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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 16:1

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And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which [is] between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

1. the congregation ] P’s standing expression (Exo 12:3). So v. 2 &c.

the wilderness of Sin ] Exo 17:1, Num 33:11-12 . In Num 33:10 the people are said to have halted, between Elim and the wilderness of Sin, at the Red Sea. Accepting the oasis in W. Gharandel as Elim (on Exo 15:27), the ‘Red Sea’ station can hardly have been anywhere but at or near the mouth of Wdy aiyibeh, perhaps in the littoral plain of el-Murkheiyeh, just beyond it. There is no passage along the coast from W. Gharandel to W. aiyibeh, the abrupt projecting cliffs of the lofty Jebel ammam Far‘un (‘Mountain of Pharaoh’s Bath,’ 1570 feet) effectually stopping it: the Israelites, if they came in this direction, must have retraced their steps up the W. Gharandel to the point where (see on Exo 15:26) W. Hawwrah enters it ( Ordn. Surv. 75, 76), and then have turned to the right for 12 miles over the desert uplands at the back of J. ammam Far‘un, till they arrived at the top of W. Shebeikeh (the ‘Wdy of network’), by which they could descend, ‘through an amazing labyrinth of chalky hillocks and ridges,’ to the head of W. aiyibeh, and so pass straight down to the coast in all 21 miles ( O.S. 156). In W. aiyibeh, a little above its mouth, there are a few brackish springs, with some stunted palms growing near them ( O.S. 81).

From the mouth of W. aiyibeh there are two principal routes to Jebel Serbl and Jebel Ms one, the northern route, back up to the head of W. aiyibeh again (4 miles), then to the right along the W. amr (18 miles), to the long upland plain called Debbet er-Ramleh (the ‘Plain of sand’), and thence through a succession of mountain valleys to either J. Ms or J. Serbl; the other, the coast route, on to the broad flinty plain of el-Markh, and then, either leaving this plain on the E., up the Sei Sidreh, and afterwards along the W. Mukatteb into the Wdy Feiran, or else keeping along the coast for 7 miles beyond the SE. end of el-Markh, and there ascending the W. Feiran from its mouth, in either case, the W. Feiran leading on to both Serbl and J. Ms. Knob., followed by Keil and Canon Cook, advocated the former of these routes, supposing the ‘wilderness of Sin’ to be the Debbet er-Ramleh. But, if the Israelites were already on the ‘Red Sea’ (Num 33:10), at the mouth of W. aiyibeh or beyond, the latter is much the more natural route for them to have followed (so Rob. i. 73, 120; and the members of the Ordnance Survey Expedition): in this case el-Markh will be the wilderness of Sin. But it must be admitted that neither Debbet er-Ramleh nor el-Markh is at all naturally described, as a glance at the map will shew, as ‘between’ Elim and Sinai, at least if Elim be in the W. Gharandel.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The the wilderness of Sin – The desert tract, called Debbet er Ramleh, extend nearly across the peninsula from the Wady Nasb in a south-easterly direction, between the limestone district of Et Tih and the granite of Sinai. The journey from the station at Elim, or even from that on the Red Sea, could be performed in a day: at that time the route was kept in good condition by the Egyptians.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Exo 16:1-12

The wilderness of Sin.

Moses in the wilderness of Sin

People may be strong and hopeful at the beginning of a project, and most effusively and devoutly thankful at its close, but the difficulty is to go manfully through the process.

I. Processes try mens temper. See how the temper of Israel was tried in the wilderness! No bread, no water, no rest! How do processes try mens temper?

1. They are often tedious.

2. They, are often uncontrollable.

3. They often seem to be made worse by the incompetency of others.

II. The trials of processes are to be met, not all at once, but a day at a time. Daily hunger was met by daily bread. This daffy display of Divine care teaches–

1. That physical as well as spiritual gifts are Gods.

2. That one of Gods gifts is the pledge of another. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Why am I to be easy about to-morrow? Because God is good to-day! He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.

III. Processes show the different dispositions of men. Though the people were told in the distinctest manner that there would be no manna on the seventh day, yet they went out to gather it just as if they had never been warned! Such men are the vexation of the world. They plague every community of which they are a portion.

1. We have the means of life at our disposal: the manna lies at our tent-door!

2. We are distinctly assured that such means are given under law: there is a set time for the duration of the opportunity: the night cometh!

IV. All the processes of life should be hallowed by religious exercises. There was a Sabbath even in the wilderness.

1. The Sabbath is more than a mere law; it is an expression of mercy.

2. No man ever loses anything by keeping the Sabbath: The Lord giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.

3. He is the loser who has no day of rest.

V. Processes should leave some tender and hope-inspiring memories behind them. Fill an omer of it to be kept, etc.

VI. The process will end. Are you ready? (J. Parker, D. D.)

The pilgrimage of life

In the anecdote books of our boyhood we used to be told the story of an Indian faquir who entered an Eastern palace and spread his bed in one of its antechambers, pretending that he had mistaken the building for a caravanserai or inn. The prince, amused by the oddity of the circumstance, ordered–so ran the tale–the man to be brought before him, and asked him how he came to make such a mistake. What is an inn? the faquir asked. A place, was the reply, where travellers rest a little while before proceeding on their journey. Who dwelt here before you? again asked the faquir. My father, was the princes reply. And did he remain here? No, was the answer; He died and went away. And who dwelt here before him? His ancestors. And did they remain here? No; they also died and went away. Then, rejoined the faquir, I have made no mistake, for your palace is but an inn after all. The faquir was right, Our houses are but inns, and the whole world a caravanserai. (Clerical Library.)

Bread, the supreme question

During the French Revolution hundreds of market-women, attended by an armed mob of men, went to Versailles to demand bread of the National Assembly, there being great destitution in Paris. They entered the hall. There was a discussion upon the criminal laws going on. A fishwoman cried out, Stop that babbler! That is not the question; the question is about bread. (Littles Historical Lights.)

Murmuring, the result of forgetfulness

What unbelief and sad forgetfulness of God betrayed itself in these words! They quite forgot the bitter bondage of Egypt under which they had sighed and groaned so long. They now thought only of its flesh-pots and its bread. They altogether overlooked the mercy and the grace which had spared them when the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain. The miracles of love at the Red Sea and at Marah, so great and so recent, had passed away from their memories. They thought nothing of the promise of the land flowing with milk and honey. The argument, so evident and so comforting, Can the faithful God who has brought us out of bondage mean to let us perish in the wilderness? did not withhold them from the impatient conclusion, Ye have brought us forth into the wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. And if you watch your own hearts, you will find that there is always this forgetfulness in a murmuring and discontented spirit. We forget, first, that we deserve nothing but punishment at Gods hands; and, secondly, we forget all the mercy and love which He has shown us in His acts and promises. (G. Wagner.)

Grumbling, an added burden

If I grumble because life is so arranged that I tear my clothes, and get many a scratch in the upward journey, my grumble is only an added burden. The difference between a soul that is soured by unbelief and a soul that honestly struggles and strives as the gymnast does, who tries to lift the heavy weight, knowing that, whether he succeeds or fails, the muscular development, which is the end sought, is still attained, is incalculable. To trudge along the moor after nightfall, then now knee deep, with the feeling that you are going nowhere, is indeed discouraging; but to do the same thing with the feeling that you are going home to the fireside of the loved and expectant, is to keep both feet and hands warm through our power of anticipating the heat and the welcome under the roof tree not far off. Rude, discourteous experience has taught us that an evil which is all an evil is a double evil, and that an evil with a joy behind it or beyond it is the healthy and invigorating toil by means of which a man may acquire a lasting good.

Ingratitude of the public

Daniel Webster, after his wonderful career, and in the close of his life, writes: If I were to live my life over again, with my present experiences, I would under no considerations allow myself to enter public life. The public are ungrateful. The man who serves the public most faithfully receives no adequate reward. In my own history those acts which have been, before God, most disinterested and the least stained by selfish considerations, have been precisely those for which I have been most freely abused. No, no; have nothing to do with politics. Sell your iron, eat the bread of independence, support your family with the rewards of honest toil, do your duty as a private citizen to your country, but let politics alone. It is a hard life, a thankless life. I have had in the course of my political life, which is not a short one, my full share of ingratitude, but the unkindest cut of all, the shaft that has sunk the deepest in my heart, has been the refusal of this administration to grant my request for an office of small pecuniary consideration for my only son. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Ingratitude of grumbling

I heard a good man say once, as we passed the home of a millionaire: It doesnt seem right that such a man as he is should be rolling in wealth, while I have to work hard for my daily bread. I made no reply. But when we reached the home of the grumbler, and a troop of rosy children ran out to meet us, I caught one in my arms, and, holding him up, said: John, how much will you take for this boy? And he answered, while the moisture gathered in his eyes: That boy, my namesake! I wouldnt sell him for his weight in gold. Why, John, he weighs forty pounds at least, and forty pounds of gold would make you many times a millionaire. And you would probably ask as much for each of the others. So, according to your own admission, you are immensely rich. Yes, a great deal richer than that cold, selfish, childless millionaire whom you were envying as we came along. Nothing would tempt you to change places with him. Then you ought to be grateful instead of grumbling. You are the favourite of fortune, or, rather, of Providence, and not he. (H. W. Beecher.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XVI

The Israelites journey from Elim, and come to the wilderness of

Sin, 1.

They murmur for lack of bread, 2, 3.

God promises to rain bread from heaven for them, 4,

of which they were to collect a double portion on the sixth day, 5.

A miraculous supply of flesh in the evening and bread in

the morning, promised, 6-9.

The glory of the Lord appears in the cloud, 10.

Flesh and bread promised as a proof of God’s care over them, 11, 12.

Quails come and cover the whole camp, 13.

And a dew fell which left a small round substance on the ground,

which Moses tells them was the bread which God had sent, 14, 15.

Directions for gathering it, 16.

The Israelites gather each an omer, 17, 18.

They are directed to leave none of it till the next day, 19;

which some neglecting, it become putrid, 20.

They gather it every morning, because it melted when the sun

waxed hot, 21.

Each person gathers two omers on the sixth day, 22.

Moses commands them to keep the seventh as a Sabbath

to the Lord, 23.

What was laid up for the Sabbath did not putrefy, 24.

Nothing of it fell on that day, hence the strict observance of

the Sabbath was enjoined, 25-30.

The Israelites name the substance that fell with the dew manna;

its appearance and taste described, 31.

An omer of the manna is commanded to be laid up for a memorial of

Jehovah’s kindness, 32-34.

The manna now sent continued daily for the space of forty

years, 35.

How much an omer contained, 36.

NOTES ON CHAP. XVI

Verse 1. The wilderness of Sin] This desert lies between Elim and Sinai, and from Elim, Dr. Shaw says, Mount Sinai can be seen distinctly. Mr. Ainsworth supposes that this wilderness had its name from a strong city of Egypt called Sin, near which it lay. See Eze 30:15-16. Before they came to the wilderness of Sin, they had a previous encampment by the Red Sea after they left Elim, of which Moses makes distinct mention Nu 33:10-11.

