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Exodus 16

KJV · Chapter 16/40

1And 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.

2And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

3And 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.

4Then 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.

5And 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.

6And 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:

7And 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?

8And 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.

9And 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.

10And 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.

11And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

12I 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.

13And 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.

14And 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.

15And 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.

16This 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.

17And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.

18And 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.

19And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

20Notwithstanding 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.

21And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

22And 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.

23And 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.

24And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

25And 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.

26Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

27And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

28And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

29See, 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.

30So the people rested on the seventh day.

31And 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.

32And 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.

33And 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.

34As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

35And 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.

36Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

📖 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 16:9Aaron is instructed to formally gather the people before God’s presence, a more solemn summons than a simple everyday explanation.
  10. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 16:17The people obey the instruction to gather, each one collecting different amounts according to their own family’s needs.
  18. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 16:26Confirms the weekly pattern: six days of normal gathering and a seventh day with no manna available on the ground at all.
  27. Exodus 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. Exodus 16:28God responds to this disobedience with a direct rebuke to Moses, asking how long the people will keep resisting His commandments.
  29. Exodus 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. Exodus 16:30After the rebuke, the people finally follow the instruction correctly and rest on the seventh day.
  31. Exodus 16:31Describes the taste and appearance of the manna in more detail: like white coriander seed, with a taste as sweet as honey.
  32. Exodus 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. Exodus 16:33Moses instructs Aaron to place this special portion of manna in a jar, kept as a memorial before God’s presence.
  34. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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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