Exodus 16:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Quails— Ludolph has offered several arguments (in his Ethiop. Hist. lib. i. c. 13.) to prove, that the word השׂלו haslau ought to be rendered locusts; which, he thinks, best agrees with the circumstances of the narration. See Numbers 11:21. Parkhurst says, that שׂלו selau signifies a quail; a kind of bird so called from its living remarkably in ease and plenty among the corn. Hence, among the Egyptians, a quail was the emblem of ease and tranquillity; and this bird being generally esteemed a dainty, one would apprehend that it was sent at this time rather than the locust, which, though certainly used for food, does not seem to come up to the idea of flesh, אשׂר asar in Psalms 78 and צדה tzedah, which is given us on this occasion, Exodus 16:12. We may remark, that this miracle happened about the middle of April, which is the season when the quails, which are birds of passage, are observed to cross the Red-sea in vast numbers. The same is also observed to this very day by such as frequent those parts. The miracle, therefore, consisted not so much in the prodigious number which fell into the camp of Israel, as in the directing them thither on that very evening, according to GOD's promise and Moses's prediction. In Psalms 78:27 it is said, he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea; expressions which do not seem compatible with the idea of locusts.