Numbers 11:31 · Bible study
Numbers 11:31 Commentary: Quail, Wind, and Two Cubits
Hebrew · 9 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Examine Numbers 11:31: did quails lie two cubits deep or fly two cubits high? A study of the miracle, judgment, and interpretive debate.
Research Summary
- Meaning: An extraordinary wind from Yahweh brings an enormous swarm of quails (or possibly locusts) that cover the camp area in staggering abundance, foreshadowing judgment.
- Key words: “wind/spirit” (ruach, H7307); “quails” (salvim, H7958); “left/threw” (natash, H5203); “two cubits” (H0520).
- Main debate: Whether “two cubits above the earth” means the birds were piled two cubits deep on the ground or flew two cubits above it.
- Theological theme: God’s provision can become judgment when human desire is separated from trust in Him.
- Best use: Preaching on the dangers of demanding what God has not given, and on the difference between grateful receiving and greedy grabbing.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
Now a wind sent by the LORD came up, drove in quail from the sea, and brought them near the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground, for a day’s journey in every direction around the camp.
WEB World English Bible 2000
A wind from Yahweh went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.
KJV King James Version 1769
And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
And there went forth a wind from Jehovah, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits above the face of the earth.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
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 journey there, round about the camp, and about two cubits, on the face of the land.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
And there went forth a wind from Jehovah, and drove quails from the sea, and cast them about 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 above the earth.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
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.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Y salió un viento de Jehová, y trajo codornices de la mar, y dejólas sobre el real, un día de camino de la una parte, y un día de camino de la otra, en derredor del campo, y casi dos codos sobre la haz de la tierra.
E saiu um vento do SENHOR, e trouxe codornizes do mar, e deixou-as sobre o acampamento, um dia de caminho de uma parte, e um dia de caminho da outra, em derredor do acampamento, e quase dois côvados sobre a face da terra.
L’ Éternel fit souffler de la mer un vent, qui amena des cailles, et les répandit sur le camp, environ une journée de chemin d’ un côté et environ une journée de chemin de l’ autre côté, autour du camp. Il y en avait près de deux coudées au-dessus de la surface de la terre.
Da fuhr aus der Wind von dem HERRN und ließ Wachteln kommen vom Meer und streute sie über das Lager, hier eine Tagereise lang, da eine Tagereise lang um das Lager her, zwei Ellen hoch über der Erde.
Toen voer een wind uit van den HEERE, en raapte kwakkelen van de zee, en strooide ze bij het leger, omtrent een dagreize, en omtrent een dagreize derwaarts, rondom het leger; en zij waren omtrent twee ellen boven de aarde.
E un vento si levò, per ordine dell’Eterno, e portò delle quaglie dalla parte del mare, e le fe’ cadere presso il campo, sulla distesa di circa una giornata di cammino da un lato e una giornata di cammino dall’altro intorno al campo, e a un’altezza di circa due cubiti sulla superficie del suolo.
Zatem wyszedł wiatr od Pana, i porwawszy przepiórki od morza, spuścił je na obóz, z jednej strony jako na jeden dzień chodu, z drugiej strony także jako na jeden dzień chodu, około obozu, a jakoby na dwa łokcie były nad ziemią.
И поднялся ветер от Господа, и принес от моря перепелов, и набросал их около стана, на путь дня по одну сторону и на путь дня по другую сторону около стана, на два почти локтя от земли.
有風 從 耶和華 那裡颳起，把鵪鶉 由 海 面颳來，飛散 在 營 邊和營 的四圍；這邊 約有一天 的路程，那邊 約有一天 的路程，離 地 面 約有二肘。
Then the Lord sent a wind, driving little birds from the sea, so that they came down on the tents, and all round the tent-circle, about a day's journey on this side and on that, in masses about two cubits high over the face of the earth.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Numbers 11:31
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Numbers 11:31 describes a miraculous provision of birds (most say quails) sent by a wind from Yahweh. The scale is extraordinary: the birds covered the ground for a day’s journey in every direction around the camp, and the people gathered more than anyone could use, ten homers (roughly 60 bushels) for even the least gatherer (v.32). There is also agreement that this provision was a direct response to the people’s demand for meat and that it foreshadowed the plague in v.33.
The one sharp disagreement concerns the phrase “two cubits above the surface of the earth.” Adam Clarke, following the Vulgate, argues the quails flew two cubits high (about three feet) so the Israelites could easily knock them down. Keil & Delitzsch, by contrast, insist the Hebrew verb natash (“threw”) means they were cast to the ground, lying in heaps up to two cubits deep. Gill notes that Jewish and early Christian interpreters are divided. Both sides agree on the abundance; the debate is about how the birds were presented.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Piled on the ground: The verb <em>natash</em> (“threw”; H5203) suggests casting down, and the parallel in Psalm 78:27 speaks of raining down meat like dust. The people also “spread them all out” (v.32), implying they were on the ground.