The fifteenth day of the second month] This was afterwards called Ijar, and they had now left Egypt one month, during which It is probable they lived on the provisions they brought with them from Rameses, though it is possible they might have had a supply from the seacoast. Concerning Mount Sinai, See Clarke on Ex 19:1.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

BC 1491

They came not immediately

to the wilderness of Sin; for there is another stage of theirs by the Red Sea, mentioned Num 33:10, (in which chapter Moses designed exactly to set down all their stations,) but omitted here, because nothing remarkable happened in it; and Moses in this place designed to record only the memorable passages. The wilderness of Sin was a great wilderness between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai, but differing from that Zin mentioned Num 20:1.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. they took their journey fromElimwhere they had remained several days.

came unto the wilderness ofSinIt appears from Nu32:1-42, that several stations are omitted in this historicalnotice of the journey. This passage represents the Israelites asadvanced into the great plain, which, beginning near El-Murkah,extends with a greater or less breadth to almost the extremity of thepeninsula. In its broadest part northward of Tur it is called El-Kaa,which is probably the desert of Sin [ROBINSON].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And they took their journey from Elim,…. And came again to the Red sea, as appears from Nu 33:10 perhaps to some bay or creek of it, which ran up from it, and lay in their way, and where for a short time they encamped to look at it, and recollect what had been done for them in bringing them through it; but as their stay here was short, and nothing of any importance or consequence happened, it is here omitted, and their next station is only observed:

and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which still bears the same name, as a late traveller a informs us, who passed through it, and says, we traversed these plains in nine hours, being all the way diverted with the sight of a variety of lizards and vipers, that are here in great numbers; and elsewhere b he says, that vipers, especially in the wilderness of Sin which might very properly be called “the inheritance of dragons”, were very dangerous and troublesome, not only our camels, but the Arabs who attended them, running every moment the risk of being bitten. The Red sea, or the bay of it, they came to from Elim, according to Bunting c was six miles, and from thence to the wilderness of Sin, sixteen more. This is a different wilderness from that of Zin, which is written with a different letter, Nu 20:1 and was on the other side of Mount Sinai, as this was the way to it, as follows:

which is between Elim and Sinai according to the above writer d, it was twenty miles from Elim the Israelites travelled, and forty more ere they came to Sinai. Dr. Shaw e says, after traversing the plains in nine hours, we were near twelve hours in passing the many windings and difficult ways which lie beteen those deserts and these of Sinai; the latter consists of a beautiful plain more than a league in breadth, and nearly three in length:

on the fifteenth day of the second month, after their departing out of the land of Egypt; the month Ijar, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of April and part of May, and has its name from the beauty of the flowers, which appear at this time of the year: the Israelites were now come from thence a month or thirty days; for they came out the fifteenth of Abib or Nisan, and now it was the fifteenth of Ijar; and as the first day of this month, as Jarchi says, was on the first day of the week, this day must be so likewise; and yet sometimes the Jews say f this was a sabbath day.

a Shaw, p. 314. b lb p. 444. c Travels, p. 82. d Ib. e Travels, p. 314. f T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 87. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Quails and Manna in the Desert of Sin. – Exo 16:1. From Elim the congregation of Israel proceeded into the desert of Sin. According to Num 33:10, they encamped at the Red Sea between Elim and the desert of Sin; but this is passed over here, as nothing of importance happened there. Judging from the nature of the ground, the place of encampment at the Red Sea is to be found at the mouth of the Wady Taiyibeh. For the direct road from the W. Gharandel to Sinai, and the only practicable one for caravans, goes over the tableland between this wady and the Wady Useit to the upper end of the W. Taiyibeh, a beautiful valley, covered with tamarisks and shrubs, where good water may be found by digging, and which winds about between steep rocks, and opens to the sea at Ras Zelimeh. To the north of this the hills and rocks come close to the sea, but to the south they recede, and leave a sandy plain with numerous shrubs, which is bounded on the east by wild and rugged rocky formations, and stretches for three miles along the shore, furnishing quite space enough therefore for the Israelitish camp. It is about eight hours’ journey from Wady Gharandel, so that by a forced march the Israelites might have accomplished it in one day. From this point they went “to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.” The place of encampment here is doubtful. There are two roads that lead from W. Taiyibeh to Sinai: the lower, which enters the desert plain by the sea at the Murkha or Morcha well, not far from the mouth of the Wady eth Thafary, and from which you can either go as far as Tr by the sea-coast, and then proceed in a north-easterly direction to Sinai, or take a more direct road through Wady Shelll and Badireh into Wady Mukatteb and Feirn, and so on to the mountains of Horeb; and the upper road, first pointed out by Burckhardt and Robinson, which lies in a S.E. direction from W. Taiyibeh through W. Shubeikeh, across en elevated plain, then through Wady Humr to the broad sandy plain of el Debbe or Debbet en Nasb, thence through Wady Nasb to the plain of Debbet er Ramleh, which stretches far away to the east, and so on across the Wadys Chamile and Seich in almost a straight line to Horeb. One of these two roads the Israelites must have taken. The majority of modern writers have decided in favour of the lower road, and place the desert of Sin in the broad desert plain, which commences at the foot of the mountain that bounds the Wady Taiyibeh towards the south, and stretches along the sea-coast to Ras Muhammed, the southernmost point of the peninsula, the southern part of which is now called el Ka. The encampment of the Israelites in the desert of Sin is then supposed to have been in the northern part of this desert plain, where the well Murkha still furnishes a resting-place plentifully supplied with drinkable water. Ewald has thus represented the Israelites as following the desert of el Ka to the neighbourhood of Tr, and then going in a north-easterly direction to Sinai. But apart from the fact that the distance is too great for the three places of encampment mentioned in Num 33:12-14, and a whole nation could not possibly reach Rephidim in three stages by this route, it does not tally with the statement in Num 33:12, that the Israelites left the desert of Sin and went to Dofkah; so that Dofkah and the places that follow were not in the desert of Sin at all.

For these and other reasons, De Laborde, v. Raumer, and others suppose the Israelites to have gone from the fountain of Murkha to Sinai by the road which enters the mountains not far from this fountain through Wady Shelll, and so continues through Wady Mukatteb to Wady Fern (Robinson, i. p. 105). But this view is hardly reconcilable with the encampment of the Israelites “in the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.” For instance, the direct road from W. Gharandel (Elim) to Sinai does not touch the desert plain of el Ka at all, but turns away from it towards the north-east, so that it is difficult to understand how this desert could be said to lie between Elim and Sinai. For this reason, even Kurtz does not regard the clause “which is between Elim and Sinai” as pointing out the situation of the desert itself, but (contrary to the natural sense of the words) as a more exact definition of that part or point of the desert of Sin at which the road from Elim to Sinai crosses it. But nothing is gained by this explanation. There is no road from the place of encampment by the Red Sea in the Wady Taiyibeh by which a whole nation could pass along the coast to the upper end of this desert, so as to allow the Israelites to cross the desert on the way from Taiyibeh to the W. Shelll. As the mountains to the south of the W. Taiyibeh come so close to the sea again, that it is only at low water that a narrow passage is left ( Burckhardt, p. 985), the Israelites would have been obliged to turn eastwards from the encampment by the Red Sea, to which they had no doubt gone for the sake of the water, and to go all round the mountain to get to the Murkha spring. This spring (according to Burckhardt, p. 983), “a small lake in the sandstone rock, close at the foot of the mountain”) is “the principal station on this road,” next to Ayun Musa and Gharandel; but the water is “of the worst description, partly from the moss, the bog, and the dirt with which the well is filled, but chiefly no doubt from the salt of the soil by which it is surrounded,” and men can hardly drink it; whereas in the Wady Thafary, a mile (? five English miles) to the north-east of Murkha, there is a spring that “yields the only sweet water between Tor and Suez” (p. 982). Now, even if we were to assume that the Israelites pitched their camp, not by this, the only sweet water in the neighbourhood, but by the bad water of Murkha, the Murkah spring is not situated in the desert of el Ka, but only on the eastern border of it; so that if they proceeded thence into the Wady Shelll, and so on to the Wady Feirn, they would not have crossed the desert at all. In addition to this, although the lower road through the valley of Mukatteb is described by Burckhardt as “much easier and more frequented,” and by Robinson as “easier” than the upper road across Nasseb (Nasb), there are two places in which it runs through very narrow defiles, by which a large body of people like the Israelites could not possibly have forced their way through to Sinai. From the Murkha spring, the way into the valley of Mukatteb is through “a wild mountain road,” which is shut out from the eyes of the wanderer by precipitous rocks. “We got off our dromedaries,” says Dieterici, ii. p. 27, “and left them to their own instinct and sure tread to climb the dangerous pass. We looked back once more at the desolate road which we had threaded between the rocks, and saw our dromedaries, the only signs of life, following a serpentine path, and so climbing the pass in this rocky theatre Nakb el Butera.” Strauss speaks of this road in the following terms: “We went eastwards through a large plain, overgrown with shrubs of all kinds, and reached a narrow pass, only broad enough for one camel to go through, so that our caravan emerged in a very pictorial serpentine fashion. The wild rocks frowned terribly on every side.” Moreover, it is only through a “terribly wild pass” that you can descend from the valley Mukatteb into the glorious valley of Feiran ( Strauss, p. 128).

(Note: This pass is also mentioned by Graul (Reise ii. p. 226) as “a wild romantic mountain pass,” and he writes respecting it, “For five minutes the road down was so narrow and steep, that the camels stept in fear, and we ourselves preferred to follow on foot. If the Israelites came up here on their way from the sea at Ras Zelime, the immense procession must certainly have taken a long time to get through the narrow gateway.” To this we may add, that if Moses had led the people to Sinai through one of these narrow passes, they could not possibly have reached Sinai in a month from the desert of Sin, to say nothing of eight days, which was all that was left for them, if, as is generally supposed, and as Kurtz maintains, their stay at the place of encampment in the desert of Sin, where they arrived on the 15th day of the second month (Exo 16:1), lasted full seven days, and their arrival at Sinai took place on the first day of the third month. For if a pass is so narrow that only one camel can pass, not more than three men could walk abreast. Now if the people of Israel, consisting of two millions of men, had gone through such a pass, it would have taken at least twenty days for them all to pass through, as an army of 100,000 men, arranged three abreast, would reach 27 English miles; so that, supposing the pass to be not more than five minutes walk long, 100,000 Israelites would hardly go through in a day, to say nothing at all about their flocks and herds.)

