Exodus 16:1-36
1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:
7 And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?
8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
9 And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings.
10 And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
32 And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
33 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.
34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
35 And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
Exodus 16:1. The fifteenth day of the second month; that is, Jiar, or the 30th of April. See the table, chap. 12.
Exodus 16:2. Israel murmured. They wantonly said as in Psalms 78:20, Can the Lord give us bread also; can he provide flesh for his people?
Exodus 16:13. The quails covered the camp. It was the time when the corn of Egypt began to ripen, and the quails flocked in great abundance. They fell for a day's journey round the camp, and in some places two cubits thick.
Exodus 16:15. Manna. Josephus affirms that the Israelites seeing it on the grass said, What is it? which he says is the import of the word. This food was the immediate gift of God to his people; and those are mistaken who have thought it a honey-dew. What has been called a honey-dew falling on certain trees, and on the grass, is nothing more than the bursting of the sweet sap from the leaves of those trees by the excessive heat of the sun; and in such abundance, that sometimes a leaf will suffer a drop to descend on the grass.
Exodus 16:31. It was like coriander seed. Not exactly in colour, but in size and form. The colour is here said to be white; and Numbers 11:7, it is said to be like that of bdellium, a gem or gum. Genesis 2:12.
Exodus 16:33. Take a pot. The LXX, cited by St. Paul, Hebrews 9:4, reads, “a golden pot.” An omer, about three pints. See Cumberland on the Hebrew Measures.
REFLECTIONS.
The most high God, to purify his people, and to make their history instructive to future ages, led them by the hand in the desert. The people who had praised him in the triumphant language of faith, the moment their Egyptian provisions were exhausted murmured for bread. No man will patiently bear trials for religion, or seek deliverance by prayer till he has experienced a work of regeneration on his heart. When hunger assails the appetite, Egypt is preferred to Canaan; and men have no confidence in God beyond present appearances. It must also be allowed that even to the best of men, hunger and want is a trying situation. The poor man is sick, or he has no work, and the resources of charity, like the summer streams, begin to dry up. He is surrounded with the piercing looks of a wife, and the cries of children for bread: but this, however hard, should not excite a murmuring thought. It is for the trial of our faith; we should therefore pray most earnestly to God for deliverance, and at the same time avail ourselves of whatever means providence may put in our power, for by these means God will surely send us help.
We may farther observe, that God's indulgence to sinful men is very great; he gave manna in the morning, and occasionally quails in the evening to a murmuring people. There is however a difference, a very wide difference, between temporal and spiritual prosperity. He often gives the wicked flesh and abundance in his wrath, but to the righteous he gives special marks of his favour, while their outward condition is distinguished by affliction and want.
We are also instructed by Jesus Christ to regard this manna as a figure of the true bread, which our heavenly Father gives to his children. The Israelites ate manna, and died in the desert. But we have in Christ the bread of heaven, that we may eat and never die. How pure, how incorruptible and reviving is that food with which the Lord sustains his church in the wilderness. It is milk and honey, marrow and fatness. The sacraments and all the ordinances abound with grace, to nourish the soul with the health of eternal life.
The Lord so gave this manna as to connect it with industry; they were every morning employed in collecting the food that fell from heaven during the night. Thus should we also be diligently employed in collecting food and strength from God, by meditation and prayer, and especially in the early part of the day. Devotion in a morning, when so performed as to acquire its genuine spirit, is a pledge of health and strength to the soul throughout the day; and that man who is not diligent in the means of grace is weak and languid. His soul cannot taste the heaven which those enjoy “who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” This is the hidden manna, reserved in Christ the Ark, for the faithful and victorious soul.
From this passage our Saviour demonstrated his Godhead and glory, because he declared himself to be the bread of God which came from heaven, and gave life to the world. And being in his own person, the Lord and giver of life, he is able to sustain the soul with heavenly food, that man may eat and never die.