurses seat. The boy at once tried to catch it. The nurse caught his hand, and said coaxingly, Harry mustnt touch. Wasp will bite Harry. Harry screamed savagely, and began to kick and pound the nurse. The mother, without opening her eyes or lifting her head, cried out sharply, Why will you tease that child so, Mary? Let him have what he wants at once. But, maam, its a– Let him have it, I say. Thus encouraged, Harry clutched at the wasp and caught it. The scream that followed brought tears of joy to the passengers eyes. The mother woke again. Mary, she cried, let him have it! Mary turned in her seat, and said confusedly, Hes got it, maam! (S. S. Times.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 31. A wind from the Lord] An extraordinary one, not the effect of a natural cause. And brought quails, a bird which in great companies visits Egypt about the time of the year, March or April, at which the circumstance marked here took place. Mr. Hasselquist, the friend and pupil of the famous Linnaeus, saw many of them about this time of the year, when he was in Egypt. See his Travels, p. 209.
Two cubits high upon the face of the earth.] We may consider the quails as flying within two cubits of the ground; so that the Israelites could easily take as many of them as they wished, while flying within the reach of their hands or their clubs. The common notion is, that the quails were brought round about the camp, and fell there in such multitudes as to lie two feet thick upon the ground; but the Hebrew will not bear this version. The Vulgate has expressed the sense, Volabantque in aere duobus cubitis altitudine super terram. “And they flew in the air, two cubits high above the ground.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A wind from the Lord, i.e. an extraordinary and miraculous wind, both for its vehemency and for its effect
Quails; a delicious and very nourishing food, which, considering their greedy appetite, and the newness and plenty of it, disposed them to surfeits and other distemper of body, and prepared the way for the following plague. God gave them quails once before, Exo 16:13, but neither in the same quantity, nor with the same design and effect as now.
From the sea; principally from the Red Sea, and both sides of it; where, by the report of ancient heathen writers, they were then in great numbers, and, no doubt, were wonderfully increased by Gods special providence for this very occasion.
Two cubits high; not as if the quails did cover all the ground two cubits high for a days journey on each side of the camp, for then there had been no place left where they could spread them all abroad round about the camp, as it is said they did, Num 11:32; but the meaning is, that the quails came and fell down round about the camp for a whole days journey on each side of it, and that in all that space they lay here and there in great heaps, which were ofttimes two cubits high.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31-35. There went forth a wind fromthe Lord, and brought quails from the sea, c.These migratorybirds (see on Ex 16:13) were ontheir journey from Egypt, when “the wind from the Lord,” aneast wind (Ps 78:26) forcingthem to change their course, wafted them over the Red Sea to the campof Israel.
let them fall a day’sjourneyIf the journey of an individual is meant, this spacemight be thirty miles if the inspired historian referred to the wholehost, ten miles would be as far as they could march in one day in thesandy desert under a vertical sun. Assuming it to be twenty milesthis immense cloud of quails (Ps78:27) covered a space of forty miles in diameter. Others reduceit to sixteen. But it is doubtful whether the measurement be from thecenter or the extremities of the camp. It is evident, however, thatthe language describes the countless number of these quails.