For these reasons we must adopt Knobel’s conclusions, and seek the desert of Sin in the upper road which leads from Gharandel to Sinai, viz., in the broad sandy table-land el Debbe or Debbet er Ramle, which stretches from the Tih mountains over almost the whole of the peninsula from N.W. to S.E. (vid., Robinson, i. 112), and in its south-eastern part touches the northern walls of the Horeb or Sinai range, which helps to explain the connection between the names Sin and Sinai, though the meaning “thorn-covered” is not established, but is merely founded upon the idea that has the same meaning as . This desert table-land, which is essentially distinguished from the limestone formations of the Tih mountains, and the granite mass of Horeb, by its soil of sand and sandstone, stretches as far as Jebel Humr to the north-west, and the Wady Khamile and Barak to the south-west (vid., Robinson, i. p. 101, 102). Now, if this sandy table-land is to be regarded as the desert of Sin, we must look for the place of Israel’s encampment somewhere in this desert, most probably in the north-western portion, in a straight line between Elim (Gharandel) and Sinai, possibly in Wady Nasb, where there is a well surrounded by palm-trees about six miles to the north-west of Sarbut el Khadim, with a plentiful supply of excellent water, which Robinson says was better than he had found anywhere since leaving the Nile (i. 110). The distance from W. Taiyibeh to this spot is not greater than that from Gharandel to Taiyibeh, and might therefore be accomplished in a hard day’s march.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Israelites Murmur for Bread.

B. C. 1491.

1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. 4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. 5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: 7 And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD. 9 And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings. 10 And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

The host of Israel, it seems, took along with them out of Egypt, when they came thence on the fifteenth day of the first month, a month’s provisions, which, by the fifteenth day of the second month, was all spent; and here we have,

I. Their discontent and murmuring upon that occasion, Exo 16:2; Exo 16:3. The whole congregation, the greatest part of them, joined in this mutiny; it was not immediately against God that they murmured, but (which was equivalent) against Moses and Aaron, God’s vicegerents among them. 1. They count upon being killed in the wilderness–nothing less, at the first appearance of disaster. If the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he could easily have done that in the Red Sea; but then he preserved them, and now could as easily provide for them. It argues great distrust of God, and of his power and goodness, in every distress and appearance of danger to despair of life, and to talk of nothing but being speedily killed. 2. They invidiously charge Moses with a design to starve them when he brought them out of Egypt; whereas what he had done was both by order from God and with a design to promote their welfare. Note, It is no new thing for the greatest kindnesses to be misinterpreted and basely represented as the greatest injuries. The worst colours are sometimes put upon the best actions. Nay, 3. They so far undervalue their deliverance that they wish they had died in Egypt, nay, and died by the hand of the Lord too, that is, by some of the plagues which cut off the Egyptians, as if it were not the hand of the Lord, but of Moses only, that brought them into this hungry wilderness. It is common for people to say of that pain, or sickness, or sore, of which they see not the second causes, “It is what pleases God,” as if that were not so likewise which comes by the hand of man, or some visible accident. Prodigious madness! They would rather die by the fleshpots of Egypt, where they found themselves with provision, than live under the guidance of the heavenly pillar in a wilderness and be provided for by the hand of God! they pronounce it better to have fallen in the destruction of God’s enemies than to bear the fatherly discipline of his children! We cannot suppose that they had any great plenty in Egypt, how largely soever they now talk of the flesh-pots; nor could they fear dying for want in the wilderness, while they had their flocks and herds with them. But discontent magnifies what is past, and vilifies what is present, without regard to truth or reason. None talk more absurdly than murmurers. Their impatience, ingratitude, and distrust of God, were so much the worse in that they had lately received such miraculous favours, and convincing proofs both that God could help them in the greatest exigencies and that really he had mercy in store for them. See how soon they forgot his works, and provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea, Ps. cvi. 7-13. Note, Experiences of God’s mercies greatly aggravate our distrusts and murmurings.

II. The care God graciously took for their supply. Justly he might have said, “I will rain fire and brimstone upon these murmurers, and consume them;” but, quite contrary, he promises to rain bread upon them. Observe,

1. How God makes known to Moses his kind intentions, that he might not be uneasy at their murmurings, nor be tempted to wish he had let them alone in Egypt. (1.) He takes notice of the people’s complaints: I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, v. 12. As a God of pity, he took cognizance of their necessity, which was the occasion of their murmuring; as a just and holy God, he took cognizance of their base and unworthy reflections upon his servant Moses, and was much displeased with them. Note, When we begin to fret and be uneasy, we ought to consider that God hears all our murmurings, though silent, and only the murmurings of the heart. Princes, parents, masters, do not hear all the murmurs of their inferiors against them, and it is well they do not, for perhaps they could not bear it; but God hears, and yet bears. We must not think, because God does not immediately take vengeance on men for their sins, that therefore he does not take notice of them; no, he hears the murmurings of Israel, and is grieved with this generation, and yet continues his care of them, as the tender parent of the froward child. (2.) He promises them a speedy, sufficient, and constant supply, v. 4. Man being made out of the earth, his Maker has wisely ordered him food out of the earth, Ps. civ. 14. But the people of Israel, typifying the church of the first-born that are written in heaven, and born from above, and being themselves immediately under the direction and government of heaven, receiving their charters, laws, and commissions, from heaven, from heaven also received their food: their law being given by the disposition of angels, they did also eat angels’ food. See what God designed in making this provision for them: That I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no. [1.] Thus he tried whether they would trust him, and walk in the law of faith or no, whether they could live from hand to mouth, and (though now uneasy because their provisions were spent) could rest satisfied with the bread of the day in its day, and depend upon God for fresh supplies to-morrow. [2.] Thus he tried whether they would serve him, and be always faithful to so good a Master, that provided so well for his servants; and hereby he made it appear to all the world, in the issue, what an ungrateful people they were, whom nothing could affect with a sense of obligation. Let favour be shown to them, yet will they not learn righteousness, Isa. xxvi. 10.

2. How Moses made known these intentions to Israel, as God ordered him. Here Aaron was his prophet, as he had been to Pharaoh. Moses directed Aaron what to speak to the congregation of Israel (v. 9); and some think that, while Aaron was giving a public summons to the congregation to come near before the Lord, Moses retired to pray, and that the appearance of the glory of the Lord (v. 10) was in answer to his prayer. They are called to come near, as Isa. i. 18, Come, and let us reason together. Note, God condescends to give even murmurers a fair hearing; and shall we then despise the cause of our inferiors when they contend with us? Job xxxi. 13. (1.) He convinces them of the evil of their murmurings. They thought they reflected only upon Moses and Aaron, but here they are told that God was struck at through their sides. This is much insisted on (Exo 16:7; Exo 16:8): “Your murmurings are not against us, then we would have been silent, but against the Lord; it was he that led you into these straits, and not we.” Note, When we murmur against those who are instruments of any uneasiness to us, whether justly or unjustly, we should do well to consider how much we reflect upon God by it; men are but God’s hand. Those that quarrel with the reproofs and convictions of the word, and are angry with their ministers when they are touched in a tender part, know not what they do, for therein they strive with their Maker. Let this for ever stop the mouth of murmuring, that it is daring impiety to murmur at God, because he is God; and gross absurdity to murmur at men, because they are but men. (2.) He assures them of the supply of their wants, that since they had harped upon the flesh-pots so much they should for once have flesh in abundance that evening, and bread the next morning, and so on every day thenceforward, Exo 16:8; Exo 16:12. Many there are of whom we say that they are better fed than taught; but the Israelites were thus fed, that they might be taught. He led him about, he instructed him (Deut. xxxii. 10); and, as to this instance, see Deut. viii. 3, He fed thee with manna, that thou mightest know that man doth not live by bread only. And, besides this, here are two things mentioned, which he intended to teach them by sending them manna:– [1.] By this you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt, v. 6. That they were brought out of Egypt was plain enough; but so strangely sottish and short-sighted were they that they said it was Moses that brought them out, v. 3. Now God sent them manna, to prove that it was no less than infinite power and goodness that brought them out, and this could perfect what was begun. If Moses only had brought them out of Egypt, he could not thus have fed them; they must therefore own that that was the Lord’s doing, because this was so, and both were marvellous in their eyes; yet, long afterwards, they needed to be told that Moses gave them not this bread from heaven, John vi. 32. [2.] By this you shall know that I am the Lord your God, v. 12. This gave proof of his power as the Lord, and his particular favour to them as their God. When God plagued the Egyptians, it was to make them know that he was the Lord; when he provided for the Israelites, it was to make them know that he was their God.

3. How God himself manifested his glory, to still the murmurings of the people, and to put a reputation upon Moses and Aaron, v. 10. While Aaron was speaking, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The cloud itself, one would think, was enough both to strike an awe upon them and to give encouragement to them; yet, in a few days, it had grown so familiar to them that it made no impression upon them, unless it shone with an unusual brightness. Note, What God’s ministers say to us is then likely to do us good when the glory of God shines in with it upon our souls.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

EXODUS – CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Verses 1-3:

Israel left Elim and continued their journey. The camp in Elim was a pleasant one, with ample water and pasturage for their flocks. The area through which they next traveled was in sharp contrast to this. The “Wilderness of Sin (Zin)” denotes the entire sandy plain along the shore of the Red Sea, from Israel’s encampment at Elim to the southern end of the Sinai Peninsula. Its modern name is El Markha, and is a desolate region whose name comes from a long ridge of white chalk hills. In the distance, behind these hills, they could see the purple streaks of the granite mountains of the Sinai range. To the west was the Red Sea, and beyond it the fertile fields of Egypt.

Israel made camp in the Wilderness of Sin, exactly one month from the day they left Egypt. By this time their food supply was seriously depleted. They could see no possibility of securing any food in the near future. So, they began to murmur and complain. They remembered the generous meals available in Egypt, and saw only their empty pots in the present camp. They charged Moses with bringing them into this desolate land to die from hunger.

Jehovah provided this test, to demonstrate His power to supply every need of His people. He today may lead to an apparently desolate place, that His child may learn to rely on Him to supply in seeming hopeless circumstances, Php 4:19; Mt 6:33.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. And they took their journey. Moses relates, that, when after a month the people came to the wilderness of Sin near Mount Sinai, and when their provision failed, they rebelled against God and Moses, and manna, a new and unusual kind of food, was given them from heaven. It is uncertain with what foods they were sustained in the meantime. Some conjecture that they brought sufficient flour from Egypt for their supply; but to me it seems probable that other kinds of food were used in addition; for the barrenness of the country through which they passed was not so great but that it produced at least fruits and herbs. Besides, we may readily suppose, from the battle, in which it will soon be related that they conquered the Amalekites, that they were not far from an habitable territory. But, when they were carried away farther into the desert, all their provision began to fail, because they had no more commerce with the inhabitants. Hence their sedition was increased, because hunger pressed upon them more than usual. For, although we shall afterwards be able to gather from the context that there was some previous disturbance in the camp, still famine, which now began to affect them more, because in these uncultivated and miserable regions the barrenness on all sides alarmed them, gave strength to their murmurs and impatience.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 16:1-3

MURMURINGS

We find the Israelites now in a very important and interesting stage of their great journey between Elim and Sinai; the former the place of joyous rest, and the latter the place of stern law. This period of their march is marked by much ingratitude, and by the abundant mercy of God. The Israelites are murmuring for want of bread. We observe

I. That people will murmur immediately after the happiest experiences of life. The children of Israel had left Elim as the last stage of their march; they had only just left the wells of water and the three score and ten palm trees, and yet immediately after this they commence to murmur against the servant of God. And so it is with men in our own time, they will murmur after the richest mercies have been permitted to them.

