Numbers 11:6-9

11:6 But now we ¹  are dried up, ²  and there is nothing at all before us ³  except this manna!” 11:7 (Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. 11:8 And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it with mills or pounded it in mortars; they baked it in pans and made cakes of it. It tasted like fresh olive oil. ⁴  11:9 And when the dew came down ⁵  on the camp in the night, the manna fell ⁶  with it.)

Exodus 16:15

16:15 When ⁷  the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ⁸  “What is it?” because they did not know what it was. ⁹  Moses said to them, “It is the bread ¹⁰  that the Lord has given you for food. ¹¹ 

Exodus 16:31

16:31 The house of Israel ¹²  called its name “manna.” ¹³  It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted ¹⁴  like wafers with honey.

Psalms 78:24-25

78:24 He rained down manna for them to eat;

he gave them the grain of heaven. ¹⁵ 

78:25 Man ate the food of the mighty ones. ¹⁶ 

He sent them more than enough to eat. ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 27:7

27:7 The one whose appetite ¹⁸  is satisfied loathes honey,

but to the hungry mouth ¹⁹  every bitter thing is sweet.

[11:6]  ¹ tn Heb “our souls.”

[11:6]  ² sn The Hebrews were complaining both about the bland taste of the manna and dehydration – they were parched in the wilderness.

[11:6]  ³ tn Heb “before our eyes,” meaning that “we see nothing except this manna.”

[11:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “And its taste was like the taste of fresh olive oil.”

[11:9]  ⁵ tn The temporal clause is constructed of the infinitive construct from יָרָד (yarad) with a temporal preposition, followed by the subjective genitive.

[11:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “came down.”

[16:15]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “a man to his brother.”

[16:15]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.

[16:31]  ¹² sn The name “house of Israel” is unusual in this context.

[16:31]  ¹³ tn Hebrew מָן (man).

[16:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “like seed of coriander, white, its taste was.”

[78:24]  ¹⁵ sn Manna was apparently shaped like a seed (Exod 16:31), perhaps explaining why it is here compared to grain.

[78:25]  ¹⁶ sn Because of the reference to “heaven” in the preceding verse, it is likely that mighty ones refers here to the angels of heaven. The LXX translates “angels” here, as do a number of modern translations (NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[78:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “provision he sent to them to satisfaction.”

[27:7]  ¹⁸ tn Traditionally, “soul” (so KJV, ASV). The Hebrew text uses נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) here for the subject – the full appetite [“soul”]. The word refers to the whole person with all his appetites. Here its primary reference is to eating, but it has a wider application than that – possession, experience, education, and the like.

[27:7]  ¹⁹ tn Here the term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally, “soul”) is used again, now in contrast to describe the “hungry appetite” (cf. NRSV “ravenous appetite”), although “hungry mouth” might be more idiomatic for the idea. Those whose needs are great are more appreciative of things than those who are satisfied. The needy will be delighted even with bitter things.