Psalms 78:27

Psa 78:27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

Ver. 27. He rained flesh also upon them as dust] Dapibus illos compluit. This he had done once before for them; see Exo 16:12-13, with Num 11:18-21; Num 11:31-33; their unbelief, therefore, and impatience this second time was the more heinous.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 27. He rained flesh also upon them as dust. First he rained bread and then flesh, when he might have rained fire and brimstone. The words indicate the speed, and the abundance of the descending quails.

And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea; there was no counting them. By a remarkable providence, if not by miracle, enormous numbers of migratory birds were caused to alight around the tents of the tribes. It was, however, a doubtful blessing, as easily acquired and super abounding riches generally are. The Lord save us from meat which is seasoned with divine wrath.

Ver. 27. As dust. The amazing clouds of fine dust or sand, which a violent wind raises in the deserts of the East, constitute the point of comparison. William Keatinge Clay.

Ver. 27. Feathered fowls. Hebrew, "fowl of wing; "i.e., flying fowls, in distinction from domestic poultry. Williams, in Notes to Calvin in loc.

Ver. 27, 31. If the cemetery on Sarbut el Khadem be, what all the antecedent evidences combine to indicate, the workmanship of the Israelites, (a chief burial ground of their fatal encampment at Kibroth Hattaayah), it may most reasonably be expected that its monuments shall contain symbolic representations of the miracle of the "feathered fowls, "and of the awful plague which followed it. Now Niebuhr happily enables us to meet this just expectation, by his copies of the hieroglyphics on three of those tombstones, published in the 45th and 46th plates of his first volume, and prefaced plate 44, by a plan of the cemetery itself, which is of more value than any or all subsequent descriptions. It was discovered by the present writer (as stated in a former work), ("The Voice of Israel") on the evidence of no less than four Sinaitic inscriptions, that the birds of the miracle, named by Moses, generically, wlv, salu, and by the psalmist, still more generally, Pgk Pwe, winged fowls, or more correctly, "long winged fowls, "were not (as rendered by all our versions, ancient and modern) quails, but a crane like red bird resembling a goose, named in the Arabic nuham. The discovery received subsequently a singular and signal corroboration from the further discovery, by Dean Stanley, and previously by Schubert, of immense flocks of these very nuhams on the reputed scene of the miracle at Kibroth Hattaavah. With these antecedents in his mind, the reader will now turn to the three monuments copied by Niebuhr in the cemetery of Sarbut el Khadem. He will at once see that a crane like bird resembling a goose, with slender body and long legs, is the leading hieroglyphic symbol in all three tablets. No fewer than twenty-five of these symbolic birds occur in the first, ten in the second, and fifteen in the third tablet. The goose appears occasionally, but the principal specimens have the air of the goose, but the form of the crane. In a word, they are the very species of birds seen by Dean Stanley, both at this point of Sinai, and at the first cataract of the Nile; and which constantly occur also in Egyptian monuments: as though the very food of Egypt, after which the Israelites lusted, was sent to be at once their prey and their plague. "And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots." Ex 16:3. The reader has here before him the irrefragable fact that the very birds which by every kind of evidence stand identified with the salus, or long legged and long winged fowls of the miracle, are the very birds depicted on the tombstones of Sarbut el Khadem, both standing, flying, and apparently even trussed and cooked... The inevitable inference is... that these tombstones record the miracle of the "feathered fowls, "and stand over the graves of the gluttons who consumed them. Charles Forster, in "Israel in the Wilderness." 1865. Mr. Forster thus deciphers by his alphabet some of the mixed legends and devices: --

"From the sea the cranes congregate to one spot;

The archers shoot at the cranes passing over the plain.

Evil stomached they rush after the prey--

The sepulchre their doom--their marrow corrupted by God,

The sleepy owl, emblem of death, God sends destruction

among them."

"The mother of sepulchres--the black and white geese,

A sudden death, greedily lusting after flesh, die the

gluttons.

The mountain top ascend the Hebrews,

They eat, devour, consume, till nothing is left, exceeding

all bounds,

Their bodies corrupted, by gluttony they die."