- Flying low: The Vulgate and many rabbis read <em>‘al-penei ha’aretz</em> as a height reference; the Targum says they flew two cubits above the earth. Clarke argues this fits the natural behavior of exhausted migratory birds.
- Height of the birds: JFB mentions a proposal that “two cubits” describes the size of the individual birds (large red‑legged cranes), but this is a minority view not widely adopted.
What is clear: God sent an overwhelming supply of birds in response to the people’s demand, and the miracle underscored both His power and the danger of misplaced desire.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of the wind | The wind is sent by Yahweh and is not merely a natural event; it is miraculously directed to bring the birds. | Some commentators stress a supernatural wind (Clarke), while others point to a providential use of a normal east/south wind (Gill, JFB) that was guided in timing and intensity. |
| Identity of the birds | The Hebrew word <em>salvim</em> (H7958) is consistently translated as “quails” in older English versions and most commentaries. | Some scholars, following Ludolphus, argue the description better fits locusts (Gill mentions this view), but the majority maintain quails are intended based on Psalm 105:40 and the migratory habits of quails in the region. |
| Meaning of 'two cubits high' | The number indicates an extraordinary abundance that made the birds easily accessible to the people. | Keil & Delitzsch, following many Jewish interpreters, say the quails fell in heaps two cubits deep; Clarke, the Vulgate, and others say they flew low, two cubits above the ground, so the people could take them by hand. |
| Relationship between provision and plague | The plague immediately follows the gathering of the quails (v.33) and is God’s direct judgment on the people’s lust. | The precise cause of the judgment is viewed as either the people’s gluttony and lack of trust (Matthew Henry) or the fact that they despised the Lord by demanding meat (Keil & Delitzsch). |
Historical & Cultural Context
The setting is the wilderness of Paran, between Mount Sinai and the border of Canaan. Numbers 11 opens with the people complaining about their hardships; by v.4 they are weeping for meat, tired of the daily manna. Moses brings the crisis to Yahweh, and Yahweh promises flesh, not for a day, but for a whole month, until it comes out of their nostrils (v.20).
Verse 31 describes the mechanism: “A wind from Yahweh went out and brought quails from the sea.” The Hebrew ruach can mean either “wind” or “spirit.” In context, as most commentators agree, it is a literal wind, but one sent by God, not a merely natural phenomenon. Psalm 78:26 specifies an east wind and a south wind. The quails are migratory birds that fly north from Africa in spring; the wind diverted them from their usual path and drove them across the Gulf of Aqaba (the “sea”), where the camp was stationed.
The measurement “a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side” indicates an area roughly 30, 40 miles in diameter, an almost unimaginable swarm. The detail “two cubits high” (about three feet) is the crux. If the birds lay piled that thick, the scene would be grotesque, a flood of flesh. If they flew that low, the people could simply reach up and grab them. Either way, the abundance was both a gift and a trap: the people gorged, and “Yahweh struck the people with a very great plague” (v.33). The place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, “Graves of Craving.”
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Numbers 11:31. The Hebrew text is stable across manuscripts. One lexical point: the verb guz (H1468) occurs only here and in Psalm 90:10; its meaning is debated between “bring/brought” (as in most translations) and “cut off” (so the YLT: “cutteth off quails from the sea”). The consensus among commentators is that the context requires the sense of bringing or driving, not literally cutting. No variant readings affect the interpretation of “two cubits.”
Reception History
Early Jewish interpretation, reflected in the Targum of Jonathan and the rabbis (Jarchi, Ben Gersom), took “two cubits” as the height at which the quails flew, making them easy to catch. The Vulgate likewise renders: volabantque in aere duobus cubitis altitudine super terram (“and they flew in the air, two cubits high above the ground”). This reading influenced many medieval and Reformation commentators.
The alternative view, that the quails lay piled two cubits deep, gained ground after the Reformation, especially in Calvinist and later critical scholarship (Keil & Delitzsch). In the 19th century, JFB suggested the phrase might refer to the size of the birds themselves (large cranes). Despite the interpretive variety, the passage has consistently been used to illustrate the danger of craving what God has not given, and the swiftness with which blessing can become judgment when the heart is ungrateful.
Preaching This Verse
Three-Point Outline
- God provides with power. The wind is not a random weather event, it comes “from Yahweh.” God controls creation to meet His people’s needs, but His giving is never detached from His will.
