Discovery BoxExodus 16:23 
Context16:23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work, 1 a holy Sabbath 2 to the Lord. Whatever you want to 3 bake, bake today; 4 whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.’”
Exodus 16:27-28
Context16:27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they found nothing. 16:28 So the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse 5 to obey my commandments and my instructions?
1 tn The noun שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbaton) has the abstract ending on it: “resting, ceasing.” The root word means “cease” from something, more than “to rest.” The Law would make it clear that they were to cease from their normal occupations and do no common work.
2 tn The technical expression is now used: שַׁבַּת־קֹדֶשׁ (shabbat-qodesh, “a holy Sabbath”) meaning a “cessation of/for holiness” for Yahweh. The rest was to be characterized by holiness.
3 tn The two verbs in these objective noun clauses are desiderative imperfects – “bake whatever you want to bake.”
4 tn The word “today” is implied from the context.
5 tn The verb is plural, and so it is addressed to the nation and not to Moses. The perfect tense in this sentence is the characteristic perfect, denoting action characteristic, or typical, of the past and the present.
