Discovery BoxExodus 16:22-24 
Context16:22 And 1 on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers 2 per person; 3 and all the leaders 4 of the community 5 came and told 6 Moses. 16:23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work, 7 a holy Sabbath 8 to the Lord. Whatever you want to 9 bake, bake today; 10 whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.’”
16:24 So they put it aside until the morning, just as Moses had commanded, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.
1 tn Heb “and it happened/was.”
2 tn This construction is an exception to the normal rule for the numbers 2 through 10 taking the object numbered in the plural. Here it is “two of the omer” or “the double of the omer” (see GKC 433 §134.e).
3 tn Heb “for one.”
4 tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.
5 tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).
6 sn The meaning here is probably that these leaders, the natural heads of the families in the clans, saw that people were gathering twice as much and they reported this to Moses, perhaps afraid it would stink again (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 197).
7 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.
8 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.
9 tn The two verbs in these objective noun clauses are desiderative imperfects – “bake whatever you want to bake.”
10 tn The word “today” is implied from the context.
