Exodus 16
1 On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. 2 And there in the desert they all grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 “ If only we had died by the LORD ’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “ There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!” 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “ Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions. 5 Then on the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “ This evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the LORD ’s glory, because He has heard your grumbling against Him. For who are we that you should grumble against us?” 8 And Moses added, “ The LORD will give you meat to eat this evening and bread to fill you in the morning, for He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the LORD.” 9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “ Tell the whole congregation of Israel, ‘ Come before the LORD, for He has heard your grumbling.’” 10 And as Aaron was speaking to the whole congregation of Israel, they looked toward the desert, and there in a cloud the glory of the LORD appeared. 11 Then the LORD said to Moses, 12 “ I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘ At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’” 13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew had evaporated, there were thin flakes on the desert floor, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “ What is it?” For they did not know what it was. So Moses told them, “ It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘ Each one is to gather as much as he needs. You may take an omer for each person in your tent.’” 17 So the Israelites did this. Some gathered more, and some less. 18 When they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no shortfall. Each one gathered as much as he needed to eat. 19 Then Moses said to them, “ No one may keep any of it until morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses; some people left part of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. 21 Every morning each one gathered as much as was needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. The Sabbath Observed (Genesis 2:1–3; Hebrews 4:1–11) 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much food — two omers per person — and all the leaders of the congregation came and reported this to Moses. 23 He told them, “ This is what the LORD has said: ‘ Tomorrow is to be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Then set aside whatever remains and keep it until morning.’” 24 So they set it aside until morning as Moses had commanded, and it did not smell or contain any maggots. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “ because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. Today you will not find anything in the field. 26 For six days you may gather, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, it will not be there.” 27 Yet on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find anything. 28 Then the LORD said to Moses, “ How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and instructions? 29 Understand that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day He will give you bread for two days. On the seventh day, everyone must stay where he is; no one may leave his place.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. The Jar of Manna 31 Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “ This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘ Keep an omer of manna for the generations to come, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33 So Moses told Aaron, “ Take a jar and fill it with an omer of manna. Then place it before the LORD to be preserved for the generations to come.” 34 And Aaron placed it in front of the Testimony, to be preserved just as the LORD had commanded Moses. 35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan. 36 (Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)
✦ What the text says
## Summary
Exodus 16 narrates Israel's journey into the wilderness of Sin, where the people grumble against Moses and Aaron over lack of food. Yahweh responds by promising *lechem* ("bread", H3899) from heaven — quail in the evening and a substance called *man* ("manna", H4478A) in the morning — establishing rules for gathering it, including a double portion on the sixth day and none on the seventh, the *Shabbat* ("sabbath", H7676).
## Key words
- *va.yil.lo.nu* — *lun* ("they grumbled", H3885B), niphal narrative form: the passive/reflexive stem frames the people's complaint as a collective, ongoing reaction rather than a single directed accusation.
- *man* ("manna", H4478A) — appears in v.15, 31, 33, 35; the text explicitly connects it to the question *man hu* ("what is it?", v.15), showing the name derives from the people's own puzzled question rather than a prior known word.
- *shabbaton shabbat qodesh* ("a sabbath observance, a sabbath of holiness", H7677/H7676/H6944G, v.23) — the doubling of vocabulary for "rest" intensifies the description of the seventh day before the term *Shabbat* is formally applied to Israel's practice (v.25-26).
- *dvar-yom be-yomo* ("a matter of a day in its day", H1697N/H3117G, v.4) — a construct chain expressing daily allotment, underlying the rule that gathering must not exceed a single day's need.
- *omer* ("omer", H6016B) — a measure noun used repeatedly (v.16, 18, 22, 32, 33, 36) to standardize the daily and memorial portion of manna; v.36 glosses it as a tenth of an *eifah* ("ephah", H0374).
## What the text says
The chapter is built on sequential narrative verbs (the *vayyiqtol* forms marked "and then…"), which create a chain of reported events: the people set out (v.1), they grumble (v.2-3), Yahweh speaks (v.4), Moses and Aaron respond (v.6-9), the glory appears (v.10), and provision begins (v.13-15). This chain is interrupted by direct speech introduced with *va.Yomer* ("he/they said", H0559), which carries most of the theological and legal content: Yahweh's instructions in v.4-5 and v.12, and Moses' repeated explanations in v.15-16, 19, 23, 25-26, 28-29, 32.
The instructions about manna are expressed with imperfect and imperative verb forms that mark ongoing obligation rather than one-time action: *tomol'khu* ("you will eat", v.12), *tishbe'u* ("you will be satisfied", v.12), *liktu* ("gather", imperative, v.16). The double portion for the sixth day is expressed through the construct phrase *lechem mishneh* ("bread of doubling", H3899H/H4932H, v.22), and the absence of manna on the seventh day is stated with the simple negation *lo yihyeh* ("it will not be", v.26). The naming of the substance in v.31, *va.yikre.'u... et-shemo man* ("they called its name manna"), follows directly from the people's earlier question *man hu* (v.15), showing the Hebrew text link the name to the object's unfamiliarity rather than to a description of its properties.
## Differences between versions
In v.3, the Hebrew has the people wishing they had died *be-yad-Yahweh* ("by the hand of Yahweh", H3027H/H3068G) in Egypt; the LXX renders this with a participle, *plēgentes hypo kyriou* ("struck by the Lord"), making explicit an action (striking) not present as a separate verb in the Hebrew construct phrase "hand of."
In v.31, the Hebrew compares manna's taste to *tzappichit bidvash* ("a wafer with honey", H6838/H1706); the LXX uses *enkris en meliti* ("a cake in honey"), a comparable but distinct culinary image.
In v.36, the Hebrew defines the *omer* as a tenth of the *eifah* (H0374); the LXX instead states it as "a tenth of three measures" (*to dekaton tōn triōn metrōn*), using a different reference unit than the Hebrew's single-measure term.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.