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Êxodo 16

BLIVRE · Chapter 16/40

1Depois que partiram de Elim, toda a congregação dos filhos de Israel veio ao deserto de Sim, que está entre Elim e Sinai, aos quinze dias do segundo mês depois que saíram da terra do Egito.

2E toda a congregação dos filhos de Israel murmurou contra Moisés e Arão no deserto;

3E diziam-lhes os filhos de Israel: Bom seria se tivéssemos morrido por meio do SENHOR na terra do Egito, quando nos sentávamos junto às panelas das carnes, quando comíamos pão em fartura; pois nos tirastes a este deserto, para matar de fome a toda esta multidão.

4E o SENHOR disse a Moisés: Eis que eu vos farei chover pão do céu; e o povo sairá, e colherá para cada um dia, para que eu lhe prove se anda em minha lei, ou não.

5Mas ao sexto dia prepararão o que coletarem, que será o dobro do que costumam colher cada dia.

6Então disse Moisés e Arão a todos os filhos de Israel: À tarde sabereis que o SENHOR vos tirou da terra do Egito:

7E à próxima manhã vereis a glória do SENHOR; porque ele ouviu as vossas murmurações contra o SENHOR; pois quem somos nós, para que vós murmureis contra nós?

8E disse Moisés: o SENHOR vos dará à tarde carne para comer, e à manhã pão em fartura; pois o SENHOR ouviu as vossas murmurações com que murmurais contra ele; pois quem somos nós? As vossas murmurações não são contra nós, mas sim contra o SENHOR.

9E disse Moisés a Arão: Dize a toda a congregação dos filhos de Israel: Aproximai-vos à presença do SENHOR; que ele ouviu vossas murmurações.

10E falando Arão a toda a congregação dos filhos de Israel, olharam até o deserto, e eis a glória do SENHOR, que apareceu na nuvem.

11E o SENHOR falou a Moisés, dizendo:

12Eu ouvi as murmurações dos filhos de Israel; fala-lhes, dizendo: Ao entardecer comereis carne, e pela manhã vos fartareis de pão, e sabereis que eu sou o SENHOR vosso Deus.

13E vinda a tarde subiram codornizes que cobriram o acampamento; e à manhã desceu orvalho em derredor do acampamento.

14E quando o orvalho cessou de descer, eis sobre a face do deserto uma coisa miúda, redonda, miúda como uma geada sobre a terra.

15E vendo-o os filhos de Israel, se disseram uns aos outros: Que é isto? porque não sabiam que era. Então Moisés lhes disse: É o pão que o SENHOR vos dá para comer.

16Isto é o que o SENHOR mandou: Colhereis dele cada um segundo puder comer; um gômer por cabeça, conforme o número de vossas pessoas, tomareis cada um para os que estão em sua tenda.

17E os filhos de Israel o fizeram assim: e recolheram uns mais, outros menos:

18E mediam-no por gômer, e não sobrava ao que havia recolhido muito, nem faltava ao que havia recolhido pouco: cada um recolheu conforme o que havia de comer.

19E disse-lhes Moisés: Nenhum deixe nada disso para amanhã.

20Mas eles não obedeceram a Moisés, mas sim que alguns deixaram dele para outro dia, e criou bichos, e apodreceu-se; e irou-se contra eles Moisés.

21E recolhiam-no cada manhã, cada um segundo o que havia de comer: e logo que o sol aquecia, derretia-se.

22No sexto dia recolheram comida em dobro, dois gômeres para cada um; e todos os príncipes da congregação vieram a Moisés, e contaram-lhe isso.

23E ele lhes disse: Isto é o que o SENHOR disse: Amanhã é o repouso, o santo sábado do SENHOR; o que houverdes de assar, assai-o hoje, e o que houverdes de cozinhar, cozinhai-o; e tudo o que vos sobrar, guardai-o para amanhã.

24E eles o guardaram até a manhã, segundo que Moisés havia mandado, e não se apodreceu, nem houve nele bicho.

25E disse Moisés: Comei-o hoje, porque hoje é sábado do SENHOR: hoje não achareis no campo.

