Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Shall the flocks and the herds be slain - There is certainly a considerable measure of weakness and unbelief manifested in the complaints and questions of Moses on this occasion; but his conduct appears at the same time so very simple, honest, and affectionate, that we cannot but admire it, while we wonder that he had not stronger confidence in that God whose miracles he had so often witnessed in Egypt.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them?.... Suggesting that if all their cattle, their sheep, and oxen were killed, which they and the mixed multitude brought out of Egypt, they would not be sufficient for them to live upon a whole month; and intimating also, that it would be an unwise thing, and very improper, to slay them all, were they sufficient, since then they would have none for sacrifice, or to breed when they came into the land of Canaan; the Targum of Jonathan is,"shall the sheep that are in Arabia and the oxen that are in Nabatea be slain for them, and be sufficient for them?"

or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them? of the great sea, as Jonathan; which, to gather together, is, humanly speaking, impossible; indeed, if it could be done, they would not suffice such a number of people a month together: Moses takes notice only of the flesh of beasts and of fishes, and seems not to have thought of the flesh of fowls with which, and not the other, the Lord afterwards fed them a whole month.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Numbers 11:22 Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?

Ver. 22. Or shall all the fish of the sea.] Moses forgat, belike, the fowls of the air, but God sent them such a drift of quails, as Moses dreamed not of: he fed them with meat of kings, bread of angels.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Will they be sufficient for them? or where shall they have more?

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

22.All the fish of the sea — See Numbers 11:5, note. The Mediterranean and the Red Sea were the only seas with which Israel was acquainted.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Fishes. Moses does not distinguish them from flesh, no more than St. Paul does, 1 Corinthians xv. 39. Fish was not formerly allowed on fasting days. (Calmet)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Shall the flocks and the herds . .?—Rather, Shall flocks and herds . .? The definite article is not used here, nor the possessive pronoun, as elsewhere, where the flocks and herds of the Israelites are denoted. (Comp. Exodus 10:9; Exodus 34:3; Deuteronomy 12:6.) There is no evidence, therefore, that Moses alluded exclusively, or even primarily, to the flocks and herds which the Israelites had brought out of Egypt. Moreover, a large number of the sheep and goats must have been recently slain at the Passover. Whether the encampment was, or was not within an easy distance of the Ælanitic Gulf, the gathering together of the fish of the sea in sufficient quantities to satisfy such a multitude for so long a time would require a miraculous agency; and the same agency could also bring together from unknown sources flocks and herds. The expression may be regarded as a form of natural hyperbole.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2 Kings 7:2; Matthew 15:33; Mark 6:37; 8:4; Luke 1:18,34; John 6:6,7,9