Exodus 16:22

Summary

On the sixth day, the Israelites gathered twice the usual amount of food, specifically two omers per person. The leaders of the congregation then came to Moses to report this occurrence.

Key words

• lakeTu ("they gathered", H3950) — qal perfect, third person plural: a completed action describing what the people did on that specific day.
• lechem ("bread of", H3899H) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to the following word to form the phrase "bread of doubling."
• mishNeh ("double", H4932H) — masculine singular noun, the construct-absolute pair with lechem produces the sense "double portion" or "doubled bread."
• sheNei ("the two of", H8147) — cardinal number, dual form, construct state, introducing the specific quantity "two of the omer."
• yaGgidu ("they told", H5046) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb, third person plural: the leaders caused information to reach Moses, i.e., they reported or made known.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yeHi ("and it was", H1961) marking a new episode "on the sixth day" (ba-Yom ha-shiShi). The main clause states that the people lakeTu ("they gathered", H3950) lechem mishNeh — literally "bread of doubling" — using a construct chain where lechem ("bread of", H3899H) governs mishNeh ("double", H4932H). This construct pairing is then quantified by a second construct phrase, sheNei ha-'Omer ("the two of the omer", H8147 + H6016B), specifying the measure as two omers, distributed la-'eChad ("for the one", H0259) — per individual.

The second half of the verse introduces a new narrative sequence with va-yaVo'u ("and they came", H0935G), describing the arrival of kol nesi'Ei ha-'eDah ("all the leaders of the congregation", H3605 + H5387A + H5712), a construct chain identifying a specific group of people. The final verb, ya-yaGgidu ("they told", H5046), is in the hiphil stem, which carries a causative nuance — the leaders did not merely speak but caused a report to reach Moses (le-moSheh, "to Moses", H4872). The two narrative vav-forms (va-yeHi and va-yaVo'u and va-yaGgidu) chain the events sequentially: gathering, arrival, and reporting.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders sheNei ha-'Omer as δύο γόμορ ("two gomor"), aligning closely with the Hebrew measure term. The Vulgate translates the same phrase as duo gomor per singulos homines ("two gomor per each person"), making explicit the distributive sense that the Hebrew la-'eChad ("for the one", H0259) conveys more compactly. The SBLIBRE modern rendering converts the ancient unit 'Omer into an approximate modern measure ("unos cuatro kilos," about four kilograms), whereas the Hebrew and other versions retain the technical unit itself without conversion.