as it were two cubitshighSome have supposed that they fell on the ground above eachother to that heighta supposition which would leave a vastquantity useless as food to the Israelites, who were forbidden to eatany animal that died of itself or from which the blood was not pouredout. Others think that, being exhausted with a long flight, theycould not fly more than three feet above the earth, and so wereeasily felled or caught. A more recent explanation applies thephrase, “two cubits high,” not to the accumulation of themass, but to the size of the individual birds. Flocks of largered-legged cranes, three feet high, measuring seven feet from tip totip, have been frequently seen on the western shores of the Gulf ofAkaba, or eastern arm of the Red Sea [STANLEY;SHUBERT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And there went forth a wind from the Lord,…. Both an east wind and a south wind, according to Ps 78:26; either first one wind, and then another; one to bring the quails, or whatever are meant, to a certain point, and then the other to bring them to the camp of Israel; or a southeast wind, as the Jewish writers interpret it: however, it was not a common wind, but what was immediately raised by the Lord for the following purpose:
and brought quails from the sea; the Red sea, from the coasts of it, not out of it. Josephus t says, there were great numbers of this sort of fowl about the gulf of Arabia; and Diodorus Siculus u says, near Rhinocalura, a place not far from those parts, quails in flocks were brought from the sea, which the people caught and lived upon. After Job Ludolphus, who has wrote a learned dissertation on locusts, many are of opinion with him, that locusts are intended here, and think that what is hereafter related best agrees with them; it is pretty difficult to determine which is most correct; there are learned advocates, and much to be said, for both w:
and let [them] fall by the camp: the camp of Israel, and round about it on all sides, as follows; which agrees well enough with locusts, which are usually brought by a wind, as the locusts of Egypt were by an east wind, which fall, rest, and settle on the earth, and sometimes in heaps, one upon another; and these, whatever they were, fell as thick as rain, and were as dust, and as the sand of the sea. The Jewish writers, who understand them of quails, interpret this not of their falling to the ground, but of their flying low, two cubits from the earth, about the breast of a man, so that they had no trouble in taking them; so the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, Ben Gersom, and Abendana; but this seems to be without any foundation:
as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp; on the north side, and on the south side, as the Targum of Jonathan explains it; but it doubtless means on all sides, since they fell round about the camp; and from thence they lay thick upon the ground, a day’s journey every way; which some compute at sixteen, others at twenty miles on which space there must be a prodigious number of quails or locusts; and it is certain the latter do come in great numbers, so as to darken the air, and to cover a country, as they did Egypt; and the quails also, in some countries, have been taken in great numbers; in Italy, on the coast of Antium, within a month, in the space of five miles, 100,000 quails were taken every day x:
and as it were two cubits [high] upon the face of the earth; as they fell they lay one upon another, the height of two cubits; which it is thought better agrees with locusts than with quails, since the quails, by lying one upon another such a depth, must be suffocated; whereas the locusts, through the length of their feet, and the thinness of their wings, would not.
t Antiqu. l. 3. c. 1. sect. 5. u Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 55. w Vid. Calmet’s Dictionary in the word “Quails”, & Scheuchzer. Physica Sacr. in loc. Bishop of Clogher’s Chronology, p. 375, 376. Shaw’s Travels, p. 189. x Blond. ltal. Illustrat. p. 314. apud Huet. Alnetan. Quaest. l. 2. c. 12. sect. 17.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As soon as Moses had returned with the elders into the camp, God fulfilled His second promise. “ A wind arose from Jehovah, and brought quails ( salvim , see Exo 16:13) over from the sea, and threw them over the camp about a day’s journey wide from here and there (i.e., on both sides), in the neighbourhood of the camp, and about two cubits above the surface.” The wind was a south-east wind (Psa 78:26), which blew from the Arabian Gulf and brought the quails – which fly northwards in the spring from the interior of Africa in very great numbers – from the sea to the Israelites. , which only occurs here and in the Psalm of Moses (Psa 90:10), signifies to drive over, in Arabic and Syriac to pass over, not “to cut off,” as the Rabbins suppose: the wind cut off the quails from the sea. , to throw them scattered about (Exo 29:5; Exo 31:12; Exo 32:4). The idea is not that the wind caused the flock of quails to spread itself out as much as two days’ journey over the camp, and to fly about two cubits above the surface of the ground; so that, being exhausted with their flight across the sea, they fell partly into the hands of the Israelites and partly upon the ground, as Knobel follows the Vulgate ( volabant in are duobus cubitis altitudine super terram ) and many of the Rabbins in supposing: for does not mean to cause to fly or spread out over the camp, but to throw over or upon the camp. The words cannot therefore be understood in any other way than they are in Psa 78:27-28, viz., that the wind threw them about over the camp, so that they fell upon the ground a day’s journey on either side of it, and that in such numbers that they lay, of course not for the whole distance mentioned, but in places about the camp, as much as two cubits deep. It is only in this sense of the words, that the people could possibly gather quails the whole of that day, the whole night, and the whole of the next day, in such quantities that he who had gathered but little had collected ten homers. A homer, the largest measure of capacity among the Hebrews, which contained ten ephahs, held, according to the lower reckoning of Thenius, 10,143 Parisian inches, or about two bushels Dresden measure. By this enormous quantity, which so immensely surpassed the natural size of the flocks of quails, God purposed to show the people His power, to give them flesh not for one day or several days, but for a whole month, both to put to shame their unbelief, and also to punish their greediness. As they could not eat this quantity all at once, they spread them round the camp to dry in the sun, in the same manner in which the Egyptians are in the habit of drying fish ( Herod. ii. 77).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Quails. | B. C. 1490. |
31 And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. 32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. 33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. 34 And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted. 35 And the people journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.
