Exodus 16:25

Summary

Moses instructs the Israelites to eat the manna they have on this particular day, giving as the reason that this day is a sabbath dedicated to Yehovah. He adds that on this day none will be found in the field, unlike other days.

Key words

• 'ikh.Lu.hu ("eat it", H0398) — qal imperative plural with the pronominal suffix hu ("it/him", H9033) attached directly to the verb, making the command specific: eat it (the manna already gathered), not food in general.
• sha.Bat ("[is] a sabbath", H7676) — feminine singular noun used without a copula in Hebrew; the sentence structure implies "is" through simple juxtaposition ("for a sabbath [is] the day").
• la.Yehovah ("to Yehovah", H9005 + H3068G) — preposition la ("to") prefixed to the divine name, marking the day as belonging or dedicated to Yehovah rather than simply calling it "the Lord's day" as a fixed title.
• tim.tza.'U.hu ("you will find it", H4672) — qal imperfect plural with the same suffix hu as in word 5, again referring back to the manna; the imperfect aspect conveys an expectation about the ongoing state of that day in the field.
• ha.Yom ("the day", H3117G) — repeated three times (words 7, 11, 15) with the definite article, each time anchoring a distinct clause to "this day" specifically.

What the text says

The verse is built on three short clauses, each anchored by ha.Yom ("the day", H3117G), a repetition not always preserved smoothly in translation. The first clause is Moses' command: 'ikh.Lu.hu ha.Yom ("eat it, the day" = "eat it today"). The second clause gives the reason with the particle ki ("for/that", H3588A): ki-sha.Bat ha.Yom la.Yehovah ("for a sabbath [is] the day, to Yehovah"). Hebrew here has no verb "to be" — the noun sha.Bat ("sabbath", H7676) is predicated of ha.Yom directly, a construction that requires supplying "is" in translation. The third clause returns to the day as subject: ha.Yom lo' tim.tza.'U.hu ba.sa.Deh ("the day, not you-will-find-it in the field"), again using the suffixed verb tim.tza.'U.hu (H4672) to refer back to the manna already mentioned by suffix in the first clause.

The pronominal suffix hu ("it/him", H9033) appears twice, on 'ikh.Lu.hu (word 4-5) and tim.tza.'U.hu (word 17-18), both times pointing to the same referent — the manna — without needing to restate the noun. This suffix-based cohesion is a feature of the Hebrew that translations render by supplying pronouns like "it."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ki-sha.Bat ha.Yom la.Yehovah as ἔστιν γὰρ σάββατα σήμερον τῷ κυρίῳ ("for today is sabbaths to the Lord"), using a plural σάββατα where the Hebrew has the singular sha.Bat (H7676). The Vulgate's quia sabbatum est Domini ("because it is the sabbath of the Lord") supplies the genitive "of the Lord" where the Hebrew uses the preposition la ("to", H9005), a nuance of dedication rather than possession. The BSB and SBLIBRE both render the threefold Hebrew ha.Yom with varying English/Spanish placement ("today... today... Today"), while SBLIBRE adds an explanatory phrase, "día de descanso en honor a Yehová" ("day of rest in honor of Yehovah"), not present as separate wording in the Hebrew text itself.