26Nos seis dias o recolhereis; mas o sétimo dia é sábado, no qual não se achará.

27E aconteceu que alguns do povo saíram no sétimo dia a recolher, e não acharam.

28E o SENHOR disse a Moisés: Até quando não querereis guardar meus mandamentos e minhas leis?

29Olhai que o SENHOR vos deu o sábado, e por isso vos dá no sexto dia pão para dois dias. Fique, pois, cada um em sua morada, e ninguém saia de seu lugar no sétimo dia.

30Assim o povo repousou o sétimo dia.

31E a casa de Israel o chamou maná; e era como semente de coentro, branco, e seu sabor como de bolos com mel.

32E disse Moisés: Isto é o que o SENHOR mandou: Encherás um gômer dele para que se guarde para vossos descendentes, a fim de que vejam o pão que eu vos dei a comer no deserto, quando eu vos tirei da terra do Egito.

33E disse Moisés a Arão: Toma um vaso e põe nele um gômer cheio de maná, e põe-o diante do SENHOR, para que seja guardado para vossos descendentes.

34E Arão o pôs diante do testemunho para guardá-lo, como o SENHOR o mandou a Moisés.

35Assim os filhos de Israel comeram maná por quarenta anos, até que entraram em terra habitada; comeram maná até que chegaram ao limite da terra de Canaã.

36E um gômer é a décima parte do efa.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The people grumble against Moses and Aaron for lack of food in the wilderness; God provides quail in the evening and manna in the morning, with specific instructions on how and when to gather it, including rest on the Sabbath.

Explanation

This chapter shows God responding generously to the people's complaint about hunger, but using this daily provision as a practical lesson in trust: the manna was to be gathered only in the amount needed for each day, and whoever tried to keep more than necessary (except on the eve of the Sabbath) would find that it rotted — a clear teaching against greed and anxiety about the future, and in favor of daily dependence on God. The introduction of Sabbath rest in this context, even before it was formally given in the Ten Commandments (chapter 20), shows that the rhythm of work and rest was already part of the fundamental character of the relationship between God and his people. The command to keep a portion of manna 'for your generations' as a lasting memorial reinforces, once again, the importance of actively remembering God's providing acts over time.