God, having performed his promise to Moses by giving him assessors in the government, thereby proving the power he has over the spirits of men by his Spirit, he here performs his promise to the people by giving them flesh, proving thereby his power over the inferior creatures and his dominion in the kingdom of nature. Observe, 1. How the people were gratified with flesh in abundance: A wind (a south-east wind, as appears, Ps. lxxviii. 26) brought quails, v. 31. It is uncertain what sort of animals they were; the psalmist calls them feathered fowl, or fowl of wing. The learned bishop Patrick inclines to agree with some modern writers, who think they were locusts, a delicious sort of food well known in those parts, the rather because they were brought with a wind, lay in heaps, and were dried in the sun for use. Whatever they were, they answered the intention, they served for a month’s feast for Israel, such an indulgent Father was God to his froward family. Locusts, that had been a plague to fruitful Egypt, feeding upon the fruits, were a blessing to a barren wilderness, being themselves fed upon. 2. How greedy they were of this flesh that God sent them. They flew upon the spoil with an unsatiable appetite, not regarding what Moses had told them from God, that they would surfeit upon it, v. 32. Two days and a night they were at it, gathering flesh, till every master of a family had brought home ten homers (that is, ten ass-loads) at least. David longed for the water of the well of Bethlehem, but would not drink it when he had it, because it was obtained by venturing; much more reason these Israelites had to refuse this flesh, which was obtained by murmuring, and which, they might easily perceive, by what Moses said, was given them in anger; but those that are under the power of a carnal mind will have their lusts fulfilled, though it be to the certain damage and ruin of their precious souls. 3. How dearly they paid for their feasts, when it came into the reckoning: The Lord smote them with a very great plague (v. 33), some bodily disease, which probably was the effect of their surfeit, and was the death of many of them, and those, it is likely, the ringleaders in the mutiny. Note, God often grants the desires of his own people in love. He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul, Ps. xvi. 15. By all that was said to them they were not estranged from their lusts, and therefore, while the meat was in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them,Psa 78:30; Psa 78:31. What we inordinately desire, if we obtain it (we have reason to fear), will be some way or other a grief and cross to us. God satiated them first, and then plagued them, (1.) To save the reputation of his own power, that it might not be said, “He would not have cut them off had he been able to supply them.” And, (2.) To show us the meaning of the prosperity of sinners; it is their preparation for ruin, they are fed as an ox for the slaughter. Lastly, The remembrance of this is preserved in the name given to the place, v. 34. Moses called it Kibroth-hattaavah, the graves of lusters or of lust. And well it had been if these graves of Israel’s lusters had proved the graves of Israel’s lust: the warning was designed to be so, but it had not its due effect, for it follows (Ps. lxxviii. 32), For all this, they sinned still.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 31-35:
Two and a half months after Israel left Egypt, God sent a miraculous provision of quails for their food supply, Ex 16:11-13. This phenomenon had not been repeated, until the time of the present text. History records that in the Spring, quails migrate in huge numbers northward through this region. On this occasion, the Lord sent a wind, likely from the east (Ps 78:26), which deposited the quails in immense quantities over Israel’s camp and for a considerable distance on either side. The quantity of quails was so great that in places they piled into drifts three feet (two cubits) deep.
