Numbers 11:31
And a wind going out from the Lord, taking quails up beyond the sea brought them, and cast them into the camp for the space of one day's journey, on every side of the camp round about, and they flew in the air two cubits high above the ground.
Open Numbers 11:31 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ventus autem egrediens a Domino, arreptans trans mare coturnices detulit, et demisit in castra itinere quantum uno die confici potest, ex omni parte castrorum per circuitum, volabantque in aëre duobus cubitis altitudine super terram.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ πνεῦμα ἐξῆλθεν παρὰ Κυρίου καὶ ἐξεπέρασεν ὀρτυγομήτραν ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης, καὶ ἐπέβαλεν ἐπὶ τὴν παρεμβολὴν ὁδὸν ἡμέρας ἐντεῦθεν καὶ ὁδὸν ἡμέρας ἐντεῦθεν κύκλῳ τῆς παρεμβολῆς, ὡσεὶ δίπηχυ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְר֜וּחַ נָסַ֣ע מֵאֵ֣ת יְהוָ֗ה וַיָּ֣גָז שַׂלְוִים֮ מִן הַיָּם֒ וַיִּטֹּ֨שׁ עַל הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֜ה כְּדֶ֧רֶךְ י֣וֹם כֹּ֗ה וּכְדֶ֤רֶךְ יוֹם֙ כֹּ֔ה סְבִיב֖וֹת הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֑ה וּכְאַמָּתַ֖יִם עַל פְּנֵ֥י הָאָֽרֶץ
Haydock's commentary
Sea; the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The wind blew from the south-west to the west with respect to Moses, or from the south with respect to Jerusalem, Psalm lxxvii. 26. Many quails are found about Rinocorura, and some have imagined that these had continued during winter at the bottom of the waters, as they say swallows do. (Bochart, i. 15.) God had sent the Hebrews a similar provision, for one day, about the same season of the year, Exodus xvi. 13.
Flew. The Hebrew says simply, "as it were two cubits upon the earth;" whether they were heaped one upon another to that height, or, as it is more probable, (Calmet) they flew only so much above the ground, and might easily be killed. (Haydock)
The Septuagint call them ortygometra, the leader, or the largest sort of quails. Suppose twenty of these filled a bushel, or the thirtieth part of a corus, each person would have at least 6,000 quails; and if there were three million people, they must have had 18,000 million such birds. (Menochius)
Philo takes notice, that the Jews were very fond of this food; and Aristotle (Anim., viii. 12,) says, their flesh is as good as that of woodcocks. (Tirinus)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Lactantius The Divine Institutes, Chap. X. Of the advent of Jesus; Of the fortunes of the Jews, and their government, until the passion of the Lord
Our ancestors, who were chiefs of the Hebrews, when they were distressed by famine and want, passed over into Egypt, that they might obtain a supply of corn; and sojourning there a long time, they were oppressed with an intolerable yoke of slavery. Then God pitied them, and led them out, and freed them from the hand of the king of the Egyptians, after four hundred and thirty years, under the leadership of Moses , through whom the law was afterwards given to them by God; and in this leading out God displayed the power of His majesty. …
The Apostolic Constitutions Book VI, Sec. IV. Of the Law
XX . Now the law is the decalogue, which the Lord promulgated to them with an audible voice, before the people made that calf which represented the Egyptian Apis. And the law is righteous, and therefore is it called the law, because judgments are thence made according to the law of nature, which the followers of Simon abuse, supposing they shall not be judged thereby, and so shall escape punishment. This law is good, holy, and such as lays no compulsion in things positive. For He says: “If thou wilt make me an altar, thou shalt make it of earth.” It does not say, “Make one,” but, “If thou wilt make.” It does not impose a necessity, but gives leave to their own free liberty. For God does not stand in need of sacrifices, being by nature above all want. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Furia
4. What troubles matrimony involves you have learned in the marriage state itself; you have been surfeited with quails’ flesh even to loathing; your mouth has been filled with the gall of bitterness; you have expelled the indigestible and unwholesome food; you have relieved a heaving stomach. Why will you again swallow what has disagreed with you? “The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” Even brute beasts and flying birds do not fall into the same snares twice. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Gaudentius
2. Some mothers when they have vowed a daughter to virginity clothe her in sombre garments, wrap her up in a dark cloak, and let her have neither linen nor gold ornaments. They wisely refuse to accustom her to what she will afterwards have to lay aside. Others act on the opposite principle. “What is the use,” say they, “of keeping such things from her? Will she not see them with others? Women are fond of finery and many whose chastity is beyond question dress not for men but for themselves. Give her what she asks for, but shew her that those are most praised who ask for nothing. It is better that she should enjoy things to the full and so learn to despise them than that from not having them she should wish to have them.” “This,” they continue, “was the plan which the Lord adopted with the children of Israel. …