Exodus 16:18

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 16:16

16:16 “This is what ²  the Lord has commanded: ³  ‘Each person is to gather ⁴  from it what he can eat, an omer ⁵  per person ⁶  according to the number ⁷  of your people; ⁸  each one will pick it up ⁹  for whoever lives ¹⁰  in his tent.’”

Exodus 16:22

16:22 And ¹¹  on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers ¹²  per person; ¹³  and all the leaders ¹⁴  of the community ¹⁵  came and told ¹⁶  Moses.

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

[16:16]  ² tn Heb “the thing that.”

[16:16]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”

[16:16]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “for a head.”

[16:16]  ⁷ tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).

[16:16]  ⁸ tn Traditionally “souls.”

[16:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “will take.”

[16:16]  ¹⁰ tn “lives” has been supplied.

[16:22]  ³ tn Heb “and it happened/was.”

[16:22]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “for one.”

[16:22]  ⁶ tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.

[16:22]  ⁷ tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[16:22]  ⁸ 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).