1. The murmurings of Israel were general. The complaint seems to have been expressed by the princes of the people as well as by the people themselves. The elders murmured. We should certainly have thought that they would not have been guilty of such conduct,they ought to have known better, and ought to have set the people a better example. They ought to have helped Moses in this perplexity. The best men, and the most useful, are sometimes given to the sin of complaining against the Divine providence of daily life. The lack of temporal resource awakens them to discontent; man is very sensitive on the side of his physical nature.

2. The murmurings of Israel were ungrateful. The Israelites had just seen the goodness and severity of God in their own deliverance and in the destruction of the Egyptians. The wrecked army ought to have made them afraid of murmuring against the Author of such desolation: their own safety ought to have banished all thought of distrust from their minds. But the judgments and mercies of life do not deter men from discontent; the most afflicted and the most wealthy alike share this unholy sentiment. Even after the bitter has been made sweet, the soul will indulge ungenerous thoughts of God. What ingratitude for a son to murmur against his father, for a scholar to murmur against his teacher, and for a slave to murmur against his benevolent emancipator; yet this is but a faint emblem of the vast ingratitude men show to God day by day. How soon the mercy of God is forgotten; we soon forget our Red Sea deliverances,the mercies of the night are forgotten in the morning. If we forget the Divine mercy to us, we shall be sure to indulge a murmuring spirit.

3. The murmurings of Israel were inconsiderate. The Israelites did not think that they were in a condition of life in which they should expect some hardship. They were only freed slaves travelling in a wilderness. Their hope was in the future, in the promised Canaan. And so all the murmurings of men should be silenced by the fact that this life is probationary, and that it is only preparatory to another, in which every real need will be eternally supplied. Discontent is an evidence that we centre our thoughts too much on this world. How inconsiderate are men in their murmurings; some want bread, some want rain, some want gold, and others want social position, as though it would be well for each to have that which he desired. Want is a salutary discipline. If we were considerate of the providence of God, of the discipline of life, and of the welfare of others, there would be much less grumbling in the world.

4. The murmurings of Israel were Divinely regarded. God heard the murmurings of Israel and sent them food. It would have been better if prayer had done the work which seems to have been accomplished by discontent. God sees the discontent of the soul. He sometimes answers its cry in anger, and sometimes in compassion. How mercifully He bears with the murmurings of men!

II. That people will murmur against those who are rendering them the greatest service. The Israelites thus murmured against these two ministers of God. These men of God had only a little time ago brought them out of bend-age, and given them a freedom in which they greatly rejoiced. And ministers have often to contend with murmuring congregations. The things regarded as joys at first are afterwards by discontent turned into sorrows. At first conversion is welcomed as a great blessing, but when the difficulties of the wilderness are experienced, then the soul commences to murmur at the truth which set it free. Men often grumble at the agencies which have given them freedom. They think more of secondary agencies than they ought, they think more of Moses and Aaron than of the God whose servants they are. This is cruel and foolish, for the secondary agents are in need of bread quite as much as the multitude they lead, and cannot produce it without Divine warrant.

1. Thus the conduct of Israel was unreasonable.

2. This conduct of Israel was cruel and culpable.

3. This conduct of Israel is often repeated in the world now. And thus discontented people often murmur at those who do not deserve it; they often murmur to those who can render them no assistance; they often act as though there were no God to help them; and they present a sad spectacle of weakness to those who behold them in this unhappy mood.

(1.) They are unmindful of happy memoriesof freedom from slavery.

(2.) They are unmindful of helpful serviceMoses and Aaron had aided them in their march.

(3.) They are unmindful of happy destinythey were being led to Canaan. Yet they murmured at the men who were thus befriending them. We are not to interpret our life work by the murmurings of others. Discontented people do not know their true friends.

III. That people when murmuring often manifest a degrading inclination of soul. Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full (Exo. 16:3). As though they had said, We care not for our deliverance out of Egyptian bondage, we are no better even under His guidance than we were under the rule of Pharaoh.

1. Thus the Israelites were blind to the advantages of their new condition of life. They thought that they had not bettered their condition by exchanging Egypt for the wilderness. They measured their welfare by their temporal circumstances; they could not see through these a sublime improvement in their method of life. How many men measure their success in life by the condition of their flesh-pots. They prefer well-filled flesh-pots and slavery to hanger and freedom. And often is it thus with the Christian; he is rendered sad by the difficulties of the wilderness-path to heaven. He experiences longings after the old life of the soul. Then there were times of enjoyment. Then food was abundant. There were not all these constant difficulties which are now realised. True, sin was a hard service, and at times was followed by severe mental anguish, but it was soon appeased and removed, and thus the young Christian is tempted in gloomy mood to think the present incomparable to the past. He sees not the worth of moral freedom. He sees not the glory of being led by God. He sees not the shield by which he is protected. He sees not the splendid destiny awaiting him. If he saw these things as he ought, neither a temporary trial, nor the flesh-pots of his sinful life, would lead him to cast a longing look to the past. Satan often tempts the soul to apostacy, by presenting the past life of sin in all its attractiveness, and by magnifying the difficulties of the Christian journey.

2. Thus the Israelites were in danger of a degrading and cowardly retreat to their old condition of life. If they had returned to Egypt, how degrading and cowardly would have been their conduct. What an utter lack of confidence would they have shown in the Supreme Being. And if men, who have once entered into the freedom of the Christian life, return to their old habits, they will indeed degrade their manhood, and beat a cowardly retreat, which will gladden hell, and which will awaken the ridicule of the world. God has provided for the pure soul something better than the flesh-pots of its old life. Some men always make the past brighter than the present; they love the flesh-pots.

IV. That people when murmuring often anticipate evils which never will happen. For ye have brought us forth into the wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger (Exo. 16:3). Here was unbelief on the part of Israel. They had no more trust in God than to suppose that He was making all these deliverances for them simply to lead them to a grave. Truly God does not save men to destroy them. When men are converted it is that they may be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, and not that they may perish ultimately in their sins. Here was hopelessness on the part of Israel. The Divine help they had received in the past should have made them hopeful in the moment of trial. Men want to be more hopeful in their spiritual life than to imagine that they are going to die in this way; they have everything to inspire hope. And thus many murmuring Christians anticipate perils they will never experience; a murmuring spirit fills life with fictitious evils, it will dig graves in the most fragrant gardens. LESSONS:

1. Let us have more respect for the joys of the Christian life than to murmur at its sorrows.

2. Let us be too grateful to the helpers of our spiritual life than to grumble at them.

3. Let us never cast a degrading look at the fancied joys of the old life of the soul.

4. Let us look to God rather than to our difficulties.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Exo. 16:1. Comfortable stations in this life God will have His Church to leave (Mat. 17:4.)

Dreadful and barren deserts does God appoint for His Church, instead of better places, for trial.
The saddest deserts are but the way of the Church into the mountain of God.
The days of the travel and redemption of the Church are punctually remembered by God.

Exo. 16:2-3. Multitudes of sinners are usually stirring up all to murmur upon changes.

Wilderness trials put unbelievers in the visible Church to the test.
God and His ministers suffer all indignities from unbelieving sinners.
Unbelieving sinners are ready to imprecate destruction on themselves in time of temptation.
Gods most gracious acts are changed by the wicked to be their destruction.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON

Elim-Sinai! Exo. 16:1. The scene of the miracles of quails and manna was strikingly appropriate. Professor Palmer in his Desert of the Exodus gives a vivid description of the scene and sufferings. Familiar as we had grown with desert scenes, we were not prepared for such utter and oppressive desolation as this. As far as the eye could reach, there stretched a dull, flat, sandy wasteunrelieved by any green or living thing. The next morning he and his friends again set out, passing over a tract of sand equally dreary with that of the day before. It was, however, covered with a sombre carpet of hard, black flints; thus affording a firmer foothold for the pedestrian. But alike on the sand as on the rock, the sun shone with a fierce glarescorching and blistering their hands and faces. Such no doubt was the experience of Israel. And such is the Christians life-path. Believers journey along bare sandy wastes, or bleak rocky plains; with the burning sun of worldly persecution. No wonder they were weak, those Israel hosts. The Lord pitieth His children. He pitied Israel, when, as the Psalmist says, hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them.

Divine Ways! Exo. 16:1. We learn lessons ofttimes when the head is low; just as, when the sun is set, the stars come out in their blessed beauty, and darkness shows us worlds of light we never saw by day. In the glad summer time, when the leaves are on the trees, we go into the woodlands, and we sport among their branches. They arch over us, hiding from us the other world, and causing us to revel in the beauty and blessedness of this. But the blasts of winter come and scatter the leaves; then the light of heaven comes in between, to remind us that our sufficiency is of God. No doubt during the five or six weeks after the Red Sea Triumph, the host had gradually been losing sight of Godslowly but too surely forgetting their entire dependence upon heaven. So the supplies run short, and Israel is reminded that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Such are the ways of God in the Christian life. We begin to forget our dependence on the great Deliverer; so He arress our sources of sustenancestays the flowing channels of gracestops the sunshine in the heavensand strips our trees of their bright green and glossy foliage. Then we remember what helpless creatures we are, and are reminded that our sufficiency is of God.

With shattered pride, and prostrate heart,
We seek the sad-forgotten God.

Cook.

Human Murmurs! Exo. 16:2. It has been suggested that murmuring must have been a malady characteristic of the Hebrew people, or else a disease peculiar to the desert. They were always murmuring. And such is man! The noxious weedthe root of bitterness, with its cleaving burrs and envenomed spines, has not become a fossil-flora. It is still only too prevalent. Of an Englishman, the foreigner says that it is his nature to grumble, and he himself claims it as his prerogative. Alas! it is mans propensity. As Dr. Todd tells of the farmer, he murmured when the rain fell because it would injure the wheatand when the sun shone because it would damage the ryeand when the air was cold because it would nip the grass. He thought himself the one especial target at whose prosperity and peace Nature was bent on a perpetual flight of arrowy shafts. So Israel! And so man! He forgets not only that others feel the pointed barb, but also that there is a design in it all. Moreover, murmuring never travels alone. He is an invader followed by a molley host of plunderers. As Thomas Brooks puts it, murmuring is a sin that breeds and brings forth many sins at once; and so doth the River Nile bring forth many crocodiles, and the scorpion many serpents. On the edge of some plantations we read a notice:Mantraps and spring-guns! Murmuring and peevish discontent is such a tangled thicket, closely set with guns and snares. So Israel found to his cost:Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. Christians should be the last to murmur.