Fun facts

  • The word 'manna' probably derives from the Hebrew question 'man hu?' ('What is it?', v. 15), asked by the Israelites themselves when they first saw this unfamiliar substance — the name of the food is therefore literally a question of astonishment that became a noun.
  • Manna is mentioned again in Joshua 5:12 as ceasing exactly when the Israelites first eat the produce of the land of Canaan, showing a supernatural provision carefully timed to last exactly the length of the journey through the wilderness, about 40 years.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Êxodo 16:1Places the arrival at the wilderness of Sin with a precise date, a full month after leaving Egypt, showing how carefully the text tracks the timing of the journey.
  2. Êxodo 16:2Just as with the earlier lack of water, the people go back to complaining, this time about the lack of food in the wilderness.
  3. Êxodo 16:3The people exaggerate their memory of Egypt, describing slavery as a time of plenty — selective nostalgia that ignores the real suffering they lived there.
  4. Êxodo 16:4God answers the hunger by promising bread from heaven, but sets a test rule: gather only the daily portion, without storing more than what is needed.
  5. Êxodo 16:5Anticipates an exception to the day-by-day rule: on the sixth day the people could gather twice as much, setting up the explanation of Sabbath rest given later in the chapter.
  6. Êxodo 16:6Moses and Aaron tell the people that the promised abundance will serve as concrete proof that it was really God who brought them out of Egypt.
  7. Êxodo 16:7Moses points out that the people’s complaints, though directed at him and Aaron, are actually complaints against God Himself, since the two of them are only instruments.
  8. Êxodo 16:8Repeats the same idea: the abundance of meat in the evening and bread in the morning will prove that the people’s grumbling was, in practice, against God, not against the leaders.
  9. Êxodo 16:9Aaron is instructed to formally gather the people before God’s presence, a more solemn summons than a simple everyday explanation.
  10. Êxodo 16:10As soon as the people turn toward the wilderness as instructed, God’s glory appears visibly in the cloud, confirming the message from Moses and Aaron.
  11. Êxodo 16:11God speaks directly to Moses, confirming that He has heard the people’s complaints and is about to answer with a concrete provision.
  12. Êxodo 16:12God promises meat at night and bread in the morning, tying this double provision to the people’s recognition that He is truly the Lord their God.
  13. Êxodo 16:13The promise is fulfilled immediately: quail cover the camp at night, and the morning dew prepares the ground for the manna to appear.
  14. Êxodo 16:14Describes the manna as something thin and round, like frost, a physical detail that helps convey how strange the substance seemed to those seeing it for the first time.
  15. Êxodo 16:15“Manna” comes from the question the people ask on seeing it for the first time, something like “what is it” in Hebrew, and the name stuck because no one could identify the substance. Moses only explains that it is the bread God sent, without giving further technical details about what it actually was.
  16. Êxodo 16:16An “omer” was a unit of volume used for grain — the text explains further on that it equaled a tenth of an ephah. In practice, it gave the amount of food one person ate in a day, and the instruction was to gather only enough for that day, without stockpiling beyond that quota.
  17. Êxodo 16:17The people obey the instruction to gather, each one collecting different amounts according to their own family’s needs.
  18. Êxodo 16:18However much the amounts gathered varied, once measured by the omer, each family ended up with exactly enough, neither too much nor too little — a miracle within the miracle.
  19. Êxodo 16:19Moses reinforces the main rule: no one was to keep manna from one day to the next, testing the people’s daily trust in God.
  20. Êxodo 16:20When some keep the manna overnight against the instruction, the leftover “bred worms” and stank. It is a direct way of showing that this food only worked within the logic of trusting God day by day, without hoarding out of fear for the next day.
  21. Êxodo 16:21The daily pattern of gathering was to collect it in the morning, before the heat of the sun melted whatever was left on the ground.
  22. Êxodo 16:22On the sixth day, the people notice they gathered twice the usual amount, and the leaders go to report this development to Moses, looking for an explanation.
  23. Êxodo 16:23Here appears, for the first time, the idea of the Sabbath as a day of rest, even before the law is formally given at Sinai: on the sixth day, double the manna falls, so that no one needs to cook or gather on the seventh day. It is a practical instruction that foreshadows the commandment that will appear later, in chapter 20.
  24. Êxodo 16:24Unlike what happened on the other days, the manna kept from the sixth to the seventh day does not spoil, confirming the special exception God made for the Sabbath.
  25. Êxodo 16:25Moses explains the new development: that day is the Sabbath, so the manna gathered the day before was to be eaten, since there would be no new gathering that day.
  26. Êxodo 16:26Confirms the weekly pattern: six days of normal gathering and a seventh day with no manna available on the ground at all.
  27. Êxodo 16:27Despite the clear instruction, some of the people go out to gather on the Sabbath anyway, and find nothing, confirming the rule in practice.
  28. Êxodo 16:28God responds to this disobedience with a direct rebuke to Moses, asking how long the people will keep resisting His commandments.
  29. Êxodo 16:29God explains again the logic behind the double provision on the sixth day: making sure no one needs to go out looking for food on the day of rest.
  30. Êxodo 16:30After the rebuke, the people finally follow the instruction correctly and rest on the seventh day.
  31. Êxodo 16:31Describes the taste and appearance of the manna in more detail: like white coriander seed, with a taste as sweet as honey.
  32. Êxodo 16:32God orders that a portion of manna be kept permanently, as a physical reminder for future generations to see what God provided during the wilderness journey.
  33. Êxodo 16:33Moses instructs Aaron to place this special portion of manna in a jar, kept as a memorial before God’s presence.
  34. Êxodo 16:34Aaron carries out the instruction, keeping the jar of manna next to where the tablets of the law were kept, called here “the Testimony.”
  35. Êxodo 16:35Sums up that the people ate manna throughout the whole forty-year journey in the wilderness, until they finally reached the border of the promised land.
  36. Êxodo 16:36Closes the chapter with a technical note on measurement: an omer, the daily portion of manna per person, equaled a tenth of an ephah, another unit of volume from that time.

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