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. --ED.) 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 viz. "ten homers" (i.e. 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.

Quails

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.

The Israelites were twice relieved in their privation by a miraculous supply of quails, (1) in the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:13), and (2) again at Kibroth-hattaavah (q.v.), Numbers 11:31. God "rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea" (Psalm 78:27). The words in Numbers 11:31, according to the Authorized Version, appear to denote that the quails lay one above another to the thickness of two cubits above the ground. The Revised Version, however, reads, "about two cubits above the face of the earth", i.e., the quails flew at this height, and were easily killed or caught by the hand. Being thus secured in vast numbers by the people, they "spread them all abroad" (11:32) in order to salt and dry them.

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.

7958. selav -- quail
... Definition: quail. Word Origin probably of foreign origin Definition quail
NASB Word Usage quail (3), quails (1). quails. Or slayv ...
/hebrew/7958.htm - 6k

Following the Cloud.
... Great flocks of quails came up and covered the camp at sunset, so that they caught
them for food; and in the morning the dew lay around them, and when it had ...
/.../lathbury/childs story of the bible/chapter xii following the cloud.htm

The Early Training of a Race.
... At certain periods, also, the meagre fare of the desert dweller is supplemented
by the quails which he is able to capture and these are a welcome relief to his ...
/.../kent/the making of a nation/study xi the early training.htm

Do You Know Him?
... He quails not at the roaring of the devourer, but dashes upon him with terrible
fury, till, like a whipped cur, the lion slinks towards his den, dragging ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 10 1864/do you know him.htm

Instances from Scripture of Divine Judgments Upon the Self ...
... To this day the "monuments of concupiscence" remain, where the People, greedy of
"flesh," till, by devouring without digesting the quails, they brought on ...
/.../chapter xvi instances from scripture of.htm

The Memorable Hymn. "And when they had Sung an Hymn, they Went Out ...
... other men. Boldest of the sons of men, He quails not in the hour of battle,
but tunes His voice to loftiest psalmody. The genius ...
//christianbookshelf.org/spurgeon/till he come/the memorable hymn and when.htm

Reflections on his Fiftieth Birthday. What a Wonderful Being is ...
... The little quails an hour from the shell, will hide at the danger-signal of the
mother bird, when they never saw a hawk, nor heard of one's existence. ...
/.../chapter xix reflections on his.htm

The Duty of Remembering the Poor
... could send whole rivers of supplies, where now it is a desert, he could scatter
round their houses abundance of provisions; as once he made the quails lie in ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 2 1856/the duty of remembering the.htm

And Having Summoned Nicodemus and the Twelve Men that Said He was ...
... of Egypt from bitter slavery, and brought you safe through the sea as through dry
land, and in the desert fed you with manna, and gave you quails, and quenched ...
/.../unknown/the gospel of nicodemus /chapter 9 and having summoned.htm

Then He Summoned Nicodemus and the Twelve God-Fearing Jews...
... Pilate says: God, who freed you out of the hand of Pharaoh, and brought you through
the Red Sea as upon dry land, and fed you with quails, and gave you water ...
/.../unknown/the gospel of nicodemus /chapter 9 then he summoned.htm

He Replies to the Cavil that the one who is Born must be of one ...
... Tell me, I pray, you who think that like things can only be produced from like things,
whence was the origin of that unaccountable host of quails in the ...
/.../cassian/the seven books of john cassian /chapter iii he replies to.htm

Quails (4 Occurrences)
... The Israelites were twice relieved in their privation by a miraculous supply of
quails, (1) in the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:13), and (2) again at Kibroth ...
/q/quails.htm - 8k

Quail (5 Occurrences)
... They are first mentioned in Exodus 16:13: "And it came to pass at even, that the
quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round ...
/q/quail.htm - 13k

Kibroth-hattaavah (5 Occurrences)
... An answer came. God sent "a prodigious flight of quails, on which the people
satiated their gluttonous appetite for a full month. ...
/k/kibroth-hattaavah.htm - 10k

Kibrothhattaavah (5 Occurrences)
... An answer came. God sent "a prodigious flight of quails, on which the people
satiated their gluttonous appetite for a full month. ...
/k/kibrothhattaavah.htm - 10k

Plague (142 Occurrences)
... This was synchronous with the phenomenal flight of quails, and if these were, as
is probable, driven by the wind from the plague-stricken Serbonian region ...
/p/plague.htm - 49k

Quake (23 Occurrences)

/q/quake.htm - 12k

Homers (1 Occurrence)
... Homers (1 Occurrence). Numbers 11:32 The people rose up all that day, and all
the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. ...
/h/homers.htm - 6k

Jug (11 Occurrences)
... 7. (vi) To nestle or collect together in a covey; -- said of quails and
partridges. Multi-Version Concordance Jug (11 Occurrences). ...
/j/jug.htm - 10k

Layer (4 Occurrences)
... Exodus 16:13 And it came to pass at even, that the quails came up, and covered the
camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the camp. (See JPS NAS NIV). ...
/l/layer.htm - 7k

Leaveth (25 Occurrences)
... Numbers 11:31 And a spirit hath journeyed from Jehovah, and cutteth off quails from
the sea, and leaveth by the camp, as a day's journey here, and as a day's ...
/l/leaveth.htm - 13k

What were the quail mentioned in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org

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