There went forth a wind from the Lord , [ naaca` ] - to pluck or tear up; frequently applied to pulling up the stakes or pins of a tent; hence, to break up an encampment, to remove: but here to the sudden rise of a violent wind. Nothing is stated as to the quarter from which it blew; but in Psalms 78:26 the east and south winds are poetically mentioned as being the most impetuous in Eastern regions.
And brought quails from the sea. These migratory birds (see the note at Exodus 16:13) were on their journey from Egypt, when the "wind from the Lord," forcing them to change their course, wafted them over the Red Sea to the camp of Israel.
Let them fall ... a day's journey on this side, and ... on the other side, round about the camp. If the journey of an individual is meant, this space might be 30 miles; if the inspired historian referred to the whole host, 10 miles would be as far as they could march in one day in the sandy desert, under a vertical sun. Assuming it to be 20 miles, this immense cloud of quails (Psalms 78:27) covered a space of 40 miles in diameter. Others reduce it to 16 miles (see Rosenmuller's 'Biblical Geography,' vol. 1:, p. 25). But it is doubtful whether the measurement be from the center or the extremities of the camp. It is evident, however, that the language describes the countless number of these quails.
As it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. Some have supposed that they fell on the ground above each other to that height-a supposition which would leave a vast quantity useless as food to the Israelites, who were forbidden to eat any animal that died of itself, or from which the blood was not poured out. Others think that, being exhausted with a long flight, they could not fly more than three feet above the earth, and so were easily felled or caught. (So the Septuagint oosei dipeechu apo tees gees; also Josephus, b.
iii., ch. 1:, sec. 5.) A more recent explanation applies the phrase, "two cubits high," not to the accumulation of the mass, but to the size of the individual birds. Flocks of large red-legged cranes, three feet high, measuring seven feet from tip to tip, have been frequently seen on the western shores of the Gulf of Akaba, or eastern arm of the Red Sea (Foster, Stanley, Shubert).
Verse 32. People stood up - i:e., rose up in eager haste; some at one time, others at another; some, perhaps, through avidity, both day and night.
Ten homers - ten donkeys' loads; or "homers" may be used indefinitely, as in Exodus 8:14; Judges 15:16; and "ten" for many: so that the phrase "ten homers" is equivalent to great heaps. The collectors were probably one or two from each family; and, being distrustful of God's goodness, gathered not for immediate consumption only, but for future use. In eastern and southern seas, innumerable quails are often seen, which, when weary, fall down, covering every spot on the deck and rigging of vessels; and in Egypt they come in such myriads that the people knock them down with sticks.
Spread them all abroad for themselves - dried and salted them for future use, by the simple process to which they had been accustomed in Egypt - i:e., after having stripped them of their feathers and buried them in the burning sands for a short time (Maillet, 'Lett.' 4:, p. 130, quoted, Harmer's 'Observ.,' vol. 4:, p. 362).
'Egmont and Heyman 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 saw many nets placed for catching quails, which come over in large flights northward in March or April, and returning southward from Europe during the month of September. If the ancient Egyptians made use of the same method of catching quails that they now practice on those shores, yet Israel in the wilderness, being without these conveniences, were obliged of course to take the more inartificial and laborious way of catching them by striking down the wearied birds with bludgeons or stones. The Arabs of Barbary do this still' (Harmer's 'Observ.,' vol. 4:, p. 363; see also 'Quarterly Review,' July, 1863. pp. 62, 63).
Verse 33. While the flesh ... ere it was chewed , [ Yikaareet ] - consumed, cut off; i:e., ere the supply of quails, which lasted a month (Numbers 11:20), was exhausted. The Arabs and many other Orientals, though they do not frequently make use of flesh, eat voraciously when they obtain it, and it produces upon them the hilarious effect of ardent spirits. This seems to have been the case with the Israelites. The probability is, that their stomachs, having been long inured to manna (a light food), were not prepared for so sudden a change of regimen-a heavy, solid diet of animal food, of which they seem to have partaken to so intemperate a degree as to produce a general suffeit and fatal consequences. On a former occasion their murmurs for flesh were raised (Exodus 16:1-36) because they were in want of food. Here these proceeded, not from necessity, but wanton lustful desire: and their sin, in the righteous judgment of God, was made to carry its own punishment.
Verse 34. Called the name ... Kibroth-hattaavah - literally, the graves of lust, or those that lusted; so that the name of the place proves that the mortality was confined to those who had indulged inordinately.
Verse 35. Haseroth. The extreme southern station of this route was a watering-place in a spacious plain, now identified by Burckhardt, Robinson, and Stanley with Ain-el-Hudhera, at the east of the great sandy district, Debbet-et-Ramleh. Stewart ('Tent and Khan,' p. 161) identifies Taberah with Wady Berah and Kibroth-hattaavah, as Sarbut-el-Khadem. Foster ('Sinai Photographed') eagerly adopts this theory, and, following the maps of Ortelius and Goldschmidt, in which, according to the notions of the mediaeval geographers, they placed the Sepulchra Concupiscentioe, the graves of lust, near this latter spot. In support of his views he considers Taberah 'a remote outskirt' of the encampment at Kibroth-hattaavah, 'lying along the plain for ten or twelve miles'-which he thinks is intimated by "a day's journey" (Numbers 11:31). But as this theory assumes mount Serbal to be Sinai, the mount of God, we must reject their hypothesis as to the site of Kibroth-hattaavah as untenable.