Exodus 16:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As we present gifts to our children and provide them with finances, expecting of them a single action—to promptly attend school—God, during that time, offered the Jews abundance and satisfaction, desiring in return merely that they heed the words of Moses. Just as a weaned child receives a horn for comfort, God withheld nothing from the Jews and filled them with joy. Yet, like the child who continues to crave the breast, they yearned for Egypt and its culinary delights.

At the outset of the moral journey for His people, the Lord refrains from punishing them for their longing for the comforts of Egypt, providing them with meat without holding them accountable for their complaints. However, two years later, when the people once again began to grumble and reminisce about their former lives in Egypt, the Lord sent them quails. This time, however, it was as a consequence of their actions, for they were afflicted by a plague at a location known as ‘the graves of craving.’