This miraculous supply of quails excited the greed of the people, and they feverishly worked all day and through the night, gathering all they could of these birds. The quantities stagger the mind: the least amount of quails scooped up was “ten homers.” An “homer,” chomer, is thought to be equivalent to about 6.25 bushels. This means that the minimum quantity gathered was about sixty-two and a half bushels. No estimate is given as to the maximum.
It was physically impossible that such quantity of meat could be eaten on one day. The people dressed the birds, and spread them about to dry in the hot sun, after the manner of the Egyptians. Meat so prepared has no need for further preservatives.
The text implies that after the meat was prepared for drying, the people began to gorge themselves. But the Lord sent a “very great plague” as suddenly as the supply of quails, and the people choked on the flesh before they could swallow it. Scripture does not give the nature of this plague, but it was quick and deadly.
Israel named this place “Kibroth- hattaavah,” meaning “graves of lust,” for there they buried those who died in the plague.
Ps 78:25-31 describes this debacle. Ps 106:15 sums it up: “He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” This illustrates that God may at times let people have what their lusts desire, but this may be fatal to them.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(31) And there went forth a wind.In Psa. 78:26 we read thus: He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. A south-east wind would bring the quails from the neighbourhood of the Red Sea, where they abound.
And let them fall.Better, and scattered them (or, spread them out). Comp. 1Sa. 30:16 : They were spread abroad upon all the earth, or, over all the ground.
Round about.See Note on Num. 11:24.
As it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.Or, about two cubits over (or, above) the ground. Had the quails lain upon the earth in a heap for any considerable time, life could only have been preserved by miraculous interference with the ordinary laws of nature, and the Israelites were not allowed to eat of that which had died of itself. Quails commonly fly low, and when wearied with a long flight might fly only about breast-high. On the other hand, the more obvious interpretation of the words is that the quails were spread over the ground, and covered it in some places to the height of two cubits. They were probably taken and killed immediately on their descent, as the following verse seems to indicate, and then spread out and dried and hardened in the sun. Some think that the word which is here rendered quails denotes cranes.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE QUAILS, AND THE GRAVES OF LUST, Num 11:31-34.
The remarkable promise of God that all Israel should surfeit upon flesh, a promise at which even Moses had staggered, is now to be fulfilled.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
31, 32. A wind from the Lord All winds are produced by the power of Jehovah, (Psa 135:7,) since neither the laws of nature nor the qualities of matter produce motion. The Greek philosopher Anaxagoras taught that all force emanates from , mind, a power distinct from nature, and presiding over it. This is the best Christian philosophy. The wind was either a southwest wind, from the region of the upper Nile, or a southeast one, from the Arabian Gulf.
Brought quails Some have contended that the salvim were not quails but locusts; but modern Hebraists reject this interpretation, and insist that the common quail is the bird. This is corroborated by the striking similarity of the modern Arabic salwa, quail, to the Hebrew, selav. See Exo 16:13, note. The theory that they were wild fowls about three feet high, such as wild geese or storks, or Stanley’s “large red-legged cranes,” is a gratuitous assumption without the least scriptural foundation.
A day’s journey On both sides of the camp, for the space of eight or ten miles, the ground was thickly strewn with exhausted quails, none of them able to fly more than two cubits from the ground. “It is a not uncommon occurrence, that, when wearied, these birds droop and settle down for rest, so as to be easily clubbed with sticks, and even caught by the hand. The miraculous provision chiefly lay in the extraordinary number, the seasonable arrival, and the peculiar circumstances under which those quails came.” Edersheim. See Concluding Notes.
Ten homers About fifty-five bushels, according to Josephus, or half this quantity, according to the rabbins. This was the accumulation of the least industrious person. “By this enormous quantity, which so immensely surpassed the natural size of the flocks of quails, God purposed to show the people his power to give them flesh not for a day or several days, but for a whole month, both to put to shame their unbelief, and to punish their greediness.” Keil.
They spread them all abroad For the purpose of drying them in the sun. Our earliest history of Egypt describes the people as salting and drying great quantities of fish and fowl. Calmet thinks that the Hebrews salted their quails, and then dried them, in imitation of the Egyptians.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Yahweh Provides Meat From Heaven ( Num 11:31-35 ).
