John Calvin Commentary Numbers 11:33

"While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague." — Numbers 11:33 (ASV)

And while the flesh was still between their teeth. Moses does not specify any particular day, but only that God did not wait until satiety had produced disgust, but inflicted the punishment in the midst of their greediness. We may, however, conjecture from what precedes that time was given them to gorge themselves.

From this, their insatiable voracity may be gathered, which prevailed for so many continuous days and could not be appeased by any quantity of food. God, therefore, allowed them abundantly sufficient time to gorge themselves, unless their gluttony was prodigious; and yet He punished their intemperance while the meat was still in their mouths.

They were, then, suddenly surprised in the midst of their gorging. And so it is said in the Psalm (Psalms 78:30), they were not yet estranged from their lust; just as any glutton might choke himself by devouring more than his throat could hold.

Nor does that contradict their repletion, of which mention was recently made; for, however the belly may swell with the quantity of its contents, the furious lust of eating is never appeased. But, so that their punishment might be more evident, God inflicted it in the very act; nor could any better opportunity have been chosen.