None.

Psalms 78:28*

Ver. 27,31. See Psalms on "Ps 78:27" for further information.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. (Psa 78:27) And he rained upon them, like dust, flesh, and like the sand of seas, winged fowl (or birds of wing). Here, as in the miracle of water, two miraculous supplies of flesh are brought together. See Exo 16:13, Num 11:31-32. To these two is transferred the figure of rain, which, in the history, is applied only to the manna.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(27) No doubt there is poetical hyperbole here, but for the enormous numbers of quails that are now caught, see the article quoted above.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. And he rained flesh upon them as the dust,

And winged fowl as the sand of the seas.

The sending of quails is connected, as in Exodus 16, with the sending of the manna; but the language of the Psalm follows the description of the second sending of quails in Numbers 11.

The verbs in Psa_78:26 are the same as those in Psa_78:52. Cp. Exo_10:13; Num_11:31. East and South are separated for the sake of rhythm. A S.E. wind brought up the quails from ‘the sea,’ i.e. the Red Sea. “The period when they were brought to the camp of Israel was in spring, when on their northward migration from Africa. According to their well-known instinct, they would follow up the coast of the Red Sea until they came to its bifurcation by the Sinaitic Peninsula, and then would cross at the narrow part.” Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 231.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,.... Or, "his camps" (l); the four camps of Israel; for so many there were, Num 2:1 or the camp of God, where he dwelt, and before which he went as the General, Leader, and Commander of them; in the midst of this, or by it, by the side of it, Num 11:31, the flesh or feathered fowl fell, so that they had no trouble to fetch it in; and here it fell by the order and direction of the Lord himself; he caused it to fall, without whose knowledge and will a sparrow does not fall to the ground, Mat 10:29. These creatures fell either, as some think, being wearied with their flight over the Red sea; or through their wings being broken by the vehemency of the wind that brought them, as others; or by the moistness of the south wind, which wetted their wings, and made them flag and fall; but, by whatever means this was done, it was so ordered by the Lord that they should fall, and fall just in the place where they did:

round about their habitations; for the space of a day's journey on every side, where they lay in heaps, here and there, two cubits high, Num 11:31, so that they could gather them with great ease, and had no need of arrows to shoot at them, nor nets to spread for them; they were ready at hand, and in great plenty.

(l) "castrorum ejus", Pagninus, Vatablus, Gejerus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He rained flesh also upon them as dust - The flesh of quails, Num 11:31. The word “rained” means that they seemed to come upon them like a copious shower. The word dust denotes their great abundance.

And feathered fowls - Margin, as in Hebrew, “fowl of wing.” This is a poetic expression, designed to give beauty to the description by the image of their fluttering wings.

Like as the sand of the sea - An expression also designed to denote their great numbers, Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12; Gen 41:49; Jos 11:4; 1Sa 13:5; Rev 20:8.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Feathered fowls, Heb. winged fowl; which is noted to show that it was a supernatural work, whereby God took away from them the use of their wings, and made them to fall into the hands of the Israelites.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. He rained flesh… as dust—That is, in profusion. The allusion is to the “dust” of the sirocco. In this same desert, further north, Dr. Robinson says: “At eleven o’clock the wind changed to the south, and blew a perfect tempest. The atmosphere was filled with fine particles of sand, forming a bluish haze; the sun was scarcely visible, his disk exhibiting only a dim and sickly hue. Often we could not see ten rods around us, and our eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were filled with sand.”

Feathered fowls—Hebrew, Birds of wing; which refutes the theory that locusts, not quails, are intended.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He rained flesh also upon them. With the expression, "rained flesh," comp. Exo_16:4, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven;" and see also Gen_19:24 and Exo_9:23. As dust; i.e. "as thick as dust" (Prayer book Version). The quails lay "as it were two cubits high" for the distance of a day"s journey round about each encampment. (see Num_11:31) And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. The commonest image of multiplicity. (Gen_22:17 Deu_33:19 Jos_11:4 Jud_1:7:12, etc.)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fowl - But God took away from them the use of their wings, and made them to fall into the hands of the Israelites.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.