Numbers 11:7-9

11:7 (Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. 11:8 And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it with mills or pounded it in mortars; they baked it in pans and made cakes of it. It tasted like fresh olive oil. ¹  11:9 And when the dew came down ²  on the camp in the night, the manna fell ³  with it.)

Deuteronomy 8:3

8:3 So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. ⁴  He did this to teach you ⁵  that humankind ⁶  cannot live by bread ⁷  alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth. ⁸ 

Nehemiah 9:15

9:15 You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn ⁹  to give them.

Psalms 78:24

78:24 He rained down manna for them to eat;

he gave them the grain of heaven. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 105:40

105:40 They asked for food, ¹¹  and he sent quails;

he satisfied them with food from the sky. ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “And its taste was like the taste of fresh olive oil.”

² tn The temporal clause is constructed of the infinitive construct from יָרָד (yarad) with a temporal preposition, followed by the subjective genitive.

³ tn Heb “came down.”

⁴ tn Heb “manna which you and your ancestors did not know.” By popular etymology the word “manna” comes from the Hebrew phrase מָן הוּא (man hu’), i.e., “What is it?” (Exod 16:15). The question remains unanswered to this very day. Elsewhere the material is said to be “white like coriander seed” with “a taste like honey cakes” (Exod 16:31; cf. Num 11:7). Modern attempts to associate it with various desert plants are unsuccessful for the text says it was a new thing and, furthermore, one that appeared and disappeared miraculously (Exod 16:21-27).

⁵ tn Heb “in order to make known to you.” In the Hebrew text this statement is subordinated to what precedes, resulting in a very long sentence in English. The translation makes this statement a separate sentence for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Heb “the man,” but in a generic sense, referring to the whole human race (“mankind” or “humankind”).

⁷ tn The Hebrew term may refer to “food” in a more general sense (cf. CEV).

⁸ sn Jesus quoted this text to the devil in the midst of his forty-day fast to make the point that spiritual nourishment is incomparably more important than mere physical bread (Matt 4:4; cf. Luke 4:4).

⁹ tn Heb “had lifted your hand.”

¹⁰ sn Manna was apparently shaped like a seed (Exod 16:31), perhaps explaining why it is here compared to grain.

¹¹ tn Heb “he [i.e., his people] asked.” The singular form should probably be emended to a plural שָׁאֲלוּ (sha’alu, “they asked”), the vav (ו) having fallen off by haplography (note the vav at the beginning of the following form).

¹² tn Or “bread of heaven.” The reference is to manna (see Exod 16:4, 13-15).