Exodus 16:5

16:5 On the sixth day ¹  they will prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather every other day.” ² 

Exodus 16:16

16:16 “This is what ³  the Lord has commanded: ⁴  ‘Each person is to gather ⁵  from it what he can eat, an omer ⁶  per person ⁷  according to the number ⁸  of your people; ⁹  each one will pick it up ¹⁰  for whoever lives ¹¹  in his tent.’”

Exodus 16:22

16:22 And ¹²  on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers ¹³  per person; ¹⁴  and all the leaders ¹⁵  of the community ¹⁶  came and told ¹⁷  Moses.

[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]  ³ tn Heb “the thing that.”

[16:16]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”

[16:16]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “for a head.”

[16:16]  ⁸ tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).

[16:16]  ⁹ tn Traditionally “souls.”

[16:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will take.”

[16:16]  ¹¹ tn “lives” has been supplied.

[16:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it happened/was.”

[16:22]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “for one.”

[16:22]  ⁸ tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.

[16:22]  ⁹ tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[16:22]  ¹⁰ 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).