Exodus 16:14-31

16:14 When ¹  the layer of dew had evaporated, ²  there on the surface of the desert was a thin flaky substance, ³  thin like frost on the earth. 16:15 When ⁴  the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ⁵  “What is it?” because they did not know what it was. ⁶  Moses said to them, “It is the bread ⁷  that the Lord has given you for food. ⁸ 

16:16 “This is what ⁹  the Lord has commanded: ¹⁰  ‘Each person is to gather ¹¹  from it what he can eat, an omer ¹²  per person ¹³  according to the number ¹⁴  of your people; ¹⁵  each one will pick it up ¹⁶  for whoever lives ¹⁷  in his tent.’” 16:17 The Israelites did so, and they gathered – some more, some less. 16:18 When ¹⁸  they measured with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing left over, and the one who gathered little lacked nothing; each one had gathered what he could eat.

16:19 Moses said to them, “No one ¹⁹  is to keep any of it ²⁰  until morning.” 16:20 But they did not listen to Moses; some ²¹  kept part of it until morning, and it was full ²²  of worms and began to stink, and Moses was angry with them. 16:21 So they gathered it each morning, ²³  each person according to what he could eat, and when the sun got hot, it would melt. ²⁴  16:22 And ²⁵  on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers ²⁶  per person; ²⁷  and all the leaders ²⁸  of the community ²⁹  came and told ³⁰  Moses. 16:23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work, ³¹  a holy Sabbath ³²  to the Lord. Whatever you want to ³³  bake, bake today; ³⁴  whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.’”

16:24 So they put it aside until the morning, just as Moses had commanded, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. 16:25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the area. ³⁵  16:26 Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”

16:27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they found nothing. 16:28 So the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse ³⁶  to obey my commandments and my instructions? 16:29 See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, that is why ³⁷  he is giving you food for two days on the sixth day. Each of you stay where you are; ³⁸  let no one ³⁹  go out of his place on the seventh day.” 16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

16:31 The house of Israel ⁴⁰  called its name “manna.” ⁴¹  It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted ⁴²  like wafers with honey.

[16:14]  ¹ tn Heb “and [the dew…] went up.”

[16:14]  ² tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the main clause; since that clause calls special attention to what was there after the dew evaporated.

[16:14]  ³ sn Translations usually refer to the manna as “bread.” In fact it appears to be more like grain, because it could be ground in hand-mills and made into cakes. The word involved says it is thin, flakelike (if an Arabic etymological connection is correct). What is known about it from the Bible in Exodus is that it was a very small flakelike substance, it would melt when the sun got hot, if left over it bred worms and became foul, it could be ground, baked, and boiled, it was abundant enough for the Israelites to gather an omer a day per person, and they gathered it day by day throughout the wilderness sojourn. Num 11 says it was like coriander seed with the appearance of bdellium, it tasted like fresh oil, and it fell with the dew. Deut 8:3 says it was unknown to Israel or her ancestors; Psalm 78:24 parallels it with grain. Some scholars compare ancient references to honeydew that came from the heavens. F. S. Bodenheimer (“The Manna of Sinai,” BA 10 [1947]: 2) says that it was a sudden surprise for the nomadic Israelites because it provided what they desired – sweetness. He says that it was a product that came from two insects, making the manna a honeydew excretion from plant lice and scale insects. The excretion hardens and drops to the ground as a sticky solid. He notes that some cicadas are called man in Arabic. This view accounts for some of the things in these passages: the right place, the right time, the right description, and a similar taste. But there are major difficulties: Exodus requires a far greater amount, it could breed worms, it could melt away, it could be baked into bread, it could decay and stink. The suggestion is in no way convincing. Bodenheimer argues that “worms” could mean “ants” that carried them away, but that is contrived – the text could have said ants. The fact that the Bible calls it “bread” creates no problem. לֶחֶם (lekhem) is used in a wide range of meanings from bread to all kinds of food including goats (Judg 13:15-16) and honey (1 Sam 14:24-28). Scripture does not say that manna was the only thing that they ate for the duration. But they did eat it throughout the forty years. It simply must refer to some supernatural provision for them in their diet. Modern suggestions may invite comparison and analysis, but they do not satisfy or explain the text.

[16:15]  ⁴ tn The preterite with vav consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb as a temporal clause. The main point of the verse is what they said.

[16:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “a man to his brother.”

[16:15]  ⁶ tn The text has: מָן הוּא כִּי לאֹ יָדְעוּ מַה־הוּא (man hu’ ki lo’ yadÿ’u mah hu’). From this statement the name “manna” was given to the substance. מָן for “what” is not found in Hebrew, but appears in Syriac as a contraction of ma den, “what then?” In Aramaic and Arabic man is “what?” The word is used here apparently for the sake of etymology. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 274) follows the approach that any connections to words that actually meant “what?” are unnecessary, for it is a play on the name (whatever it may have been) and therefore related only by sound to the term being explained. This, however, presumes that a substance was known prior to this account – a point that Deuteronomy does not seem to allow. S. R. Driver says that it is not known how early the contraction came into use, but that this verse seems to reflect it (Exodus, 149). Probably one must simply accept that in the early Israelite period man meant “what?” There seems to be sufficient evidence to support this. See EA 286,5; UT 435; DNWSI 1:157.