In accordance with His second promise to Moses Yahweh now sent meat from the skies. A ruach (spirit, wind) from Yahweh brought quails to the camp in huge quantities. So in a play on words the ‘ruach’ blessed both the elders and the people. But the people immediately demonstrated their unbelief. They stored the quails instead of trusting Yahweh for His daily provision (compare what some did with the manna – Exo 16:19-20) and the quails went bad and brought a great plague.
The structure here is as follows:
a The wind of Yahweh goes forth in response to the people’s craving and the quails fall in great depth (Num 11:31).
b The people gather the quails in great abundance (Num 11:32 a).
c In unbelief they store the quail meat around the camp (Num 11:32 b).
c While they were eating the wrath of Yahweh came on them, the result of storing the quails in unbelief (Num 11:33 a).
b Yahweh smites them and they receive an abundance of plague (Num 11:33 b).
a The place is called ‘Graves of craving’ (Kibroth Hattaavah) (Num 11:34).
Num 11:31
‘And there went forth a wind from Yahweh, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits above the face of the earth.’ As promised Yahweh sent meat for the people in abundance. Quails were driven towards the camp by ‘a ruach from Yahweh’. As already mentioned there is a parallel here with the ruach which came on the seventy elders. Yahweh’s desire was to bless both with His provision. The quails came in abundance and fell to the ground beside the camp in huge quantities.
This was the second month of the year. Quails are small birds of the partridge family. Around that time of the year (March) they annually migrate northwards from Arabia and Africa and regularly come down in large quantities in the area of the Red Sea to recuperate, exhausted after their long flight. Modern examples are known of huge quantities being caught in the Sinai area during this period as they fly low over the ground. It would appear in this case that their struggle against the wind which drove them to the camp had so exhausted them that they simply collapsed in heaps. There were so many that they covered ‘a days journey’ around the camp in piles a metre (three feet) high. (Some, however, see the text as signifying that they flew a metre above the ground).
Num 11:32
‘And the people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. He who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.’
When the people saw this they raced to gather them, and spent about 36 hours gathering as many as they could. They gathered huge quantities and stored them around the camp. But they were so many that they could not properly dry them out. Ten homers was about 2,200 litres. What a sad state of heart is revealed here. We do not read that they became excited because the Spirit came on the elders. But we do read that when meat came they were clearly so excited that they had no time to think about what had happened to the elders. They overlooked that God had come among them in spiritual power, that the Spirit’s power was being revealed. All they could think of was that there was meat to be had!
In doing so they forgot, or ignored, Yahweh’s demand that they did not touch dead bodies lest they be rendered ‘unclean’. To take the exhausted quails and kill and eat them was one thing. To store them as dead meat by laying them out to dry and then partaking of them was another. It was in direct disobedience to Yahweh, and, as we now know, in a hot country was asking for trouble.
Num 11:33
‘While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against the people, and Yahweh smote the people with a very great plague.’
The result was that even while they were eating them they were smitten with a great plague. This was the result of the ‘anger of Yahweh’. They were acting in gross disobedience. Had they only eaten quails which they slew and ate immediately as fresh meat they would not have suffered. But they did not trust Yahweh to continue His provision and stored the birds and then ate of their dead carcasses. Thus they rendered themselves deliberately ‘unclean’, and therefore liable to ‘wrath’. And birds in such a condition, insufficiently dried out, could only spread disease.
We are intended to see the contrast between these people and the godly elders. The elders had gone into a holy place, the place of life, to receive their blessing. Their thoughts were centred on Yahweh. They enjoyed ‘life’. The people had gone ‘outside the camp’ to receive flesh, and had sinned. Their thoughts were on the satisfaction of their own selfish desires. And the result was that they became entangled with ‘death’, and therefore their blessing became a curse. And yet both were living together in the camp. The same is so true today. There are those who would enjoy true blessing, and while they must live in the world, they seek their blessing in His holy place, in Heaven itself. Others are filled with the desires of life, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the mind and the pride of life. And they are so taken up with these that the Spirit passes them by. We must never secularise holy things. We must choose between life and death, not compromise them.
