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 16:32-34
Context16:32 Moses said, “This is what 5 the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept 6 for generations to come, 7 so that they may see 8 the food I fed you in the desert when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.’” 16:33 Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put in it an omer full of manna, and place it before the Lord to be kept for generations to come.” 16:34 Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony 9 for safekeeping. 10
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 Heb “This is the thing that.”
6 tn Heb “for keeping.”
7 tn Heb “according to your generations” (see Exod 12:14).
8 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.
9 sn The “Testimony” is a reference to the Ark of the Covenant; so the pot of manna would be placed before Yahweh in the tabernacle. W. C. Kaiser says that this later instruction came from a time after the tabernacle had been built (see Exod 25:10-22; W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:405). This is not a problem since the final part of this chapter had to have been included at the end of the forty years in the desert.
10 tn “for keeping.”
