Exodus 16 - Introduction

The journey to the wilderness of Sin. Manna and Quails given

In the main from P, with short passages from the parallel narrative of J. The marks of P are particularly evident in the parts assigned to him in the text: some (not all) are pointed out in the notes. The general representation is the same in both narratives: but only P mentions the quails (in J the quails are given later, after a complaint of the monotony of the manna, Numbers 11:4-34), and only J the disobedience on the seventh day of some of the people (vv.27 30). Both narratives bring the gift of manna into connexion with the sabbath, and make it an occasion for inculcating its observance (vv.22 26; 27 30); J also (v.4b, cf. v.28) makes it a means of testing Israel's obedience. Vv.33 f., if not vv.9 f. (see the notes) as well, presupposing the existence of the Tent of Meeting, seem to indicate that P's account of the manna (v.2 ff.) stood originally at a later point in his narrative (Bä.), after the erection of the Tabernacle had been described, perhaps (Ew. Hist.ii. 174; Di. p. 165 [2 181], and on v.2; Kittel), after Numbers 10. Cf. S. A. Cook, Jewish Quart. Rev.1906, p. 742 ff.