Num 11:34
‘And the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people that were so greedy (‘lusted’).’
Here was their epitaph. The name of the place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, ‘the graves of craving’ because there the people’s craving led in many cases to their deaths. It was there that they buried the people who were so greedy. The mind of the flesh leads to death, the mind of the Spirit leads to life and peace (Rom 8:6). If only they had craved the Spirit it would have led them to mountains of blessing not graves of craving.
It is clear from the chiastic pattern that Num 11:35 belongs to the next chapter and we have interpreted accordingly.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Num 11:34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.
Num 11:34
Comments – Those who lusted most and were most evil in the wilderness fell soon enough.
Jas 1:14, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Quails are sent
v. 31. And there went forth a wind from the Lord, v. 32. And the people stood up all that day and all that night and all the next day, and they gathered the quails; he that gathered least gathered ten homers v. 33. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, v. 34. And he v. 35. And the people journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Num 11:31-32. And there went forth a wind from the Lord, &c. See Exo 16:13. As we have met with no commentator who has explained this passage so well and fully as the author of the observations, we here subjoin his very judicious and entertaining remarks. The famous Ludolphus, and after him Bishop Patrick, and the late Bishop of Clogher, believed that they were locusts and not quails, which the children of Israel ate in the wilderness. Dr. Shaw strongly argues the contrary; but he takes no notice of the difficulties which induced Patrick to suppose they were locusts, and which he gives an account of in his comment on this passage. These are their coming with a wind; their immense quantities, covering a circle of thirty or forty miles diameter, two cubits thick;their being spread in the sun for drying, which, he says, would have been preposterous if they had been quails: for it would have made them stink the sooner. Interpreters, therefore, he thinks, pass over this circumstance in silence; whereas all authors say, that this is the principal way of preparing locusts, to keep them for a month or more, when they are boiled, or otherwise dressed. These difficulties, or at least the two last, appear pressing; nevertheless, I have met with several passages in books of travels, which I shall here give an account of, that may soften them: the reader may think they do more. “No interpreters,” complains the bishop, “supposing they were quails, account for the spreading them out in the sun.” Perhaps they have not. Let me then translate a passage from Maillet, (let. 4: p. 130.) which relates to a little island that covers one of the ports of Alexandria. “It is on this island, which lies farther into the sea than the main land of Egypt, that the birds annually alight, which come hither for refuge in autumn, to avoid the severity of the cold of our winters in Europe. There is so large a quantity of all sorts taken there, that, after these little birds have been stripped of their feathers, and buried in the burning sands for about half a quarter of an hour, they are worth but two sols the pound. The crews of those vessels, which, in that season, lie in the harbour of Alexandria, have no other meat allowed them.” Among other refugees of that time, Maillet, in his ninth letter, p. 21 expressly mentions quails; which are therefore, I suppose, treated after this manner. This passage then does what, according to the bishop, no commentator has done; it explains the design of spreading these creatures, supposing they were quails, round about the camp:it was to dry them in the burning sands, in order to preserve them for use. So Maillet tells us (let. 11: p. 110.) of their drying fish in the sun in Egypt, as well as of their preserving others by means of pickle. Other authors speak of some of the Arabs drying camel’s flesh in the sun and wind, which, though it be not at all salted, will, if kept dry, remain good a long while; and which oftentimes, to save themselves the trouble of dressing, they will eat raw. This is what St. Jerome may be supposed to refer to, in vita Malchi Monachi, when he calls the food of the Arabs, carnes semicrudae, half-dressed flesh.
This drying of flesh, then, in the sun, is not so preposterous as the bishop imagined. On the other hand, none of the authors I have met with, who speak of the way of preserving locusts in the east, so far as I can recollect, give any account of drying them in the sun. They are, according to Pellow, first purged with water and salt, boiled in new pickle, and then laid up in dry salt. So Dr. Russel says, “The Arabs eat these insects when fresh, and also salt them up as a delicacy.”
