For Teaching

Exodus 16: What the Passage Says

114 claims across 36 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Exodus 16 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Israel leaves Elim and comes to the wilderness of Sin, where the whole community complains to Moses and Aaron about having no food. The LORD tells Moses he will rain bread from the sky, to be gathered each day as a test of whether the people will follow his law; quail cover the camp in the evening, and in the morning a fine substance the people call manna lies on the ground. Moses gives instructions about gathering one omer per person and keeping none overnight, and some people keep it overnight anyway. On the sixth day they gather twice as much, and Moses tells them the seventh is a sabbath; some go out to gather on it and find nothing. Moses has Aaron store a jar holding an omer of manna before the Testimony, and the chapter notes that Israel ate manna forty years, until they reached the border of Canaan.

Claim by Claim

16:1
- The Israelites journeyed from Elim.
- The whole congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin.
- The wilderness of Sin lies between Elim and Sinai.
- They arrived on the fifteenth day of the second month after they left the land of Egypt.
16:2
- The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron.
- The murmuring happened in the wilderness.
16:3
- The children of Israel spoke to Moses and Aaron.
- They wished they had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt.
- They said that in Egypt they sat by pots of meat.
- They said that in Egypt they ate bread to the full.
- They accused Moses and Aaron of bringing them out into this wilderness.
- They said the purpose was to kill the whole assembly with hunger.
16:4
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
- The LORD said he would rain bread from heaven for them.
- The people were to go out and gather each day's portion on its day.
- The LORD said this was to test them.
- The test was whether they would walk in his law or not.
16:5
- On the sixth day they were to prepare what they brought in.
- On the sixth day it would be twice as much as they gathered on other days.
16:6
- Moses and Aaron spoke to all the children of Israel.
- They said that in the evening the people would know that the LORD brought them out of the land of Egypt.
16:7
- They said that in the morning the people would see the glory of the LORD.
- They said this was because the LORD heard their murmurings against him.
- They asked what they themselves were, that the people murmured against them.
16:8
- Moses spoke.
- Moses said the LORD would give them flesh to eat in the evening.
- Moses said the LORD would give them bread to the full in the morning.
- Moses said this was because the LORD heard their murmurings which they murmured against him.
- Moses asked what he and Aaron were.
- Moses said their murmurings were not against him and Aaron.
- Moses said their murmurings were against the LORD.
16:9
- Moses spoke to Aaron.
- Moses told Aaron to say to the whole congregation of the children of Israel to come near before the LORD.
- Moses said the LORD had heard their murmurings.
16:10
- While Aaron was speaking to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness.
- The glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
16:11
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
16:12
- The LORD said he had heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.
- The LORD told Moses to speak to them.
- The LORD said they would eat flesh at twilight.
- The LORD said they would be filled with bread in the morning.
- The LORD said they would know that he is the LORD their God.
16:13
- In the evening the quails came up.
- The quails covered the camp.
- In the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
16:14
- The layer of dew went up.
- On the face of the wilderness lay a fine, flaky thing.
- It was as fine as frost on the ground.
16:15
- The children of Israel saw it.
- They said to one another, asking what it was, or calling it manna: the words are ambiguous.
- They did not know what it was.
- Moses said to them that it was the bread which the LORD had given them to eat.
16:16
- Moses said this was the thing the LORD commanded.
- Each man was to gather of it according to his eating.
- The measure was an omer per head.
- The amount was according to the number of persons each had.
- Each man was to take for those in his tent.
16:17
- The children of Israel did so.
- They gathered, some more and some less.
16:18
- They measured it with an omer.
- He that gathered much had nothing over.
- He that gathered little had no lack.
- Each man gathered according to his eating.
16:19
- Moses said to them that no man should leave any of it until morning.
16:20
- They did not listen to Moses.
- Some men left part of it until morning.
- It bred worms.
- It stank.
- Moses was angry with them.
16:21
- They gathered it every morning.
- Each man gathered according to his eating.
- When the sun grew hot, it melted.
16:22
- On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread.
- They gathered two omers for each person.
- All the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
16:23
- Moses said to them that this was what the LORD had said.
- Moses said the next day was a solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD.
- Moses told them to bake what they would bake.
- Moses told them to boil what they would boil.
- Moses told them to lay up all that remained over to be kept until morning.
16:24
- They laid it up until morning as Moses commanded.
- It did not stink.
- There was no worm in it.
16:25
- Moses said to eat it that day.
- Moses said that day was a sabbath to the LORD.
- Moses said they would not find it in the field that day.
16:26
- Six days they were to gather it.
- On the seventh day, the sabbath, there would be none.
16:27
- On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather.
- They found none.
16:28
- The LORD said to Moses.
- The LORD asked how long they would refuse to keep his commandments and his laws.
16:29