As brooks, and torrents, rivers, all
Increase the gulf in which they fall,
Such thoughts, by gathering up the rills
Of lesser griefs, spread real ills;
And with their gloomy shades conceal
The landmarks hope would else reveal.

Dinnies.

Backslidings! Exo. 16:3. Watching the golden eagle, as he basks in the noons broad-lightbalances with motionless wings in the high vault of heavenor rushes forth like the thunderbolt to meet the clouds on the pathway of the blast, can you conceive that he would give up his free and joyous life to drag out a weary bondage in a narrow and stifling eage? Would not that kingly birdthat cloud-cleaving birdprefer death to slavery. Foolish Israel! They longed to give up their freedom for the foul bondage of Egypt. How often Gods spiritual Israel are thus tempted to go back to the serfdom of sin!

Shall I back to Egypt go,
To my flesh corruption sow!
No, with sin I cannot dwell;
Sin is worse then death and hell.

Wesley.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE TEXT OF EXODUS
TRANSLATION

16 And they took their journey from E-lim, and all the congregation of the children of Is-ra-el came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between E-Iim and Si-nai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of E-gypt. (2) And the whole congregation of the children of Is-ra-el murmured against Mo-ses and against Aar-on in the wilderness: (3) and the children of Is-ra-el said unto them, Would that we died by the hand of Je-ho-vah in the land of E-gypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

(4) Then said Je-ho-vah unto Mo-ses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a days portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not. (5) And it shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. (6) And Mo-ses and Aaron said unto all the children of Is-ra-el, At even, then ye shall know that Je-ho-vah hath brought you out from the land of E-gypt; (7) and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of Je-ho-vah; for that he heareth your murmurings against Je-ho-vah: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? (8) And Mo-ses said, This shall be, when Je-ho-vah shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that Je-ho-vah heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against Je-ho-vah. (9) And Mo-ses said unto Aar-on, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Is-ra-el, Come near before Je-ho-vah; for he hath heard your murmurings. (10) And it came to pass, as Aar-on spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Is-ra-el, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of Je-ho-vah appeared in the cloud. (11) And Je-ho-vah spake unto Mo-ses, saying, (12) I have heard the murmurings of the children of Is-ra-el: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am Je-ho-vah your God.

(13) And it came to pass at even, that the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the camp. (14) And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness a small round thing, small as the hoarfrost on the ground. (15) And when the children of Is-ra-el saw it, they said one to another, What is it? for they knew not what it was. And Mo-ses said unto them, It is the bread which Je-ho-vah hath given you to eat. (16) This is the thing which Je-ho-vah hath commanded. Gather ye of it every man according to his eating; an o-mer a head, according to the number of your persons, shall ye take it, every man for them that are in his tent. (17) And the children of Is-ra-el did so, and gathered some more, some less. (18) And when they measured it with an o-mer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. (19) And Mo-ses said unto them, Let no man leave of it till the morning. (20) Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Mo-ses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Mo-ses was wroth with them.
(21) And they gathered it morning by morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. (22) And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two o-mers for each one: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Mo-ses. (23) And he said unto them, This is that which Je-ho-vah hath spoken, Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy sabbath unto Je-ho-vah: bake that which ye will bake, and boil that which ye will boil; and all that remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. (24) And they laid it up till the morning, as Mo-ses bade: and it did not become foul, neither was there any worm therein. (25) And Mo-ses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto Je-ho-vah: to-day ye shall not find it in the field. (26) Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. (27) And it came to pass on the seventh day, that there went out some of the people to gather, and they found none. (28) and Je-ho-vah said unto Mo-ses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? (29) See, for that Je-ho-vah hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. (30) So the people rested on the seventh day.

(31) And the house of Is-ra-el called the name thereof Man-na: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. (32) And Mo-ses said, This is the thing which Je-ho-vah hath commanded, Let an o-mer-ful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread wherewith I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Epgypt. (33) And Mo-ses said unto Aar-on, Take a pot, and put an o-mer-ful of man-na therein, and lay it up before Je-ho-vah, to be kept throughout your generations. (34) As Je-ho-vah commanded Mo-ses, so Aar-on laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. (35) And the children of Is-ra-el did eat the man-na forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat the man-na, until they came unto the borders of the land of Ca-naan. (36) Now an o-mer is the tenth part of an e-phah.

EXPLORING EXODUS: CHAPTER SIXTEEN
QUESTIONS ANSWERABLE FROM THE BIBLE

After careful reading propose a brief title or topic for the chapter.

Into what wilderness did Israel go from Elim? (Exo. 16:1)

How long did it take Israel to reach the wilderness of Sin? (Exo. 16:1; Exo. 12:6)

Who participated in the murmuring in the wilderness? (Exo. 16:2)

Why did Israel murmur? (Exo. 16:2-3)

Where did the Israelites say that they wish they had died? (Exo. 16:3)

What had Israel eaten in Egypt? (Exo. 16:3; Num. 11:5)

How much did Israel say they had to eat in Egypt? (Exo. 16:3)

What was the purpose of the manna? (Exo. 16:4; Deu. 8:3)

10.

How much manna was to be gathered on the sixth day of each week? (Exo. 16:5)

11.

What would cause them to know that the LORD had brought them out of Egypt? (Exo. 16:6)

12.

What would Israel see in the morning? (Exo. 16:7)

13.

Against whom had Israel really murmured? (Exo. 16:7-8)

14.

How much bread would be provided for them? (Exo. 16:8)

15.

For what purpose were the Israelites summoned together? (Exo. 16:9)

16.

What did Israel see when they assembled? (Exo. 16:10)

17.

What would Israel know because they ate flesh and bread? (Exo. 16:12)

18.

How many quails came into the camp? (Exo. 16:13)

19.

What did Israel say when they saw the manna? (Exo. 16:15; Exo. 16:31)

20.

Do some research to discover what the word manna means.

21.

How much manna was gathered for each man? (16; 16)

22.

Who gathered manna for each tent? (Exo. 16:16)

23.

Why did some gather more or less than others? (Exo. 16:17)

24.

What result happened, even though some gathered more and some less? (Exo. 16:17)

25.

What was the rule about leftover manna? (Exo. 16:19)

26.

What happened to leftover manna kept over to the next day? (Exo. 16:20)

27.

What happened to manna that was not gathered each day? (Exo. 16:21)

28.

Who reported to Moses that twice as much manna was gathered on the sixth day? (Exo. 16:22)

29.

How is the seventh day described? (Exo. 16:23)

30.

In what ways could manna be prepared for eating? (Exo. 16:23)

31.

Were the Israelites warned that there would be no manna on the seventh days? (Exo. 16:25-26)

32.

Did all heed the warning about gathering manna on the Sabbath? (Exo. 16:27)

33.

What was Gods response to Israels disobedience about gathering manna? (Exo. 16:28)

34.

What restriction was imposed upon movements on the seventh days? (Exo. 16:29)

35.

What did the house of Israel name the bread? (Exo. 16:31)

36.

What did the manna taste like? (Exo. 16:31; Num. 11:6-8)

37.

What is the true manna, or bread, from heaven? (Joh. 6:49-51; 1Co. 10:1-3)

38.

Who gathered a pot of manna to be kept throughout future generations? (Exo. 16:33)

39.

Where was the pot of manna to be kept? (Exo. 16:34; Heb. 9:4)

40.

How long did the Israelites eat manna? (Exo. 16:35; Neh. 9:20-21)

41.

Where did the manna cease? (Exo. 16:35; Jos. 5:11-12)

42.

How much is an omer? An ephah? (Exo. 16:36)

EXODUS SIXTEEN: BREAD FROM HEAVEN

Murmuring in the Wilderness of Sin; Exo. 16:1-3.

Gods promise of provisions; Exo. 16:4-12.

Quails and manna sent; Exo. 16:13-21.

No manna on the Sabbath; Exo. 16:22-30.

Pot of manna preserved; Exo. 16:31-36.

EXODUS SIXTEEN: THE BREAD FROM HEAVEN

Given to the undeserving; Exo. 16:2-3.

Given as a test; Exo. 16:4; Exo. 16:28; Deu. 8:16.

Given to teach; Exo. 16:6; Exo. 16:12; Exo. 16:32; Deu. 8:3.

Given without fail; Exo. 16:35.

GODS PURPOSES IN GIVING MANNA

To fill them with food; Exo. 16:12; Exo. 16:16; Mat. 6:31-33.

To see if they would walk in His laws; Exo. 16:4; Deu. 8:16.

To show that the LORD had led them out of Egypt; Exo. 16:6.

To show that He was Jehovah their God; Exo. 16:12.

To show Gods glory; Exo. 16:7.

To silence their murmurings; Exo. 16:7-8; Exo. 16:12.

To introduce the sabbath law; Exo. 16:23; Exo. 16:25; Exo. 16:29.

To humble them; Deu. 8:16; Deu. 8:3.

To teach that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God; Deu. 8:3.

10.

To point toward Jesus, the living bread from heaven; Joh. 6:41; Joh. 6:48-51.

MURMURINGS! (Exo. 16:1-3)

Murmurers forget past blessings.

Murmurers forget past pains; Exo. 16:2.

Murmurers accuse their true benefactors; Exo. 16:3.

Murmurers fear imaginary evils; Exo. 16:3.

THE MANNA, A TYPE OF JESUS!

I am the living bread which came down out of heaven (Joh. 6:51).

The manna met a need. Jesus meets our needs.

The manna came from heaven. Jesus came from heaven. (Joh. 6:49-51)

The manna provided for ALL Israel. Jesus provides for ALL mankind.

The manna gave temporary life. Jesus gives eternal life.

The manna was not recognized or known. Jesus was not recognized or known. (Mat. 8:27; Joh. 12:37)

The manna was a test for Israel. Jesus is the test of our relationship with God. (1Co. 1:22-23)

THE MANNA: A TYPE OF GODS WORD

From heaven, not earth.

Came to the people.

Had to be eaten.

To be gathered (read) daily.

THE MEMORIAL MANNA (Exo. 16:32-36)

What did the pot of memorial manna teach to Israel?

The infinite resources of God.

The goodness of God.

The faithfulness of God.

The abiding presence of God.

That they could trust God in the future.

EXPLORING EXODUS: NOTES ON CHAPTER SIXTEEN

What is the subject matter of Exodus 16?

The entire chapter deals with the giving of the manna. We entitle the chapter BREAD FROM HEAVEN. See Neh. 9:15. The whole chapter directs our minds toward Christ Jesus, who is the living bread which came down from heaven.

Where did Israel journey from Elim? (Exo. 16:1)

From Elim they first went to an encampment by the sea. See Num. 33:10. Going southward from Elim, Israel passed the mount now called the Mount of Pharaohs Hot Bath (Jebel Hamman Farun) on their right (west). They came on into the Wady (valley) et-Taiyibeh, which provided an open course to the seaside. Travelers have made the trip from Elim to the seaside in seven and a half hours. It is about twenty miles and probably took Israel two days. This area by the sea at the mouth of the Valley Taiyibeh is a sandy plain extending some four or five miles from the shore, shut in by a range of wild cliffs. Here was room for a great camp. The modern town of Abu Zenima lies in this area.

