16:16 “This is what 3 the Lord has commanded: 4 ‘Each person is to gather 5 from it what he can eat, an omer 6 per person 7 according to the number 8 of your people; 9 each one will pick it up 10 for whoever lives 11 in his tent.’”
16:32 Moses said, “This is what 12 the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept 13 for generations to come, 14 so that they may see 15 the food I fed you in the desert when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.’”
1 tn The words “omer” and “ephah” are transliterated Hebrew words. The omer is mentioned only in this passage. (It is different from a “homer” [cf. Ezek 45:11-14].) An ephah was a dry measure whose capacity is uncertain: “Quotations given for the ephah vary from ca. 45 to 20 liters” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 2:340-41).
sn The point of this chapter, with all its instructions and reports included, is God’s miraculous provision of food for his people. This is a display of sovereign power that differs from the display of military power. Once again the story calls for faith, but here it is faith in Yahweh to provide for his people. The provision is also a test to see if they will obey the instructions of God. Deut 8 explains this. The point, then, is that God provides for the needs of his people that they may demonstrate their dependence on him by obeying him. The exposition of this passage must also correlate to John 6. God’s providing manna from heaven to meet the needs of his people takes on new significance in the application that Jesus makes of the subject to himself. There the requirement is the same – will they believe and obey? But at the end of the event John explains that they murmured about Jesus.
2 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated here as a temporal clause.
3 tn Heb “the thing that.”
4 tn The perfect tense could be taken as a definite past with Moses now reporting it. In this case a very recent past. But in declaring the word from Yahweh it could be instantaneous, and receive a present tense translation – “here and now he commands you.”
5 tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”
6 sn The omer is an amount mentioned only in this chapter, and its size is unknown, except by comparison with the ephah (v. 36). A number of recent English versions approximate the omer as “two quarts” (cf. NCV, CEV, NLT); TEV “two litres.”
7 tn Heb “for a head.”
8 tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).
9 tn Traditionally “souls.”
10 tn Heb “will take.”
11 tn “lives” has been supplied.
12 tn Heb “This is the thing that.”
13 tn Heb “for keeping.”
14 tn Heb “according to your generations” (see Exod 12:14).
15 tn In this construction after the particle expressing purpose or result, the imperfect tense has the nuance of final imperfect, equal to a subjunctive in the classical languages.