Exodus 16

¹ From Elim they set out again, and the whole community of the sons of Israel reached the wilderness of Sin – between Elim and Sinai – on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt.

² And the whole community of the sons of Israel began to complain against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness

³ and said to them, ‘Why did we not die at Yahweh’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content! As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death!’

⁴ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Now I will rain down bread for you from the heavens. Each day the people are to go out and gather the day’s portion; I propose to test them in this way to see whether they will follow my law or not.

⁵ On the sixth day, when they prepare what they have brought in, this will be twice as much as the daily gathering.’

⁶ Moses and Aaron said to the whole community of the sons of Israel, ‘In the evening you shall learn that it was Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

⁷ and in the morning you shall see the glory of Yahweh, for he has heard your complaints against him – it is not against us you complain, for what are we?’

⁸ Moses said, ‘In the evening Yahweh will give you meat to eat, in the morning bread to your heart’s content, for Yahweh has heard the complaints you made against him; your complaining is not against us – for what are we? – but against Yahweh’.

⁹ Moses said to Aaron, ‘To the whole community of the sons of Israel say this, “Present yourselves before Yahweh, for he has heard your complaints”‘.

¹⁰ As Aaron was speaking to the whole community of the sons of Israel, they turned towards the wilderness, and there was the glory of Yahweh appearing in the form of a cloud.

¹¹ Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

¹² ‘I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel. Say this to them, “Between the two evenings you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have bread to your heart’s content. Then you will learn that I, Yahweh, am your God.”‘

¹³ And so it came about: quails flew up in the evening, and they covered the camp; in the morning there was a coating of dew all round the camp.

¹⁴ When the coating of dew lifted, there on the surface of the desert was a thing delicate, powdery, as fine as hoarfrost on the ground.

¹⁵ When they saw this, the sons of Israel said to one another, ‘What is that?’ not knowing what it was. ‘That’ said Moses to them ‘is the bread Yahweh gives you to eat.

¹⁶ This is Yahweh’s command: Everyone must gather enough of it for his needs, one omer a head, according to the number of persons in your families. Each of you will gather for those who share his tent.’

¹⁷ The sons of Israel did this. They gathered it, some more, some less.

¹⁸ When they measured in an omer what they had gathered, the man who had gathered more had not too much, the man who had gathered less had not too little. Each found he had gathered what he needed.

¹⁹ Moses said to them, ‘No one must keep any of it for tomorrow’.

²⁰ But some would not listen to Moses and kept part of it for the following day, and it bred maggots and smelt foul; and Moses was angry with them.

²¹ Morning by morning they gathered it, each according to his needs. And when the sun grew hot, it dissolved.

²² Now on the sixth day they gathered twice the amount of food: two omers a head. All the leaders of the community came to tell Moses,

²³ and he said to them, ‘This is Yahweh’s command: Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a sabbath sacred to Yahweh. Bake what you want to bake, boil what you want to boil; put aside all that is left for tomorrow.’

²⁴ So, as Moses ordered, they put it aside for the following day, and its smell was not foul nor were there maggots in it.

²⁵ ‘Eat it today,’ Moses said ‘for today is a sabbath in honour of Yahweh; you will find none in the field today.

²⁶ For six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day – the sabbath – there will be none.’

²⁷ On the seventh day some of the people went from the camp to gather it, but they found none.

²⁸ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘How much longer will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

²⁹ Listen! Yahweh has laid down the sabbath for you; for this he gives you two day’s food on the sixth day; each of you is to stay where he is; on the seventh day no one is to leave his home.’

³⁰ So on the seventh day the people abstained from all work.

³¹ The House of Israel named it ‘manna’. It was like coriander seed; it was white and its taste was like that of wafers made with honey.

³² Moses said, ‘This is Yahweh’s command: Fill an omer with it, and let it be kept for your descendants, to let them see the food that I fed you with in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt’.

³³ Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take a jar and put in it a full omer of manna and place it before Yahweh, to be kept for your descendants’.

³⁴ Accordingly, Aaron put a full omer of manna in the jar, as Yahweh had ordered Moses, and placed the manna before the Testimony,[*a] to be kept there.

³⁵ The sons of Israel ate manna for forty years, up to the time they reached inhabited country: they ate manna up to the time they reached the frontier of the land of Canaan.

³⁶ An omer is one tenth of an ephah.