Exodus 16:13

And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up,.... From the coasts of Egypt, from the Red sea, over which they flew; and being evening, and weary with flying so long, lighted and settled where the Israelites encamped.

And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

Heb. There was a bed of dew, wherewith the manna was covered, . To this the hidden manna, , alludes.

Exodus 16:13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.Ver. 13. The dew lay round,] i.e., The manna that came down in the dew; as Christ the bread of life doth in the ministry of the word. See Deuteronomy 32:2. Josephus writeth, that as Moses was lifting up his hands in prayer, there fell upon them a dew from heaven, and crusted. This when he had tasted, it proved very sweet; and the nature of this manna, saith he, was such, that he who had it would desire no other meat.

(13) At even the quails came up.—The common quail (Tetrao coturnix) is very abundant in the East, and regularly migrates from Syria and Arabia in the autumn of the year for the purpose of wintering in Central Africa, whence it returns in immense masses in the spring (Schubert: Reise, vol. ii., p. 361). Exhausted after a long flight over the Red Sea, the flocks drop to the ground as soon as they reach the coast, and it is then easy either to take the birds with the hand or to kill them with sticks. Diodorus says that “the inhabitants of Arabia Petræa were wont to prepare long nets, and spread them near the coast for many furlongs, by which means they caught a great quantity of quails, which were in the habit of coming in from the sea” (ii. 60), The flesh of the quail is regarded as a delicacy throughout the East, though if too many are eaten it is said to be unwholesome. The dew lay.—Literally, there was a lying of dew. A heavy fall seems to be meant.

Verse 13. At even the quails came] שלו selav, from שלה salah, to be quiet, easy, or secure; and hence the quail, from their remarkably living at ease and plenty among the corn. "An amazing number of these birds," says Hasselquist, Travels, p. 209, "come to Egypt at this time, (March,) for in this month the wheat ripens. They conceal themselves among the corn, but the Egyptians know that they are thieves, and when they imagine the field to be full of them they spread a net over the corn and make a noise, by which the birds, being frightened, and endeavouring to rise, are caught in the net in great numbers, and make a most delicate and agreeable dish." The Abbé Pluche tells us, in his Histoire du Ciel, that the quail was among the ancient Egyptians the emblem of safety and security. "Several learned men, particularly the famous Ludolf, Bishop Patrick, and Scheuchzer, have supposed that the שלוים selavim eaten by the Israelites were locusts. But not to insist on other arguments against this interpretation, they are expressly called שאר sheer, flesh, Psalms 78:27, which surely locusts are not; and the Hebrew word is constantly rendered by the Septuagint ορτυγομητρα, a large kind of quail, and by the Vulgate coturnices, quails. Compare Wisdom 16:2, 19:12; Numbers 11:31-32; Psalms 105:40; and on Nu xi. observe that כאמתים keamathayim should be rendered, not two cubits high, but as Mr. Bate translates it, 'two cubits distant, (i.e., one from the other,) for quails do not settle like the locusts one upon another, but at small distances.' And had the quails lain for a day's journey round the camp, to the great height of two cubits, upwards of three feet, the people could not have been employed two days and a night in gathering them. The spreading them round the camp was in order to dry them in the burning sands for use, which is still practised in Egypt." See Parkhurst, sub voce שלה salah. The difficulties which encumber the text, supposing these to be quails, led Bishop Patrick to imagine them to be locusts. The difficulties are three: "1. Their coming by a wind. 2. Their immense quantities, covering a circle of thirty or forty miles, two cubits thick. 3. Their being spread in the sun for drying, which would have been preposterous had they been quails, for it would have made them corrupt the sooner; but this is the principal way of preparing locusts to keep for a month or more, when they are boiled or otherwise dressed." This difficulty he thinks interpreters pass over, who suppose quails to be intended in the text. Mr. Harmer takes up the subject, removes the bishop's difficulties, and vindicates the common version. "These difficulties appear pressing, or at least the two last; nevertheless, I have met with several passages in books of travels, which I shall here give an account of, that they may soften them; perhaps my reader may think they do more.

13a. In the evening the quails came up with the wind (cf. Numbers 11:31) in such numbers that they covered the camp. Quails belong to the partridge family. They are migratory birds; and in March and April come up from Arabia and other southern countries and cross the Mediterranean,—from the Levant to Malta,—in vast numbers; and return southwards from Europe in even more enormous flights towards the end of September. They always fly with the wind (cf. Numbers 11:31). When they alight, which they generally do at night, they cover the ground (cf. Numbers 11:31 b, 32a); and being usually exhausted, can be captured by hand in great numbers. By the Egyptians they were not cooked, but cured (Hdt. ii. 77); cf. Numbers 11:32 b (spread out to dry in the sun). See further NHB. p. 229 ff. 13b–15a. Description of the manna (perhaps from J). There are other descriptions in v. 31 (P), and Numbers 11:7-9 (JE), the latter given when it is told how the Israelites afterwards became tired of such poor food.

Quails - This bird migrates in immense numbers in spring from the south: it is nowhere more common than in the neighborhood of the Red Sea. In this passage we read of a single flight so dense that it covered the encampment.

QUAILS AND MANNA GIVEN, Exodus 16:13-21. 13. The quails came up, (from the south, across the Red Sea,) and covered the camp — Fell down among the tents.