The second doubt was refuted by the sending of quails — not
to be confounded with those mentioned in Ex. xvi. (which were
sent only for one day, not so much to satisfy the want of the
Israelites as to show that God could satisfy it) — which con-
tinued for a month. The circumstance that Moses is at a loss
to know where God will procure food for such a multitude of
men, instead of remembering that earlier food, has its analogy
in the conduct of the disciples, who, when the Lord wished to
feed the multitude, answered, " Whence should we have so
much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude 1 "
Matt. XV. 33 ; forgetting the feeding of the 5000, which had
already taken place. Oomp. also Matt. xvi. 9, 10, where the
Saviour reproaches His disciples because they had again for-
gotten both these miracles. But he who has attained to some
knowledge of his own heart requires no such analogy. That
which appears improbable on a superficial consideration, is quite
natural to him. We have already pointed out that the send-
ing of the quails, as well as the manna, had a natural basis.
