Bible Strands
Numbers 11:32
All that day and night, and all the next day, the people stayed up gathering the quail. No one gathered less than ten homers, and they spread them out all around the camp.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrative voice describes the Israelites' actions immediately after a wind drove quail around their camp and before divine judgment falls. The account addresses the gathered community at the moment of hyperactive collection.
The words — כּוֹר (kôr) = homer, a dry measure of roughly six bushels. כָּל־הַיּוֹם הַהוּא וְכָל־הַלַּיְלָה (kol-hayyôm hahû' wekol-halaylâh) = all that day and all the night, emphasizing uninterrupted labor.
The thread — The homer measurement connects to Ezekiel 45:11 and Exodus 16:36, which standardize ancient Israelite dry and liquid volumes. The pattern of excessive gathering mirrors the manna provisions in Exodus 16 while contrasting with the later judgment in Numbers 11:33.
Why it lands — The text records a factual account of exhaustive collection and uniform distribution without commentary. It requires the reader to observe the scale of the gathering before the narrative shifts to the consequences of the people's demand.
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 the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 45:11 The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure for both.
- Exodus 16:36 (Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)