Their immense quantities also forbad the bishop’s believing they were quails: and, in truth, he represents this difficulty in all its force; perhaps too forcibly. A circle of forty miles in diameter, all covered with quails, to the depth of more than forty-three inches, is, without doubt, a startling representation of the matter: I would beg leave to add, that the like quantity of locusts would have been very extraordinary. But then this is not the representation of Scripture: it doth not even agree with it; for such a quantity of either quails or locusts would have made the clearing of places for the spreading them out, and the passing of Israel up and down in the neighbourhood of the camp, very fatiguing, which is not supposed.
Josephus, Antiq. lib. iii. c. 1. supposes that they were quails, which, he says, are in greater numbers thereabouts than any other kind of bird; and that, having crossed the sea to the camp of Israel, they, who in common fly nearer to the ground than most other birds, flew so low, through the fatigue of their passage, as to be within reach of the Israelites. This explains what he thought was meant by the two cubits from the face of the earththeir flying within three or four feet of the ground. And when I read Dr. Shaw’s account (p. 236.) of the way in which the Arabs frequently catch birds, which they have tired, viz. by running in upon them, and knocking them down with their zerwattys, or bludgeons, as we should call them, (in which account the doctor mentions the quail, along with the wood-cock, the rhaad, the kitawiah, and the partridge,) methinks I almost see the Israelites before me, pursuing the poor, fatigued, and languid quails.
This is, indeed, a laborious method of catching these birds, and not that which is now used in Egypt; for Egmont and Heyman (vol. 2: p. 206.) tell us, that, in a walk on the shore of Egypt, they saw a sandy plain, several leagues in extent, and covered with reeds, without the least verdure; between which reeds they observed many nets placed for catching quails, which come over in large flights from Europe, during the month of September. If the ancient Egyptians made use of the same method of catching quails which they now practise on those shores, yet Israel, in the wilderness, without these conveniencies, must of course make use of that inartificial and laborious way of catching them above described. The Arabs of Barbary, who have not many conveniencies, do the same thing still.
Bishop Patrick supposes a day’s journey to be sixteen or twenty miles, and thence draws his circle with a radius of that length: but Dr. Shaw, on another occasion, (p. 319.) makes a day’s journey but ten miles, which would make a circle of twenty miles diameter; and as the text evidently designs to express it very indeterminately, as it were a day’s journey, it might be much less. But it does not appear to me at all necessary to suppose the text intended their covering a circular, or nearly a circular piece of ground, but only that these creatures appeared on both sides of the camp of Israel, about a day’s journey. The same word is used, Exo 7:24 where round about can only mean on each side of the river; and so it may be a little illustrated by what Dr. Shaw tells us (p. 409.) of three flights of storks, which he saw when at anchor under mount Carmel, some of which were more scattered, others more compact and closer; and each of which took up more than three hours in passing, and extended itself more than half a mile in breadth. Had the flight of quails been no greater than these, it might have been thought, like them, to have been accidental; but so unusual a flock as to extend fifteen or twenty miles in breadth, and to be two days and one night in passing, and this in consequence of the declaration of Moses, plainly determined that the finger of God was there.
A third difficulty with the bishop was, their being brought by a wind. A hot southerly wind, it is supposed, brings the locusts; and why quails might not be brought by the instrumentality of a like wind, or what difficulty there is in that supposition, I cannot imagine. As soon as the cold is felt in Europe, Maillet, in his 11th letter, p. 21 tells us, that turtles, quails, and other birds, come to Egypt in great numbers: but he observed that their numbers were not so large in those years in which the winters were favourable to Europe; from whence he conjectured, that it is rather necessity than habit which causes them to change their climate: if so, it should seem that it is the increasing heat which causes their return, and consequently that the hot, sultry winds from the south must have a great effect upon them to direct their flight northwards. It is certain, that many of these migratory birds return about the time when the south wind begins to blow in Egypt, which is in April. Maillet, who joins quails and turtles together, and says that they appear in Egypt when the winds begin to be felt in Europe, does not, indeed, tell us when they return: but Thevenot may be said to have done it; for, after he has told his reader (part 1: p. 247.) that they catch snipes in Egypt from January to March, he adds, that in May they catch turtles, which turtles return again in September. Now, as their go together southward in September, we may believe they return again northward much about the same time. Agreeable to which, Russel tells us, (p. 63.) that quails appear in abundance about Aleppo in spring and autumn.
