Discovery BoxExodus 16:16-18 
Context16:16 “This is what 1 the Lord has commanded: 2 ‘Each person is to gather 3 from it what he can eat, an omer 4 per person 5 according to the number 6 of your people; 7 each one will pick it up 8 for whoever lives 9 in his tent.’” 16:17 The Israelites did so, and they gathered – some more, some less. 16:18 When 10 they measured with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing left over, and the one who gathered little lacked nothing; each one had gathered what he could eat.
1 tn Heb “the thing that.”
2 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.”
3 tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”
4 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.”
5 tn Heb “for a head.”
6 tn The word “number” is an accusative that defines more precisely how much was to be gathered (see GKC 374 §118.h).
7 tn Traditionally “souls.”
8 tn Heb “will take.”
9 tn “lives” has been supplied.
10 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated here as a temporal clause.