From the encampment by the seaside, Israel could either have gone north and east, via the sandy table land of Debbet er-Ramleh; or they could have gone on southward across about five miles of hills into the plain of El-Murkhah. To us it seems much more probable that they went southward into the El-Murkhah plain, and that this plain is to be identified with the Wilderness of Sin.

The name Sin has no connection with the English word sin. The names Sin and Sinai are very similar. (The meaning of these names is uncertain.)

Admittedly the location of the Wilderness of Sin is rather debatable. As stated above, we feel that it is the dry barren coastal plain of El Murkhah. The modern town of Abu Rudeis is in this plain. The plain is about six miles EW and about fifteen miles NS. S. C. Bartlett[258] says that its surface is a dead level, covered only with occasional tufts of desert shrubs. It had a temperature of 96 degrees when he visited it in February. It would be a natural place for Israelitish murmuring. The plain extends on south to the mouth of the Wady Feiran, which is the largest wady in the southern part of Sinai, and was probably the passage route of Israel from the Red Sea coastal area up to Mt. Sinai.

[258] From Egypt to Palestine (New York: Harper, 1879), p. 213.

In the El Murkha plain there is a spring about three miles from the sea, which is next in importance only to the Springs of Moses (Ayun Musa, near Israels crossing place) and Elim (Gharandel). The traveller Burkhardt told of finding in this area many fissures in the rocks filled with winter rains.[259] Thus Israel probably had water in the Wilderness of Sin, but no food.

[259] Quoted in Bartlett, op. cit., p. 214.

Other suggested identifications of the Wilderness of Sin include the interior desert tract called Debbet Er-Ramleh (mentioned above). This is a long desert area running SE-NW along the north side of the granite mountains of the Wilderness of Sinai. This is a possible location, but seems to us less likely than El Murkha, because to get to Debbet er-Ramleh from Israels encampment by the sea would require considerable backtracking.
Another proposed identification of the Wilderness of Sin is the dry barren coastal plain of El-Qaa, north of the present city of Tor. But this lies much too far south to be on the route to Sinai.
Yet another proposed location of the Wilderness of Sin is the Wady Serabit,[260] containing the famous ruins of Serabit El Khadim. Serabit el-Khadim is sometimes proposed as the location of Dophka (Num. 33:12). The ruins there include a temple to the Egyptian goddess Hathor and abandoned copper and turquoise mines. Egyptian soldiers were stationed at Serabit el Khadim both before and after Moses time. Some inscriptions in one of the oldest known alphabets known (similar to Hebrew) are found there. This route by Serabit seems very unlikely to us.

[260] Davis, op. cit., pp. 178179, proposes this as the site.

Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month of their journey, almost exactly a month after their departure. See Exo. 12:6. They had covered approximately 175 miles during that month.

What did Israel complain about in the Wilderness of Sin? (Exo. 16:2-3)

They complained about lack of food. Observe that the WHOLE congregation murmured. After seeing all the plagues in Egypt, and the crossing of the Sea, and the leading of the cloud, they still lacked faith in God.

Although their murmurings were directed against Moses and Aaron, they really were complaining against God. It was God himself who had promised to bring them to Sinai (Exo. 3:12), How could God be God, and yet fail to keep His promise by letting them die of hunger on the way to Sinai?

This was Israels third grumbling. They had already grumbled at the Red Sea (Exo. 14:11) and at Marah (Exo. 15:24). Moses could well say of them, Ye have been rebellious against Jehovah from the day that I knew you (Deu. 9:24).

Israel had left Egypt in haste and carried no leftover food. See Exo. 12:10-11; Exo. 12:33-34. Now a month later their food is exhausted. They still had livestock, but seemed very reluctant to slaughter their flocks for food.

In their bad state of mind they attributed the worst possible motives to Moses, as if he had deliberately set out to kill them. See Exo. 17:3. How utterly unreasonable!

In their distress they recalled only certain good things about Egypt, forgetting all their slavery and crying there (Exo. 2:23-24; Exo. 4:31). They remembered only that they had had food in Egypt fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic (Num. 11:5). But had they actually had bread to the FULL? Surely not! This was a thoughtless exaggeration, a propaganda blast to hurt Moses.

They even declared that they wished they had died in Egypt by the hand of the LORD, presumably in the ten plagues. Compare Num. 14:2. This statement cannot be taken as a serious wish, but only as a bitter emotional outburst.

It is a wonder that God did not rain fire and brimstone on them, instead of raining manna upon them. (Pink)

From whence would God give Israel bread? (Exo. 16:4)

God would rain bread from heaven upon them. We suppose that this means from the atmospheric heavens, although the power that brought it about came from Gods abode in the heaven of heavens! Neh. 9:15 : Thou didst provide bread from heaven for them for their hunger. See Psa. 105:40.

This bread is called angels food in Psa. 78:25. This expression could be translated bread of God or bread of the mighty ones (Heb., elohim). 1Co. 10:3 calls it spiritual food.

In America bread is a side dish to the main meal. In countries of the Middle East, bread is the basic item in the diet of many.

How much bread was to be gathered daily? (Exo. 16:4)

A days portion was to be gathered on each day. This instruction reminds us that we are to pray for our daily bread (Mat. 6:11). A days portion of manna was an omer full (Exo. 16:16). This would be approximately six and a half pints, about three-fourths of a gallon.

What purpose besides nutrition would the bread have? (Exo. 16:4)

It was to be a test, whether they would walk in Gods law or not. Would they gather just enough for each day at the start of every day? Or would they hoard it on some days because they did not completely trust God to provide more on subsequent days? Would they gather twice as much on the sixth days, when once they had learned that any excess collected on other days spoiled after one day? Would they rest on the seventh days, or go out searching for bread? These were Gods tests! See Deu. 8:3; Deu. 8:16.

God reveals Himself here as a tester of men. Psa. 7:9 : The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. No testing seems pleasant to those who are being tested. But we must expect testing. It is Gods way with His people.

What was Israel to know and see by Gods providing food for them? (Exo. 16:6-8)

They were to know that Jehovah had brought them out of Egypt! It surely had taken a long time for some Israelites to realize that they were truly OUT of Egypt, and that the LORD had delivered them. They would know this by events to occur yet that very evening.

Israel said, Moses, YOU brought us out of Egypt to kill us. Moses said, You shall know that the LORD brought you out. The exodus was not an event that had happened by chance. The LORD was not some incompetent deity.
Also Israel was to see the GLORY on the morning to follow. Moses did not specify at first exactly how this glory would be revealed to them. This glory was to be something visible, something they could see.
Verse seven emphasizes that Israel would see the glory of Jehovah at the very time when He was hearing their murmurings against Jehovah. The repetition of the name Jehovah in the verse stresses the fact that the murmuring was against Jehovah. God graciously hearkened to them even while they were murmuring.
Also in verse seven the word WE is stressed. This emphasizes the denials by Moses that their murmurings were against him and Aaron.

After his opening announcement in Exo. 16:7 that Israel would see the glory of Jehovah, Moses, like a skillful speaker, brought his speech to a climax by giving specific details of how they would see Gods glory. The Lord would in that very evening give them flesh to eat, and on the next morning He would give them bread to the full.

How did Moses know what God would give Israel for food? (Exo. 16:9-12)

He knew it because God had revealed it unto him. (See Exo. 16:12) God communicated with Moses face to face (Num. 12:8). Note that the message which God told Moses to tell Israel (in Exo. 16:12) is the very message that Moses delivered (in Exo. 16:8).

Probably we should translate Exo. 16:11 to read, Now Yahweh had spoken unto Moses, saying. . . . Hebrew has no past perfect (pluperfect) tense form. The perfect tense (indicating completed action) sometimes had a past perfect significance (as in Isa. 38:21; Gen. 6:6; Num. 22:2; and others).

Some critics have suggested that we should rearrange the Biblical text, placing Exo. 16:9-12 before Exo. 16:6-8.[261] We have no evidence in ancient manuscripts that the text was ever so rearranged. We do not feel we should lay violent hands on Gods word, to rearrange its contents or make emendations in its words just because our present limited knowledge and understanding hinders our ability to comprehend it in the way the ancient Hebrews grasped it.

[261] Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. 1 (1969), p. 396, following the proposal of S. R. Driver.

The command to Come near before the LORD was Gods call for all the Israelites to assemble together with Moses and Aaron, having the LORD on their minds, for the purpose of learning the LORDS will. Certainly we understand that the LORD is everywhere, but God provided a focus point to which Israel could assemble before Him. That focus point was near the glory cloud, and with His men Moses and Aaron.

When Aaron issued the call for Israel to gather, the glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud which had been leading Israel. Probably this glory was a display of fire and lightnings. See Exo. 19:16 and Exo. 24:15-17, where Gods glory is said to have been like a devouring fire. The cloud stood apart from Israel, toward the wilderness, probably toward the east and south.

Israel was at this moment in deep unbelief. God was extremely perturbed, and declared, Ye shall know that I am the LORD your God (Exo. 16:12).

When were quails provided for Israel? (Exo. 16:13)

In the evening the quails came up and covered the camp. Exo. 16:12 had said, Between the two evenings ye shall east flesh.[262]

[262] Between the two evenings is the exact phrase used to describe the hour of the Passover sacrifice (Exo. 12:6). As indicated before, this phrase is indefinite as to exact time, and refers only to the period near sunset.

In the spring each year quails migrate in great numbers from the interior of Africa and Arabia, across the Sinai peninsula and into southern Europe. They return from the northern countries in autumn.[263]

[263] The fact that Israel encountered quail migrations in the spring does not support the theory that the Israelites travelled a route along the Mediterranean coast. Quails would have been found along the coast more probably in the autumn, as they started their return from Europe.

The occurrence of quail in Sinai at the time the Israelites passed through was not unusual. The miracle consisted in the precise timing of their arrival, and the announcement of God beforehand that they would have flesh to eat that evening.
When the quails migrate across the Sinai peninsula, they often become exhausted; and when they alight they can be caught easily. The birds are good eating and were a favorite delicacy of the Egyptians.[264] Ancient Egyptian paintings show people hunting quails with hand nets thrown over the bushes where they were nesting.[265] See p. 444B.

[264] Herodotus 2:27.
[265] Davis, op. cit., p. 183.

Psa. 78:27 : He raineth flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.

10.

When did the manna appear? (Exo. 16:13-14)

It became visible the next morning when the dew evaporated. The Israelites did not realize anything unusual had happened the next morning when they saw the usual dew on the ground. Num. 11:9 says that when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it (the camp). (The presence of the dew shows that the Sinaitic peninsula is not a totally arid desert.)

The manna appeared as small, fine, flake-like fragments on the ground, as small as the crystals of hoarfrost (white frost).

