Bible Strands
Numbers 11:31
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the event immediately after Moses returns to the camp with the elders, as the Israelites are encamped and demanding meat.
The words — The text highlights ר֜וּחַ (Ruach) translated as a wind, and הַ/יָּם (hai/Yam) translated as the sea, which the narrative specifies as the origin point for the quail.
The thread — The narrative echoes the quail provision at Exodus 16:13 and recalls God’s wind-driven provision in Psalms 78:26 and Psalms 105:40.
Why it lands — The verse states the sheer volume and height of the quail before interpreting the event as divine response to human complaint. It demands recognition that the text presents the provision as a direct, measurable intervention rather than a natural occurrence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Exodus 16:13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
- Psalms 78:26 He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.
- Psalms 105:40 They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
- Exodus 10:13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and throughout that day and night the LORD sent an east wind across the land. By morning the east wind had brought the locusts.
- Exodus 10:19 And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.
- Exodus 15:10 But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- Psalms 135:7 He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.