Hebrew word · H7958

שְׂלָו

selav

quail

Quail, used as a collective for a flock or mass of birds. It appears only in the wilderness stories (Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31–32) and here.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

quail

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 105:40

Range of meaning

Quail, used as a collective for a flock or mass of birds. It appears only in the wilderness stories (Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31–32) and here.

Against the English

KJV and WEB say "quails" in the plural, while BSB and others say "quail". The meaning is the same: a huge number of birds, not a few.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exodus 16:13 (quail at evening, manna in the morning); Numbers 11:31–34 (quail blown in by a wind from the sea, followed by a plague at Kibroth-hattaavah, "graves of craving"). The common quail migrates across the Sinai region in spring and autumn. Worn out after crossing the sea, the birds land and are easy to catch. Ancient writers noted this, and it still happens in modern times.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 16:13 הַשְּׂלָ֔ו the quail

    That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 11:31 שַׂלְוִים֮ quails

    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.

  2. Numbers 11:32 הַשְּׂלָ֔ו the quail

    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.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 105:40 שְׂלָ֑ו quail

    They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

    Here: A singular noun used for the whole flock: "quail" as a mass, a whole fall of birds. It recalls the evening meat of Exodus 16:13.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.