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Smith's Bible Dictionary
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Quails
There can be no doubt that the Hebrew word in the Pentateuch
(Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31,32) and in the 105th Psalm,
denotes the common quail, Coturnix dactylisonans . (The
enormous quantity of quails taken by the Israelites has its
parallel in modern times. Pliny states that they sometimes
alight on vessels in the Mediterranean and sink them. Colenel
Sykes states that 160,000 quails have been netted in one season
on the island of Capri.--ED.) The expression "as it were two
cubits (high) upon the face of the earth," (Numbers 11:31)
refers probably to the height at which the quails flew above
the ground, in their exhausted condition from their long
flight. As to the enormous quantities which the
least-successful Israelite is said to have taken viz. "ten
homers" (i.e. eighty bushels) in the space of a night and two
days, there is every reason for believing that the "homers here
spoken of do not denote strictly the measure of that name but
simply "a heap." The Israelites would have had little
difficulty in capturing large quantities of these birds as they
are known to arrive at places sometimes so completely exhausted
by their flight as to be readily taken, not in nets only, but
by the hand. They "spread the quails round about the camp;"
this was for the purpose of drying them. The Egyptians
similarly prepared these birds. The expression "quails from the
sea," (Numbers 11:31) must not be restricted to denote that the
birds came from the sea, as their starting-point, but it must
be taken to show the direction from which they were coming. The
quails were at the time of the event narrated in the sacred
writings, on their spring journey of migration northward, It is
interesting to note the time specified: "it was at even" that
they began to arrive; and they no doubt continued to come all
night. Many observers have recorded that the quail migrates by
night.
Quartus
(fourth), a Christian of Corinth, (Romans 16:23) said to have
been one of the seventy disciples, and afterward bishop of
Berytus. (A.D. about 50.)
Quaternion
a military term signifying a guard of four soldiers, two of
whom were attached to the person of a prisoner, while the other
two kept watch outside the door of his cell. (Acts 12:4)
Queen
This title is properly applied to the queen-mother, since in an
Oriental household it is not the wife but the mother of the
master who exercises the highest authority. Strange as such an
arrangement at sight appears, it is one of the inevitable
results of polygamy. An illustration of the queen-mother's
influence is given in (1 Kings 2:19) ff. The term is applied to
Maachah, (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chronicles 16:16) and to Jezetiel,
(2 Kings 10:13) and to the mother of Jehoiachin or Jeconiah,
(Jeremiah 13:18) compare 2Kin 24:12; Jere 29:2
Queen Of Heaven
(Jeremiah 7:18; 45:17,18,19,25) is the moon Ashtaroth or
Astarte to whom worshiped as Hebrew women offered cakes in the
streets of Jerusalem.
Quicksands, The
more properly THE [1002]Syrtis, The, (Acts 27:17) the broad a
deep bight on the north African coast between Carthage and
Cyrene. There were properly two Syrtes--the eastern or larger,
now called the Gulf of Sidra, and the western or smaller, now
the Gulf of Cabes . It is the former to which our attention is
directed in this passage of the Acts.
Quiver
a box made for the purpose of holding arrows. (Genesis 27:3)
There is nothing in the Bible to indicate either its form or
material, or in what way it was carried.