[16:15]  ⁷ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 454-55) suggests that Moses was saying to them, “It is not manna. It is the food Yahweh has given you.” He comes to this conclusion based on the strange popular etymology from the interrogative word, noting that people do not call things “what?”

[16:15]  ⁸ sn For other views see G. Vermès, “‘He Is the Bread’ Targum Neofiti Ex. 16:15,” SJLA 8 (1975): 139-46; and G. J. Cowling, “Targum Neofiti Ex. 16:15,” AJBA (1974-75): 93-105.

[16:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “the thing that.”

[16:16]  ¹⁰ tn The perfect tense could be taken as a definite past with Moses now reporting it. In this case a very recent past. But in declaring the word from Yahweh it could be instantaneous, and receive a present tense translation – “here and now he commands you.”

[16:16]  ¹¹ tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”

[16:16]  ¹² sn The omer is an amount mentioned only in this chapter, and its size is unknown, except by comparison with the ephah (v. 36). A number of recent English versions approximate the omer as “two quarts” (cf. NCV, CEV, NLT); TEV “two litres.”

[16:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “for a head.”

[16:16]  ¹⁴ tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).

[16:16]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally “souls.”

[16:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “will take.”

[16:16]  ¹⁷ tn “lives” has been supplied.

[16:18]  ¹⁸ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated here as a temporal clause.

[16:19]  ¹⁹ tn The address now is for “man” (אִישׁ, ’ish), “each one”; here the instruction seems to be focused on the individual heads of the households.

[16:19]  ²⁰ tn Or “some of it,” “from it.”

[16:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “men”; this usage is designed to mean “some” (see GKC 447 §138.h, n. 1).

[16:20]  ²² tn The verb וַיָּרֻם (vayyarum) is equivalent to a passive – “it was changed” – to which “worms” is added as an accusative of result (GKC 388-89 §121.d, n. 2).

[16:21]  ²³ tn Heb “morning by morning.” This is an example of the repetition of words to express the distributive sense; here the meaning is “every morning” (see GKC 388 §121.c).

[16:21]  ²⁴ tn The perfect tenses here with vav (ו) consecutives have the frequentative sense; they function in a protasis-apodosis relationship (GKC 494 §159.g).

[16:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and it happened/was.”

[16:22]  ²⁶ tn This construction is an exception to the normal rule for the numbers 2 through 10 taking the object numbered in the plural. Here it is “two of the omer” or “the double of the omer” (see GKC 433 §134.e).

[16:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for one.”

[16:22]  ²⁸ tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.

[16:22]  ²⁹ tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[16:22]  ³⁰ sn The meaning here is probably that these leaders, the natural heads of the families in the clans, saw that people were gathering twice as much and they reported this to Moses, perhaps afraid it would stink again (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 197).

[16:23]  ³¹ tn The noun שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbaton) has the abstract ending on it: “resting, ceasing.” The root word means “cease” from something, more than “to rest.” The Law would make it clear that they were to cease from their normal occupations and do no common work.

[16:23]  ³² tn The technical expression is now used: שַׁבַּת־קֹדֶשׁ (shabbat-qodesh, “a holy Sabbath”) meaning a “cessation of/for holiness” for Yahweh. The rest was to be characterized by holiness.

[16:23]  ³³ tn The two verbs in these objective noun clauses are desiderative imperfects – “bake whatever you want to bake.”

[16:23]  ³⁴ tn The word “today” is implied from the context.

[16:25]  ³⁵ tn Heb “in the field” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); NAB, NIV, NLT “on the ground.”

[16:28]  ³⁶ tn The verb is plural, and so it is addressed to the nation and not to Moses. The perfect tense in this sentence is the characteristic perfect, denoting action characteristic, or typical, of the past and the present.

[16:29]  ³⁷ sn Noting the rabbinic teaching that the giving of the Sabbath was a sign of God’s love – it was accomplished through the double portion on the sixth day – B. Jacob says, “God made no request unless He provided the means for its execution” (Exodus, 461).

[16:29]  ³⁸ tn Heb “remain, a man where he is.”

[16:29]  ³⁹ tn Or “Let not anyone go” (see GKC 445 §138.d).

[16:31]  ⁴⁰ sn The name “house of Israel” is unusual in this context.

[16:31]  ⁴¹ tn Hebrew מָן (man).

[16:31]  ⁴² tn Heb “like seed of coriander, white, its taste was.”