Exodus 16:18

וַיָּמֹדּוּ בָעֹמֶר וְלֹא הֶעְדִּיף הַמַּרְבֶּה וְהַמַּמְעִיט לֹא הֶחְסִיר אִישׁ לְפִֽי־אָכְלוֹ לָקָֽטוּ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיָּמֹ֣דּוּ בָעֹ֔מֶר וְלֹ֤א הֶעְדִּיף֙ הַמַּרְבֶּ֔ה וְהַמַּמְעִ֖יט לֹ֣א הֶחְסִ֑יר אִ֥ישׁ לְפִֽי־אָכְל֖וֹ לָקָֽטוּ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ μετρήσαντες τῷ γόμορ, οὐκ ἐπλεόνασεν ὁ τὸ πολύ, καὶ ὁ τὸ ἔλαττον οὐκ ἠλαττόνησεν· ἕκαστος εἰς τοὺς καθήκοντας παρ’ ἑαυτῷ συνέλεξαν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et mensi sunt ad mensuram gomor: nec qui plus collegerat, habuit amplius: nec qui minus paraverat, reperit minus: sed singuli juxta id quod edere poterant, congregaverunt.

Spanish

Pero al medirlo, ni le sobró al que recogió mucho, ni le faltó al que recogió poco. Cada uno había recogido exactamente lo que necesitaba para comer.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y medíanlo por gomer, y no sobraba al que había recogido mucho, ni faltaba al que había recogido poco: cada uno recogió conforme á lo que había de comer.

English

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.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Exodus 16:18 describes the outcome after the Israelites measured the manna they had gathered using the omer (H6016B) measure: those who had collected large amounts had no surplus, and those who had collected small amounts had no shortage. The text states that each person had gathered in proportion to what they needed to eat.

Key words

va-yaModdu ("and they measured", H4058) — qal narrative form, continuing the story's action sequence.
he'Dif ("he had a surplus", H5736) — hiphil (causative) perfect: the causative stem implies "causing an excess," negated here.
ha-marBeh ("the one making much", H7235A) — hiphil participle, describing an ongoing agent-role ("the one who does much [gathering]") rather than a completed act.
ha-mam'It ("the one making little", H4591) — hiphil participle, parallel construction to ha-marBeh, describing the opposite agent-role.
hech.Sir ("he had a lack", H2637) — hiphil perfect, causative form negated, paralleling he'Dif in structure.
le-fi-'ochLo ("to the mouth of his food/eating", H6310K + H0400) — construct chain literally "mouth of his eating," an idiom expressing proportional need.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel negated clauses with matching grammar: lo' he'Dif ("not he had a surplus") applied to ha-marBeh ("the one making much"), and lo' hechSir ("not he had a lack") applied to ha-mam'It ("the one making little"). Both verbs are hiphil perfects, a causative stem that frames "surplus" and "lack" as things a person would "cause" to happen — here negated, meaning no such causing occurred. The two subjects, ha-marBeh and ha-mam'It, are both hiphil participles with the definite article, functioning as substantized descriptions ("the one doing much/little") rather than fixed nouns, emphasizing an ongoing role in gathering.

The final clause, 'ish le-fi-'ochLo laKatu ("everyone to the mouth of his food they gathered"), uses the construct idiom le-fi ("to the mouth of") plus 'ochLo ("his eating/food"), a Hebrew expression for "according to" or "in proportion to" one's consumption need. The subject 'ish ("everyone", H0376I) is singular but the verb laKatu ("they gathered", H3950) is plural, reflecting a distributive sense — each individual's portion is being generalized into the collective plural outcome of gathering by all.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-marBeh and ha-mam'It with articular substantized phrases (ὁ τὸ πολύ, "the one [with] the much"; ὁ τὸ ἔλαττον, "the one [with] the less"), matching the Hebrew participial construction closely. The Vulgate uses relative clauses ("qui plus collegerat," "qui minus paraverat") instead of participles, shifting the emphasis toward completed past action rather than the Hebrew's participial framing of an ongoing role.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.