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Numbers 11:32

in Numbers 11

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.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.

KJV

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.

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This verse in Numbers 11

Commentary

8 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

The people stood up, etc. - While these immense flocks were flying at this short distance from the ground, fatigued with the strong wind and the distance they had come, they were easily taken by the people; and as various flocks continued to succeed each other for two days and a night, enough for a month’s provision might be collected in that time.

This site's exposition

Then Moses returned to the camp

on Numbers 11:30-32

A wind from the LORD drives quail in from the sea, from the east and south by Psalm 78:26. Some read “two cubits above the surface of the ground” as birds heaped that deep, and Clarke as their flying height.

This site's exposition

No one gathered less than ten homers

The manna came with a measure, an omer for each person, and Exodus 16:18 says whoever gathered much had nothing left over. The quail came without one. Wesley reads the heaps as greed and distrust of God's goodness.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

So the meaning is not, that every Israelite had so much for his share, but that every collector gathered so much for the family, or others by whom he was intrusted. That the people did not gather for their present use only, but for a good while to come, and being greedy and distrustful of God's goodness, it is not strange if they gathered much more than they needed.
And the people stood up all that day,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

It is evident, however, that the language describes the countless number of these quails. as it were two cubits high--Some have supposed that they fell on the ground above each other to that height--a supposition which would leave a vast quantity useless as food to the Israelites, who were forbidden to eat any animal that died of itself or from which the blood was not poured out.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Jud 15:16); and "ten" for many: so that the phrase "ten homers" is equivalent to "great heaps." The collectors were probably one or two from each family; and, being distrustful of God's goodness, they gathered not for immediate consumption only, but for future use.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Jud 15:16); and "ten" for many: so that the phrase "ten homers" is equivalent to "great heaps." The collectors were probably one or two from each family; and, being distrustful of God's goodness, they gathered not for immediate consumption only, but for future use.

The words behind it

22 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיָּ֣קָםand it arose

    vaiyakomH6965 →628 times

  • הָעָ֡םthe people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • הַיּוֹם֩the day

    haiyomH3117 →2304 times

  • הַה֨וּא<the> that

    hahu'H1931 →1879 times

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • הַלַּ֜יְלָהthe night

    halaylahH3915 →233 times

  • וְכֹ֣ל׀and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • י֣וֹם[the] day of

    yomH3117 →2304 times

  • הַֽמָּחֳרָ֗תthe next day

    hamochoratH4283 →32 times

  • וַיַּֽאַסְפוּ֙and they gathered

    vaiyaasfuH622 →200 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַשְּׂלָ֔וthe quail

    haselavH7958 →

  • הַמַּמְעִ֕יטthe [one who] did little

    hamamitH4591 →22 times

  • אָסַ֖ףhe gathered

    ʾasafH622 →200 times

  • עֲשָׂרָ֣הten

    ʾasarahH6235 →176 times

  • חֳמָרִ֑יםhomers

    chomarimH2563 →

  • וַיִּשְׁטְח֤וּand they spread [them] out

    vaiyishtechuH7849 →

  • לָהֶם֙for <the> themselves

    lahem

  • שָׁט֔וֹחַcompletely <to spread out>

    shatoachH7849 →

  • סְבִיב֖וֹתaround

    sevivotH5439 →336 times

  • הַֽמַּחֲנֶֽה׃the camp

    hamachanehH4264 →215 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

3 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    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…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 5:10

      For ten acres of vineyard will yield but a bath of wine, and a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.”

  • Through

    Exodus 16:36

    (Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)

    it leads to

    • Exodus 16:16

      This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. You may take an omer for each person in your tent.’”

    • Exodus 16:32–33

      Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Keep an omer of manna for the generations to come, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I…

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.
The Brazen Serpent, Anthony van Dyck, 1618 to 1620. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 11 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.

Read on in Numbers 11 →