- God provides with abundance. A day’s journey in every direction, two cubits high (whether piled or flying), is more than sufficient. God’s generosity overflows; He can satisfy any legitimate need.
- God provides with accountability. The same provision that gratified the people also exposed their greed and lead to judgment. The gift itself became a test.
Five-Point Outline
- The complaint: the people reject God’s daily manna for a taste of Egypt.
- The answer: a wind from Yahweh brings quails from the sea, a miracle of timing and scale.
- The abundance: two cubits high, spread over miles; ten homers per person.
- The judgment: while the meat is still between their teeth, the plague falls.
- The name: Kibroth Hattaavah, a memorial that craving can lead to death.
Illustration Hooks
- A family wins a lottery, sudden wealth that destroys relationships. The gift they begged for turned into a curse.
- A child demands a second helping of dessert, eats until sick, and learns the difference between a treat and a binge.
- A community receives disaster relief in overwhelming quantity, food stacked in warehouses, but the real need was not more food, but a changed heart.
Questions Your Congregation Is Asking
- “If God knows what we need, why does He sometimes give us what we want instead?”
- “Is it wrong to ask God for material things when we already have enough?”
- “How do we tell the difference between a gift from God and a temptation in disguise?”
Leading a Discussion
This passage sits in a painful tension: God gives exactly what His people asked for, and the gift brings death. As you work through the questions, help your group hold both grace and judgment in view. The quails are not a proof that God always says yes, nor that saying yes always ends well.
Discussion Questions
- Read Numbers 11:31, 34. What stands out to you about the way God answers the people’s demand for meat?
- The wind comes “from Yahweh.” How does that phrase shape the way you see the event, is it nature or miracle? Why does that distinction matter?
- Two cubits high: the group may be divided on whether the quails were piled on the ground or flew low. What difference does each interpretation make for understanding God’s provision and the people’s response?
- Why do you think the people gathered so much, ten homers each, even though they could not possibly eat it all? What does that say about human desire?
- Verse 33 says the plague struck “while the meat was still between their teeth.” What does that timing tell you about God’s character in this story?
- How does this passage connect to the broader biblical theme that God tests His people through both scarcity and abundance?
- What is one way you have experienced a prayer answered in a way that later made you wish you had not asked?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Exodus 10:13 | Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind on the land all that day, and all night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. |
| Exodus 10:19 | Yahweh sent an exceedingly strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt. |
| Exodus 15:10 | You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. |
| Exodus 16:13 | In the evening, quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp. |
| Psalms 78:26 | He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind. |
| Psalms 78:29 | So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire. |
| Psalms 105:40 | They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky. |
| Psalms 135:7 | He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings with the rain. He brings the wind out of his treasuries. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke corrects a common misinterpretation: the quails were not piled two cubits deep on the ground. He insists they flew at that height above it, making them easy to catch with hands or clubs, as the Latin Vulgate describes.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Cambridge Bible School treats this chapter as three separate stories woven together by a later editor. The manna and quails episode, Moses' complaint about bearing the people alone, and the Spirit falling on the seventy elders each came from different sources and were not originally connected at all.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note emphasizes that the wind came directly from the Lord, not from natural causes. The quails fell two cubits thick over a full day's journey in every direction, making them easy to gather. This abundant supply shows God's sovereign provision for Israel.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill raises a genuine uncertainty about whether the birds were quails or locusts, noting that learned advocates exist for both views. He points out that the description of them falling two cubits high fits locusts better, since quails piled that deep would suffocate.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB notes that the phrase "two cubits high" has several possible meanings. It could describe quails piled deep on the ground, their exhausted flight height of about three feet, or the size of individual birds like large red-legged cranes. The discussion highlights the uncertainty in interpreting this physical detail.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch argue that the quails were not flying two cubits above the ground but were thrown onto the camp by the wind and lay piled two cubits deep. This interpretation, based on the Hebrew verb "throw," makes sense of the enormous quantities gathered—up to ten homers per person—which God provided both to satisfy and to test the people's greed.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange sees the uprisings in Numbers 11 as a pattern of how quickly God's visible people fall short of being a true spiritual army. He draws a direct parallel to later church history, noting that the same failures repeated in medieval champions and even among Protestants from the Hussites onward.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry emphasizes that God's power over nature provided abundant meat, fulfilling his promise. Yet the people's greedy lust turned the gift into a curse, bringing a plague on those who craved it. He notes uncertainty over whether the "quails" were actually locusts, a delicacy in that region.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley clarifies that the wind from the Lord was miraculous in its force and effect, and he emphasizes the extraordinary provision of quails. He interprets "two cubits high" not as a continuous blanket of birds covering the ground, but as heaps of quails lying here and there, some piled up to that height.