- The LORD told them to see that he had given them the sabbath.
- The LORD said that for this reason he gives them bread for two days on the sixth day.
- The LORD said each man was to stay where he was.
- The LORD said no man was to go out of his place on the seventh day.
16:30
- The people rested on the seventh day.
16:31
- The house of Israel called its name Manna.
- It was like coriander seed, white.
- Its taste was like wafers made with honey.
16:32
- Moses said this was the thing the LORD commanded.
- An omer full of it was to be kept for their generations.
- The purpose was that they might see the bread the LORD fed them in the wilderness.
- The LORD said he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
16:33
- Moses said to Aaron to take a jar.
- Moses told Aaron to put an omer full of manna in it.
- Moses told Aaron to lay it up before the LORD.
- It was to be kept for their generations.
16:34
- The LORD had commanded Moses.
- Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept.
16:35
- The children of Israel ate manna forty years.
- They ate it until they came to an inhabited land.
- They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
16:36
- An omer is a tenth part of an ephah.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1: "Sin" here is a place name in Hebrew and has nothing to do with wrongdoing; it is probably related to the name Sinai. The second month is counted from the Passover departure from Egypt described in chapter 12, so this is about a month into the journey.
16:2: The King James word "murmured" does not mean muttering quietly. It means open, angry complaining against a leader, and it is the word that keeps returning through the whole wilderness story.
16:3: "Pots of meat" are cooking pots. Egyptian work gangs were fed rations (bread, fish, vegetables, occasionally meat), so the complaint is that slavery at least came with a food supply.
16:4: "Bread" in Hebrew often stands for food in general, not only baked loaves. "A certain rate every day" in the King James means a fixed daily amount.
16:5: The Israelite week ends on the seventh day, so the sixth day is the day before the day of rest. "Prepare" covers the cooking and processing described in verse 23.
16:6: "At even" in the King James means in the evening.
16:7: The "glory of the LORD" translates a Hebrew word whose root sense is weight or heaviness; it came to mean visible splendor or blazing brightness, here something the people can actually look at and see.
16:9: "Come near before the LORD" means to assemble facing the place where God's presence was understood to be, at this point in the story, the cloud, since the portable sanctuary has not yet been built.
16:10: The cloud is the pillar of cloud that had been leading the Israelites since they left Egypt (chapter 13), understood as the visible sign of God traveling with them.
16:12: The Hebrew phrase translated "at even" is literally "between the two evenings", the stretch of twilight between late afternoon and full dark.
16:13: Quail are small migratory game birds that cross the Sinai peninsula in large flocks in spring, often arriving exhausted and low to the ground, where they can be caught by hand.
16:14: "Hoar frost" is hoarfrost, the fine white frost that coats the ground on a cold morning. The comparison is about size and appearance, not about cold.
16:15: The Hebrew is *man hu*, which most likely means "What is it?", the people are asking a question, and the name "manna" in verse 31 comes from that question. The King James translators instead read the phrase as a statement, "It is manna," which is why their version has the people naming the substance before they know what it is. The wordplay works either way in Hebrew and is impossible to keep in English.
16:16: An omer is a dry measure of roughly two quarts, about two liters, verse 36 defines it as a tenth of an ephah. It is used nowhere else in the Bible, which is probably why verse 36 explains it.
16:18: "Mete" is an old word for measure out. The point is that after measuring, the fast gatherers and the slow gatherers ended up with the same amount per person.
16:20: The Hebrew word covers maggots and similar larvae rather than earthworms; the point is that the food spoiled and became infested overnight.
16:21: The King James "waxed hot" means grew hot. Waxing meant growing or increasing.
16:22: The "rulers" or leaders are the heads of the tribes and family groups, who handled disputes and reported unusual matters to Moses.
16:23: "Sabbath" comes from a Hebrew verb meaning to stop or cease. In the story this is the first time the Israelites are told to keep it, before the commandments are given at Sinai in chapter 20. The King James "seethe" simply means boil.
16:29: The instruction to "stay where you are" is stated without further definition, and its scope is genuinely unclear in the Hebrew: it may mean only that no one should go out searching the field for food, or a broader restriction on leaving the camp. Later Jewish tradition read it as a limit on how far one could travel on the sabbath.
16:31: Coriander seed is a small, hard, pale round seed roughly the size of a peppercorn. "Wafers" are thin flat cakes.
16:32: "For your generations" means for all the families who would come later. The jar was kept so children born long afterward could see it.
16:33: "Before the LORD" means in the place set apart for God's presence, the sanctuary described later in this book. The word for the container is a general one for a jar or pot.
16:34: "The Testimony" refers to the stone tablets of the covenant terms, and by extension to the chest that held them. Both are described later, in chapters 25 and 31, so this sentence looks ahead to something the story has not yet reached.
16:35: Canaan is the region between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean coast, the land the Israelites are traveling towards.
16:36: An ephah is a dry measure of roughly twenty liters, something like half a bushel, though estimates vary. This verse is an editor's note added for readers who no longer used the omer as a measure.

Read Exodus 16