Discovery BoxExodus 16:23-29 
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.’”
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. 16:25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the area. 5 16:26 Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
16:27 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 6 to obey my commandments and my instructions? 16:29 See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, that is why 7 he is giving you food for two days on the sixth day. Each of you stay where you are; 8 let no one 9 go out of his place on the seventh day.”
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 “in the field” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); NAB, NIV, NLT “on the ground.”
6 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.
7 sn Noting the rabbinic teaching that the giving of the Sabbath was a sign of God’s love – it was accomplished through the double portion on the sixth day – B. Jacob says, “God made no request unless He provided the means for its execution” (Exodus, 461).
8 tn Heb “remain, a man where he is.”
9 tn Or “Let not anyone go” (see GKC 445 §138.d).
