And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quail from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and about a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits high above the face of the earth.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
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. (Bo chart, 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)
