Numbers 11:33

And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, &c.— It is impossible to determine, as Calmet justly remarks, how many days they used this food, or what was the plague wherewith the Lord smote them. Some say that this plague was a pestilence, others a consumption, others a fire, such as that spoken of at the beginning of the chapter; an opinion, which seems to be supported by Psalms 78:21. Calmet conjectures, that the quails themselves might prove destructive to the gluttonous and intemperate Israelites, long unused to flesh; but one may more rationally conceive, that the plague was an immediate punishment from the avenging hand of God. It is most probable, that this plague happened not to them till they had fed upon the quails for a space of a month, promised Numbers 11:20.