Discovery BoxExodus 16:34
Context16:34 Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony 1 for safekeeping. 2
Exodus 12:6
Context12:6 You must care for it 3 until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community 4 of Israel will kill it around sundown. 5
Exodus 16:33
Context16:33 Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put in it an omer full of manna, and place it before the Lord to be kept for generations to come.”
Exodus 16:23
Context16:23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work, 6 a holy Sabbath 7 to the Lord. Whatever you want to 8 bake, bake today; 9 whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.’”
Exodus 16:32
Context16:32 Moses said, “This is what 10 the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept 11 for generations to come, 12 so that they may see 13 the food I fed you in the desert when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.’”
[16:34] 1 sn The “Testimony” is a reference to the Ark of the Covenant; so the pot of manna would be placed before Yahweh in the tabernacle. W. C. Kaiser says that this later instruction came from a time after the tabernacle had been built (see Exod 25:10-22; W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:405). This is not a problem since the final part of this chapter had to have been included at the end of the forty years in the desert.
[12:6] 3 tn The text has וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת (vÿhaya lakem lÿmishmeret, “and it will be for you for a keeping”). This noun stresses the activity of watching over or caring for something, probably to keep it in its proper condition for its designated use (see 16:23, 32-34).
[12:6] 4 tn Heb “all the assembly of the community.” This expression is a pleonasm. The verse means that everyone will kill the lamb, i.e., each family unit among the Israelites will kill its animal.
[12:6] 5 tn Heb “between the two evenings” or “between the two settings” (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, ben ha’arbayim). This expression has had a good deal of discussion. (1) Tg. Onq. says “between the two suns,” which the Talmud explains as the time between the sunset and the time the stars become visible. More technically, the first “evening” would be the time between sunset and the appearance of the crescent moon, and the second “evening” the next hour, or from the appearance of the crescent moon to full darkness (see Deut 16:6 – “at the going down of the sun”). (2) Saadia, Rashi, and Kimchi say the first evening is when the sun begins to decline in the west and cast its shadows, and the second evening is the beginning of night. (3) The view adopted by the Pharisees and the Talmudists (b. Pesahim 61a) is that the first evening is when the heat of the sun begins to decrease, and the second evening begins at sunset, or, roughly from 3-5
[16:23] 5 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] 6 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] 7 tn The two verbs in these objective noun clauses are desiderative imperfects – “bake whatever you want to bake.”
[16:23] 8 tn The word “today” is implied from the context.
[16:32] 7 tn Heb “This is the thing that.”
[16:32] 8 tn Heb “for keeping.”
[16:32] 9 tn Heb “according to your generations” (see Exod 12:14).
[16:32] 10 tn In this construction after the particle expressing purpose or result, the imperfect tense has the nuance of final imperfect, equal to a subjunctive in the classical languages.
