quail

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “quail” in English is translated in Elhomwe as ayuurwe. Ayuurwe are “small (like doves), wild birds which people catch to eat. This type of bird rots very quickly” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext). In Bariai they are translated as “bush hen” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

 

There is total agreement among versions and commentators that this is the Common Quail Coturnix coturnix. This bird existed in Egypt in enormous flocks numbering many millions for centuries, right up to the early part of the twentieth century. It was netted in enormous quantities, dried in the sun, and exported. The Egyptian bird has a rather limited migration route, going across the eastern side of Egypt to the Sinai, then southward into the Sudan. Other quails that migrate from southern Europe to Africa also cross the Sinai. It was during these migrations, when the birds fly only a few feet from the ground, that they were netted.

The common quail is a small brown bird streaked with white, the smallest of the game birds. It looks like a miniature partridge, with a small white patch beneath its beak, a white stripe above its eye, and another around its neck. The males have a black chest stripe above a chestnut-colored breast patch.

The quail is associated with God’s merciful provision during the Exodus from Egypt.

The common quail is found all over Africa, in southern and southeastern Europe, and in the Middle East. It is then found in a discontinuous band across mainland Asia to Japan. Other very similar species, the Harlequin Quail Coturnix delegorguei and the Chinese Quail Coturnix chinensis, are equally common in Africa and Asia respectively. The latter is also found in Australia, where it is called the king quail. In North America the California quail is well known. In other areas where the true quail is not known, a phrase such as small partridge can be used. The reference in Numbers 11:31, literally “two cubits high above the face of the earth”, should be interpreted as “they were flying about a meter 3 feet above the ground.” In the following verse, the text should be interpreted as “they spread them out on the ground,” that is, to dry in the sun.

Quail, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also Bread from Heaven.

Translation commentary on Exodus 16:13

In the evening, or “that evening” (Revised English Bible), uses the usual term for evening, meaning after sunset. Quails were the same small plump birds known today. They are light brown in color, with black and pale streaks. In cultures where quails are unknown, translators may transliterate the term; for example, “birds named ‘quail.’ ” Another option is to use the name of a medium-sized wild bird resembling the quail, one that is edible and locally known. An explanatory note in the Glossary should also be provided. (See FFB, pages \jmp 66-67|fig:ffb_quail.htm\jmp*, for further information.) Came up, literally “it [the quail] ascended,” describes the sudden arrival of the quails (the singular noun is used in a collective sense). They probably “flew up” (Durham) with the help of the wind. (See Num 11.31.) Today’s English Version says “flew in,” meaning into the camp. Contemporary English Version has “came and landed.” And covered the camp means that “they settled in the camp in large numbers” (Translator’s Old Testament), or they “settled over the whole camp” (Revised English Bible). Contemporary English Version translates the first sentence as “That evening a lot of quails came and landed everywhere in the camp.”

And in the morning means “the next morning” (New Jerusalem Bible), or “when the sun rose again.” Dew lay round the camp is literally “there was a layer of dew around the camp.” Dew is the moisture from the air that condenses on the cool ground during the night, forming droplets of water. The word sometimes means a light rain. In at least one language this is called “water that clings [or, remains]” (Thai).

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

translations with a Hebraic voice (Exodus 16:13-15)

Some translations specifically reproduce the voice of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible.

English:
Now it was at sunset
a horde-of-quail came up and covered the camp.
And at daybreak
there was a layer of dew around the camp;
and when the layer of dew went up,
here, upon the surface of the wilderness,
something fine,
scaly,
fine as hoar-frost upon the land.
When the Children of Israel saw it
they said each-man to his brother:
Mahn hu / what is it?
For they did not know what it was.
Moshe said to them:
It is the bread that Yhwh has given you for eating.

Source: Everett Fox 1995

German:
Am Abend wars,
das Wachtelvolk stieg auf und überhüllte das Lager.
Aber am Morgen
war eine Schicht Taus rings um das Lager,
und als die Tauschicht aufstieg,
da war auf der Fläche der Wüste
etwas Feines,
Schuppiges,
fein wie der Reif auf der Erde.
Die Söhne Jissraels sahens
und sprachen einer zum andern:
Man hu — was ist das?
Denn sie wußten nicht was es war.
Mosche sprach zu ihnen:
Das ist das Brot, das Er euch zum Essen gegeben hat.

Source: Buber / Rosenzweig 1976

French:
Et c’est au soir, la caille monte, elle couvre le camp,
et le matin, c’était une couche de rosée autour du camp.
La couche de rosée monte, et voici: sur les faces du désert,
une croûte fine, fine comme givre sur la terre.
Les Benéi Israël voient et disent, chaque homme à son frère:
« Mân hou ? Qu’est-ce ? » Non, ils ne savaient pas ce que c’était.
Moshè leur dit:
« C’est le pain que IHVH-Adonaï vous donne en nourriture. »

Source: Chouraqui 1985

For other verses or sections translated with a Hebraic voice, see here.

Bread from Heaven

Click here to see the image in higher resolution.

Image taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here . For other images of Willy Wiedmann paintings in TIPs, see here.

Following is an artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India:

For more information about images by Sister Marie Claire and ways to purchase them as lithographs, see here . For other images of Sister Marie Claire paintings in TIPs, see here.

The following is a stained glass window from the Three choir windows in the Marienkirche, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, of the 14th century, depicting the feeding with manna:

Source: Der gläserne Schatz: Die Bilderbibel der St. Marienkirche in Frankfurt (Oder), Neuer Berlin Verlag, 2005, copyright for this image: Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Landesmuseum

Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )

See also other stained glass windows from the Marienkirche in Frankfurt.

complete verse (Exodus 16:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 16:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “On the evening of that day, the quails fell from up/heaven to fill the camp until it heaped. And on the next morning, there was dew covering all around the camp.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “That evening quail came and covered the camp in the morning there was dew all around the camp.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When evening-came, many quails arrived as-if/like their camp was-covered. In-the-morning, the land on their camp was-wet with dew.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Okay, on that afternoon bush-hen birds flew and came down and so filled their camp. And in the morning on the next day, dew of the night [had] come down and so made the edges of their camp wet.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “At that evening, quail landed place which they stay there. Tomorrow morning, dew dripped there.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “That evening, quails/small plump birds appeared, and there were so many that they covered the campsite. The next morning there was something like dew all around the campsite.” (Source: Translation for Translators)