In Psa. 78:24 the manna is called the corn (food, or grain) of heaven. It is called angels food (or bread of the angels) in Psa. 78:25.

The manna was white, and resembled the coriander seed (a strong-smelling seed, which is about the size of a peppercorn.) It had the appearance of bdellium (Num. 11:7), which seems to be a fragrant and transparent resin, resembling wax.[266] It had a sweetish taste, like wafers made with honey (Exo. 16:31), and like fresh oil (Num. 11:8). It could be baked or boiled, or ground in a mill (a stone hand grinder).

[266] The exact identification of bdellium is uncertain. Many think it is a waxy-looking resin. Others think it is a precious stone or pearl. Gen. 2:12 suggests such a possibility.

11.

What does the name MANNA mean? (Exo. 16:15)

Its name means What is it? When the Israelites first saw it, they did not know what it was, and said, Man Hu? These were Hebrew words meaning What is it? This question became the name for it: it was called Whatizit? The name was sometimes shortened to Man (as in Exo. 16:31), which just means What? (Most English versions translate the word in Exo. 16:31 as manna, but the Hebrew just has man.)

The usual Hebrew interrogative word meaning What? is Mah, rather than Man. But the form man is found in the El Amarna letters,[267] and is a recognized ancient form of the interrogative. The Greek O.T. renders man hu by the Greek words for What is this?

[267] Noth, op. cit., p. 135. Cassuto, op. cit., p. 196.

12.

How much manna was collected by each person? (Exo. 16:16-17)

The amounts varied somewhat from person to person, each man according to his eating. But generally it was an omer for each head (or person). As a unit of measure the omer was the tenth part of an ephah (Exo. 16:36), that is about six and a half pints. The omer is referred to in the Old Testament only in this chapter.

An omer for each person for each day seems like a lot of food, but probably it was rather fluffy.
Each man gathered enough for all those in his tent. We do not suppose that every household in Israel possessed a pot holding exactly one omer. Thus, some gathered more and some less.
Pink calculates that at one omer a head daily, Israel would have collected twelve million pints, or nine million pounds daily, and over a million tons were gathered annually!

13.

Was the manna a natural phenomenon?

Certainly not. It was supernatural and miraculous. This is evident from several facts:
(1) The enormous volume of manna produced and consumed. The secretions of all the trees and insects in Sinai could never have produced such a mass of food.
(2) The fact that the manna was provided the year round for forty years. Secretions from trees that some people call manna only occur during brief seasons in some years.
(3) The fact that the manna first appeared on a particular day, the very day after God had predicted the appearance of it.

(4) The fact that the manna could be found for six days each week, but was not there on the seventh days (Exo. 16:26).

(5) The fact that the manna spoiled after one day most of the week, but after two days following the sixth and seventh days (Exo. 16:24).

(6) The fact that the manna could be boiled in cooking, but melted in the heat of the sun (Exo. 16:21; Exo. 16:23).

Very many writers have said that the manna consisted of drops of sugary material exuded by certain kinds of aphids on the tamarisk bushes. In the hot desert air they become whitish or yellowish globules and fall to the ground where the ants get them. Arabs call them bread (mann) or bread of heaven. Others say that the droplets are produced by the exudations of the tamarisk itself. These are pea-sized or smaller. These droplets are abundant in the rainy season, but in many years cease altogether. They appear mainly in June for three to six weeks. At peak season of each year a steady worker could only collect about half-pound of the manna a day. It cannot be baked or boiled. It does not spoil and stink after one day. The droplets do not melt in the suns heat, but only dehydrate and harden.

Some extreme writers have said that the unique aspects of the Biblical account of the manna are the result of later theological expansion of the original event.[268] No proof is offered for such a dogmatic assertion. Also it makes the theologians sound bad, as if they were always exaggerators!

[268] Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. 1 (1969), p. 398.

14.

How did the manna equalize out? (Exo. 16:18)

When the amounts which the people gathered were measured with an omer (a jar of that size), there was enough manna for each person, with none left over.
This verse is difficult to understand fully. Some have proposed that the Israelites pooled their manna collectively, and each kept the ration of an omer per head.[269] It is suggested that Paul seemed to understand it that way (2Co. 8:14-15). But the idea of pooling the manna is not definitely stated in the verse. Also the enormous size of the Israelite camp (five or six miles across) and the number of people involved would seem to make pooling very difficult, inconvenient, and improbable. There would have been some large heaps of collected manna!

[269] Cole, op. ch., p. 132. Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 68.

We doubt that every family went through a ritualistic check on the volume of manna it collected each day. Occasional spot checking would be all that is necessarily implied by the statement When they measured it with an omer. . . .
The way the manna supply in each home equalized out certainly hints at some degree of miraculous control of the matter.

The apostle Paul in 2Co. 8:14-15 refers to Exo. 16:18 as an illustration for Christians who have an abundance of this worlds wealth to share with those who have needs. The comparison is not identical in every particular, since manna (unlike money) was freely available to everyone. They only had to go out and pick it up. Nonetheless, the fact that all Israelites had about the same amount of manna each day is a valuable illustration to us, urging us to share of our abundance with those in want, that there may be an equality.

It surely seems rather miraculous that the manna collected by each family equalized out in the way it did, and everyones needs were supplied, whether he gathered much or little of it, This seems to have been a rather obvious and noticeable fact. Their food supply, like their clothing (see Deu. 29:5), was always adequate for the needs.

15.

Could manna be stored up? (Exo. 15:19-20)

No. This was prevented both by direct command and by the fact that any leftover manna became foul and bred maggots by the next morning. Like the flesh of the Passover lamb, there were to be no leftovers (Exo. 12:10). They were to live in a situation wherein they had to depend on God every day for that days needs. Do WE trust God enough to depend on HIM for every days needs, one by one? (Mat. 6:34)

Some Israelites failed this first test with the manna. They tried (vainly!) to store some up. Moses became angry with these people.
The word melted in Exo. 16:22 may mean became loathe-some.[270] The Hebrew word is similar to a word used in 1Sa. 15:9, to refer to the vile and worthless animals of the Amalekites.

[270] Cassuto, op. cit., p. 197.

16.

How much manna was collected on the sixth day? (Exo. 16:22)

Two omers, or twice as much as usual. The manna was twice as plentiful on the sixth day as on other days (Exo. 16:29). Exo. 16:22 refers back to Exo. 16:5. The scripture does not mention the fact that Moses told the people the words of Exo. 16:5, but we assume he did.

The rulers of the congregation reported to Moses that the people had collected twice as much. Perhaps Moses had requested them to report to him about this. The reference to these rulers raises questions about the organization of the Israelites. Exo. 34:31 refers to the rulers. We really know very little about the organization of the Israelites and their tribes.

17.

What was the seventh day called? (Exo. 16:23; Exo. 16:25)

The sabbath. Sabbath is a word derived from the Hebrew shabath, meaning to cease or rest.

A stronger word, shabbaton, is used in Exo. 16:23 just before the usual word for sabbath. Elsewhere this word is used only of New Years day and other particularly holy festivals.[271] By this word God stressed the great importance of this first sabbath rest day in the wilderness.

[271] Cole, op. cit., p. 132.

Here in Exo. 16:23 we have the first actual appearance of the word sabbath in the scriptures. Neh. 9:14 says that God made known the holy sabbath at Mt. Sinai. Certainly in Exo. 16:23 there is no general prohibition of all work, only of gathering manna. Exo. 16:29-30 indicates a more general cessation of work. This preliminary command concerning rest helped prepare the people for the comprehensive commandment about Sabbath given in Exo. 20:8-11.

We certainly agree with Keil and Delitzsch[272] that it is perfectly clear from the event that the Israelites were not acquainted with any sabbath observance at that time, and that it was only through the decalogue (the ten commandments) that the Sabbath was raised to a legal institution.

[272] Op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 6869.

Modern religious groups which keep the seventh day (Saturday) as holy day of assembly and rest, generally seek to prove that the Hebrews (and their forefathers) know of a weekly Sabbath before Mt. Sinai. The sabbath is called holy in Exo. 16:23, but it is NOT at all certain that it had been revealed or observed as a national sacred day before Sinai. For more on the sabbath, see notes on Exo. 20:8-10.

18.

Did the Israelites obey the sabbath law? (Exo. 16:27-29)

Not all did. Some went out to gather manna on the seventh day, as on the preceding six days. We marvel at their behavior. Had they not collected enough on the sixth day for two days? Were they frankly testing Moses predictions and perhaps his authority? Why did they not yet have faith? Had they not considered the miraculous features about the manna that they had already seen?

God was angry because of the peoples disobedience. He said to Moses, How long refuse ye (plural) to keep my commandments? Deu. 3:26 says Jehovah was angry with me (Moses) for your sakes. Moses was not personally guilty of any wrongdoing. But the principle of collective guilt is quite frequently found in the scriptures. When one member of a people (or church) sins, the whole body shares its guilt and punishment to some degree. Thus God included Moses in His rebuke of Israel. Compare Jos. 7:1; 2Sa. 21:1.

19.

How was the seventh day kept? (Exo. 16:29-30)

Every person was to abide in his own place (tent); and the people rested that day.

Regarding Exo. 16:31, see notes on Exo. 16:13-14.

20.

What memorial of the giving of the manna was kept? (Exo. 16:32-34)

An omer of manna was to be kept in a pot throughout the generations to follow. This was to be laid up before Jehovah, before the Testimony. Aaron was to do this.
The moral significance of the manna that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God was to be kept vivid for all future generations.

Heb. 9:4 says the manna was kept in a golden pot. This is also the Greek reading of Exo. 16:32.

The Testimony is a name applied to the stone tablets bearing the ten commandments. See Exo. 31:18; Exo. 25:16; Exo. 25:21; Deu. 10:5.

Before the LORD refers to the same place as before the Testimony, namely in the tabernacle, in the ark of the covenant. Exo. 40:20; Heb. 9:4.

Since the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant were not yet constructed at the time of the giving of the manna, we realize that Exo. 16:33-34 tells of events occurring some months, or longer, after the original giving of the manna. But this is no problem. Not every event related in the Bible (or any other history book) is related in precise historical sequence. We should not expect to find every event in such order. But this does not discredit the Bibles accuracy or inspiration.

During later centuries the ark was moved about from place to place from Shiloh to Ebenezer, Ashdod, Gath, Ekron, Beth-Shemesh, Kiriath-Jearim, Jerusalem. During that time the jar of manna seems to have been lost, as was Aarons budded rod (Num. 17:10). Thus in Solomons time there was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses placed there (1Ki. 8:9).

21.

How long did the Israelites eat manna? (Exo. 16:35)

They ate forty years (Neh. 9:21). They ate manna until they entered the land of Canaan after the death of Moses and ate the fruit and produce of the land. Jos. 5:10-12.

