Quails
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary [1]
We read of the Lord's giving Israel those birds for food upon two occasions. First, soon after they left Egypt in the wilderness of Zin, ( Exodus 16:1-36) and the second time when they were encamped at Ribroth-hattaavah, which the margin of the Bible renders the graves of lusts. ( Numbers 11:34) And upon both occasions this food was given to them in consequences of their rebellion; hence therefore it was in correction, and not in favour.
Various have been the opinions of men concerning the nature and kind of the quail. Moses called it Shalor. It is said to have been a small birth off great delicacy. The supply was so great the second time, that they victualled a camp of more than a million of persons for a whole month; so that they must have been like the shoals of pilchards on the western coast, every day covering the ground in multitudes.
I would refer the reader to those portions in the word of God for the history of those events, Exodus 16:1-36 and Numbers 6:11. And I would beg of him, when he hath diligently read those Scriptures, to consider what solemn lessons such views hold forth of God's people running counter to God's government. The Psalmist hath made a beautiful observation upon this self-will of Israel, and the lawful consequence of it, when saying, "they lusted exceedingly, or as the words are, they lusted a lust in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.," ( Psalms 106:14-15) It is an awful thing to be gratified in the creature, when such gratifications tend to rebellion against the Creator. "Give me children (said Rachel to Jacob) or else I die." ( Genesis 30:1) She had her desire, but she died in child-bearing. The child was a Benoni; that is, as she herself called him, (and is rendered in the margin of our Bibles) the son of my sorrow. ( Genesis 35:18) Jonah's gourd was very refreshing to the prophet, but the disappointment, ended in sin. It is a blessed thing to let God choose forms, and this will be always right, but if we will ride restive, like Jeshurun, a fall must be the consequences. Children never carve for themselves but they cut their fingers. See Kibroth-Hattaavah.
Smith's Bible Dictionary [2]
Quails. There can be no doubt that the Hebrew word in the Pentateuch, Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31-32, and in the 105th Psalm, denotes the common quail, Coturnix dactylisonans . (The enormous quantity of quails taken by the Israelites has its parallel in modern times. Pliny states that they sometimes alight on vessels in the Mediterranean and sink them. Colenel Sykes states that 160,000 quails have been netted in one season on the island of Capri. - Editor).
The expression , "as it were two cubits, (high), upon the face of the earth," Numbers 11:31, refers probably to the height at which the quails flew above the ground, in their exhausted condition from their long flight. As to the enormous quantities, which the least successful Israelite is said to have taken namely, "ten homers," (that is, eighty bushels), in the space of a night and two days, there is every reason for believing that the "homers" here spoken of do not denote strictly the measure of that name , but simply "a heap."
The Israelites would have had little difficulty in capturing large quantities of these birds as they are known to arrive at places sometimes so completely exhausted by their flight as to be readily taken, not in nets only, but by the hand. They "spread the quails round about the camp;" this was for the purpose of drying them.
The Egyptians similarly prepared these birds. The expression "quails from the sea," Numbers 11:31, must not be restricted to denote that the birds came from the sea, as their starting-point, but it must be taken to show the direction, from which they were coming. The quails were, at the time of the event narrated in the sacred writings, on their spring journey of migration northward, It is interesting to note the time specified: "it was at even," that they began to arrive; and they no doubt continued to come all night. Many observers have recorded that the quail migrates by night.
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary [3]
The oriental quail is a bird of passage, about the size of a turtledove, and nearly resembling the American partridge. Hasselquist states that it is plentiful near the shores of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, and in the deserts of Arabia; and Diodorus affirms that it is caught in immense numbers about Rhinocolura, at the southwest corner of Palestine. Burckhardt also found great quantities of them in the regions south of the Dead Sea. The flocks of quails, therefore, which came up to the camp of Israel, are entirely credible; and the miracle seems especially to have consisted in these immense flocks being directed to a particular spot, in the extreme emergency of the people by means of "a wind from the Lord," Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31; Psalm 78:27 .
People's Dictionary of the Bible [4]
Quails. Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31-32; Psalms 105:40. The great quantity of quails taken by the Israelites has its parallel in modern times. Pliny states that they sometimes alight on vessels in the Mediterranean and sink them. Colonel Sykes states that 160,000 quails have been netted in one season on the island of Capri. The Israelites would have had little difficulty in capturing large quantities of these birds, as they are known to arrive at places sometimes so completely exhausted by their flight as to be readily taken, not in nets only, but by the hand. Yet the feeding of the Israelites for a month was a miracle.
Easton's Bible Dictionary [5]
Exodus 16:13 Numbers 11:31 Psalm 78:27 Numbers 11:31
These birds (the Coturnix vulgaris of naturalists) are found in countless numbers on the shores of the Mediterranean, and their annual migration is an event causing great excitement.