If natural history were more perfect, we might speak to this point with greater precision. At present, however, it is so far from an objection to their being quails, that their coming was caused by a wind,that nothing is more natural. The same wind would in course occasion sickness and mortality among the Israelites, at least it does so in Egypt. See Maillet, let. 2: p. 57 and Egmont and Heyman, vol. 2: p. 62. The miraculousness, then, of this event does not consist in the Israelites’ dying, but in the prophet’s foretelling with exactness the coming of that wind, and in the prodigious numbers of the quails which came with it; together with the unusualness of the place, perhaps, where they alighted. See Shaw, p. 449.
Nothing more remains to be considered, but the gathering so large a quantity as ten homers by those who gathered fewest. But, till that quantity is more precisely ascertained, it is sufficient to remark, that this is only affirmed of those eager and expert sportsmen among the people, who pursued the game two whole days, and one whole night, without intermission; and of them, and of them only, I presume, it is to be understood, that he that gathered fewest gathered ten homers.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
If, as some have thought, these quails were the same in nature and genus as the locusts, which came up at the command of GOD into the land of Egypt, the blessing was doubly grateful: that what, in the one instance, proved so destructive, should in the other become so nourishing. Exo 10:12-15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wind. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
fall. Compare Psa 78:27, Psa 78:28.
a day’s journey. See App-51.
cubits. See App-51.
high upon. Hebrew = “above”; i.e. “[flying] above”, so that they could be easily caught. It does not say “deep”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
two cubits high upon the face of all the earth
The correct rendering is, “about two cubits above the face of the earth,” that is, within reach of the people that they might slay them for food. The statement is not that the quails were piled up from the face of the earth two cubits deep. The level of their flight was two cubits above the earth.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
a wind: Exo 10:13, Exo 10:19, Exo 15:10, Psa 135:7
and brought: Exo 16:13, Psa 78:26-29, Psa 105:40
quails: That the word selav means the quail, we have already had occasion to observe; to which we subjoin the authority of Mr. Maundrell, who visited Naplosa (the ancient Sichem), where the Samaritans live. Mr. Maundrell asked their chief priest what sort of animal he took the selav to be. He answered, they were a sort of fowls; and, by the description Mr. Maundrell perceived he meant the same kind with our quails.
a day’s journey: Heb. the way of a day
and as it were two cubits: That is, as the Vulgate renders, Volabantque in aere duobus cubitis altitudine super terram, “and they flew in the air, at the height of two cubits above the ground.”
Reciprocal: Psa 106:15 – he gave Jon 1:4 – the Lord 1Co 10:6 – lust
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 11:31. There went forth a wind from the Lord An extraordinary and miraculous wind, both for its vehemency and for its effects. And brought quails So the Hebrew word, , salvim, is interpreted by Josephus, and all the ancient versions; nor does there appear to be any sufficient authority for translating it locusts; notwithstanding what Ludolphus, in his History of Ethiopia, 50:1, c. 13; and after him Bishop Patrick, and the late bishop of Clogher, have said on the subject. This is the second time that God gave them these quails. He sent them the former year, and much about the same season, Exo 16:13; but neither in the same quantity nor with the same design as now. From the sea Principally from the Arabian gulf, or Red sea, and both sides of it, where, according to ancient heathen writers, they were then in great numbers, and no doubt were wonderfully increased by Gods special providence for this very occasion. This sea lies south of that part of Arabia where the Israelites were now encamped. It was therefore a south wind that brought these quails, and is said to have come forth from the Lord, because it was ordered and directed by his special power and providence. Two cubits high Not as if the quails did cover all the ground two cubits high for a days journey on each side of the camp, for then there had been no place left where they could spread them all abroad round about the camp; but the meaning is, that the quails came and fell down round about the camp for a whole days journey on each side of it, and that in all that space they lay here and there in great heaps, which were often two cubits high.