Exodus 16:17-18

16:17 The Israelites did so, and they gathered – some more, some less. 16:18 When ¹  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.

Exodus 16:21

16:21 So they gathered it each morning, ²  each person according to what he could eat, and when the sun got hot, it would melt. ³ 

Exodus 16:26-27

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.

Exodus 16:5

16:5 On the sixth day ⁴  they will prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather every other day.” ⁵ 

Exodus 16:16

16:16 “This is what ⁶  the Lord has commanded: ⁷  ‘Each person is to gather ⁸  from it what he can eat, an omer ⁹  per person ¹⁰  according to the number ¹¹  of your people; ¹²  each one will pick it up ¹³  for whoever lives ¹⁴  in his tent.’”

Exodus 16:22

16:22 And ¹⁵  on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers ¹⁶  per person; ¹⁷  and all the leaders ¹⁸  of the community ¹⁹  came and told ²⁰  Moses.

Exodus 16:4

16:4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain ²¹  bread from heaven for you, and the people will go out ²²  and gather the amount for each day, so that I may test them. ²³  Will they will walk in my law ²⁴  or not?

[16:18]  ¹ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated here as a temporal clause.

[16:21]  ¹ 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]  ² tn The perfect tenses here with vav (ו) consecutives have the frequentative sense; they function in a protasis-apodosis relationship (GKC 494 §159.g).

[16:5]  ¹ tn Heb “and it will be on the sixth day.”

[16:5]  ² sn There is a question here concerning the legislation – the people were not told why to gather twice as much on the sixth day. In other words, this instruction seems to presume that they knew about the Sabbath law. That law will be included in this chapter in a number of ways, suggesting to some scholars that this chapter is out of chronological order, placed here for a purpose. Some argue that the manna episode comes after the revelation at Sinai. But it is not necessary to take such a view. God had established the Sabbath in the creation, and if Moses has been expounding the Genesis traditions in his teachings then they would have known about that.

[16:16]  ¹ tn Heb “the thing that.”

[16:16]  ² 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]  ³ tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”

[16:16]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “for a head.”

[16:16]  ⁶ tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).

[16:16]  ⁷ tn Traditionally “souls.”

[16:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “will take.”

[16:16]  ⁹ tn “lives” has been supplied.

[16:22]  ¹ tn Heb “and it happened/was.”

[16:22]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “for one.”

[16:22]  ⁴ tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.

[16:22]  ⁵ tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[16:22]  ⁶ 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).

[16:4]  ¹ tn The particle הִנְנִי (hinni) before the active participle indicates the imminent future action: “I am about to rain.”

[16:4]  ² tn This verb and the next are the Qal perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutives; they follow the sequence of the participle, and so are future in orientation. The force here is instruction – “they will go out” or “they are to go out.”

[16:4]  ³ tn The verb in the purpose/result clause is the Piel imperfect of נָסָה (nasah), אֲנַסֶּנוּ (’anassenu) – “in order that I may prove them [him].” The giving of the manna will be a test of their obedience to the detailed instructions of God as well as being a test of their faith in him (if they believe him they will not gather too much). In chap. 17 the people will test God, showing that they do not trust him.

[16:4]  ⁴ sn The word “law” here properly means “direction” at this point (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 146), but their obedience here would indicate also whether or not they would be willing to obey when the Law was given at Sinai.