Exo. 16:35 sounds as if it was written after the manna had ceased to be provided. If so, this one verse was inserted into Moses book of Exodus by Joshua or some other writer after Moses death. This probability no more casts doubt on the overall Mosaic authorship of Exodus than does insertion of the facts about Moses death cast doubt on the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy (Deu. 34:4-12).

22.

Why is the description of the omer inserted at Exo. 16:36?

Possibly because the omer was a unit of measure not generally familiar to and employed by the Israelites. The word is used throughout this passage (Exo. 16:16; Exo. 16:18; Exo. 16:22-23); but it occurs nowhere else in the scriptures. Edward J. Young[273] says that the omer was not actually a measure, but a small cup; and it is perfectly understandable that Moses might have remarked upon the size of this cup when it was used to gather the manna.

[273] Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), p. 77.

Some writers assume that those acquainted with the exodus would have been acquainted with the omer; and that this tends to indicate a later date for composition of Exo. 16:36, or that the verse is a later explanatory addition.[274] This seems to us much less likely than our suggestion that the omer is described because it was not generally familiar to the Israelites (any more than it is to us now).

[274] Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. 1 (1969), p. 399.

23.

What does the manna mean to Christians?

The manna means to Christians everything it meant to the Jews. See the brief outlines after the questions on Ch. 16.

The manna is certainly a type of Jesus, the living bread who came down from heaven. (Joh. 6:41; Joh. 6:48-51).

The Lord Jesus promises to give His people who overcome the hidden manna (Rev. 2:17). This seems to be a symbol of the blessings of our heavenly home.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XVI.
THE JOURNEY FROM ELIM.THE MANNA GIVEN.

(1) They took their journey from Elim. The stay at Elim was probably for some days. Sin was reached exactly one month after the departure from Egypt, yet there had been only five camping-places between Sin and Rameses, and one journey of three days through a wilderness (Exo. 15:22). Long rests are thus clearly indicated, and probably occurred at Ayun Musa, at Marah, and at Elim. The places named were the head-quarters of the camp on each occasion, but the entire host must have always covered a vast tract, and the flocks and herds must have been driven into all the neighbouring valleys where there was pasture. Wadys Useit, Ethal, and Tayibeh are likely to have been occupied at the same time with Wady Ghurundel.

All the congregation . . . came unto the wilderness of Sin.All the congregation could only be united in certain favourable positions, where there happened to be a large open space. Such an open space is offered by the tract now called El Markha, which extends from north to south a distance of twenty miles, and is from three to four miles wide in its more northern half. To reach this tract, the Israelites must have descended by Wady Useit or Wady Tayibeh to the coast near Ras Abu Zenimeh, and have then continued along the coast until they crossed the twenty-ninth parallel. This line of march is indicated in Num. 33:10-11, where we are told that they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea; and they removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

THE MURMURING IN THE DESERT OF SIN, Exo 16:1-3.

1. The wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai That is, between them by the route which a caravan of this kind would naturally take, not between them as a bird would fly . If Elim be Gharandel, as we think to be certain, there is no other way for such a host as this to have reached Sinai than by the Wady Taiyebeh, which leads to the seashore and the great maritime plain of el Murkha . See Introduction, (1 . ) The “wilderness of Sin” seems, then, to be this flat seacoast strip of desert, which, further south, broadens into el Ka’a (or el Ga’ah) stretching down to Ras (Cape) Mohammed. This is a vast, flat waste of sand and black flints, without shade, or water, or life, except in the lower ends of the few wadies which lead up from it into the Sinai mountains, and is, perhaps, the most desolate tract in all Arabia. How natural that in this thirsty, featureless wilderness they should remember all the good things of the fat Nile-land whose far-off mountains they had seen so clearly as they descended into the plain, and probably now saw dimly sketched against the western horizon. Probably they brought water upon their cattle and in their wagons from the Wady Taiyebeh, and encamped at the mouths of several wadies which led down into the plain.

All the congregation Implying a rallying of all the scattered parties from the slopes and valleys of Mount Hammam into the plain, in order to make a “new departure,” and turn into the mountains of Sinai. Fifteenth day of the second month of the year of the Exode; just a month after they left Rameses.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And they took their journey from Elim and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the Wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.’

The analysis suggest that this verse closes the passage just completed. After a short stay they continued their journey. They had now been travelling for a full moon period. ‘The second month.’ Their year was now determined from the time of their release (Exo 12:2).

“All the congregation of the children of Israel.” Since leaving Egypt the group has been called ‘Israel’ (Exo 14:30-31; Exo 15:22) and ‘the people’ (Exo 15:24) although reference is made to ‘the children of Israel’ at worship in Exo 15:1. (Exo 15:19 refers back to prior to the final deliverance). This is now defined here as ‘all the congregation of the children of Israel’, a new term found only here in Exodus (Exo 16:2; Exo 16:9-10; Exo 17:1) and in Exo 35:1; Exo 35:4; Exo 35:20, but consider ‘the congregation of Israel’ (Exo 12:3; Exo 12:6; Exo 12:19; Exo 12:47). It is found in Lev 16:5 (without ‘all’); Exo 19:2 and more regularly in Numbers. It has here no direct connection with cult worship and is therefore not yet a technical cult term. Rather it defines the constituency of the new Israel, all those who have joined the gathered people, including the mixed multitude, and emphasises the oneness of the whole (it is always in Exodus prefaced by ‘all’). They have become ‘children of Israel’ which is now used as an equivalent term (Exo 16:3; Exo 16:6).

It is probable that they had to travel in smaller groups until they were able again all to meet up in the wilderness of Sin on the way to Sinai, and this would be a pattern on their journeys. We must not necessarily see the Israelites as always moving in one large group. The pattern became more organised when leaving Sinai in Numbers 1-4. Different sections would take slightly different routes, and in such places as they had just left they would spread out making good use of all the facilities. The flocks and herds having fed well at Elim and the surrounding area would be able to endure without water for a goodly period. The people too would be learning to survive on little water, especially under the guidance of Moses the experienced wilderness dweller, and sometimes they would find water by digging, for the water table is not far below the ground in certain parts of the Sinai peninsula (Num 21:16-18), or would survive on milk from their domestic animals.

Note for Christians.

This incident at Marah reminds us that on our spiritual journey we must expect to come across bitter wells as well as sweet ones, but when we do we can be confident that our Lord can make the bitter sweet. And in His goodness He has provided for us a Law which is sweet to the taste (Psa 19:10; Psa 119:103). From the incident we are also to learn that one of the secrets of blessing is obedience. For as we continue in obedience we will discover that we are brought eventually to a place of springs and palm trees.

End of note.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Israel Encamps in the Wilderness of Sin – The story of Israel’s encampment in the Wilderness of Sin and the provision of manna from Heaven is one of the greatest miracles in the Scriptures. Here, the Lord instituted the provision of bread from heaven, which lasted throughout the forty-year wilderness journey. Along with the provision of manna, the Lord instituted the Sabbath rest.
In the wilderness of Sin, which means, “bush,” the children of Israel are given manna from Heaven and quail to eat. The manna symbolizes the daily word that God speaks to every one of His children as a part of His fellowship with them. God speaks to His children each day if he will just take the time to listen. The quail represent the stronger meat that God can give to those who are mature in Christ (Heb 5:12-14).
The children of Israel were taught the Law of Moses, but it was also necessary that they daily fed upon this divine manna. We too, must learn the academics of the Scriptures in Bible school as well as having a daily devotional in God’s presence to hear a word from Him. We must study the “logos” of the Bible, learning its foundational doctrines, as well as learn to hear the “rhema” of God’s spoken words for us daily.
Since man cannot live by bread alone, but by God’s manna, it means that God has a fresh word for us each day, every day of our lives, if we would just listen (Mat 4:4, Luk 4:4). As we partake of Jesus, His life in us through fellowship with Him, He becomes our bread of life (Joh 6:28-59).
As the Lord covered the earth each morning with manna for the children of Israel, each day He covers the earth with fresh manna for His people. All of God’s people, from the beginning of time, have learned to feed upon manna.
As the manna is gentle and light as dew and easily trampled, so is the daily manna that He brings to us. We must be light of heart to receive it. It is interesting to note that the manna was small in size, thus making the people to work harder in gathering it.
Because God sends His manna in different ways we must know how to gather manna each day. For example, this manna can come from living epistles, his people; it may come from something that someone says to you; or, it may come from a writing of a saint.
The Scriptures that we read each day are our milk; then, it becomes our meat. It builds for us a container that helps us to hold and understand the fresh manna. The vessel that the manna is placed into represents the foundational doctrines of the Scriptures. The manna represents God’s daily bread in our lives. Without a vessel, the manna cannot be contained and used properly; but a vessel without manna is useless also. Both are needed to provide food for living. The daily manna that we receive must be in line with the doctrines of the Scriptures in order for us to receive it.
When Jesus fed the five thousand, he commanded that the crumbs be gathered and placed in to twelve baskets. Without the baskets, the crumbs were useless. In order to know God’s ways, we must know His Scriptures.
When I learned this truth, I began to look for this manna. When I began to look for it, I found it everywhere. Gathering manna and writing it down became a daily exercise for me. It was not that the Lord began to give me more manna; but rather, I began to see it better, because it had been there all the time.
Just as the manna in the wilderness did not last until the next day, we must realize that when the Lord gives us a rhema word for today, it may not apply to a different situation tomorrow. We must learn to find a fresh word from the Lord tomorrow to take us through that day. For today’s manna is only sufficient for today. God made it this way in order to have fellowship with us.
Illustration – In 1980 the Lord gave me a dream. I saw an old-fashioned wooden screen door with the Colonial Bread advert within this screen. This was a common way of advertising as a child. The advert did not read, “Colonial Bread,” but rather, “the bread of life.” In this dream, I knew to open this door and enter in to partake of the bread that comes from God.
Exo 16:1 Word Study on “Sin” Gesenius says the Hebrew name “Sin” ( ) (H5512) literally means, “clay.” PTW says it means, “bush.”
Exo 16:1 Comments The children of Israel left Egypt in haste the night of the fourteenth of the first month (Exo 12:6). The Jewish month was a thirty-day period. [74] Therefore, the children of Israel had been wandering for thirty days.
[74] John F. Walvoord, Every Prophecy of the Bible (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, c1990, 1999), 254.
Exo 12:6, “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.”
Exo 16:7 “the glory of the Lord” Comments – Jesus Christ is the glory of the Lord (Heb 1:3) and the manna is figurative of the Bread of Life (Joh 6:35).
Heb 1:3, “Who being the brightness of his glory , and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Joh 6:35, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.”
Exo 16:8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
Exo 16:7-8 Comments Murmuring Leads to Rebellion – Murmuring is the early stages of rebellion. When we murmur against God’s servants who are placed over us, then we begin to rebel against the Lord.
Exo 16:18 Comments – We have a New Testament reference to Exo 16:18 in 2Co 8:15, “As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.”
Exo 16:19-20 Comments The Manna as Our Daily Bread – After reading John 6, we compare this manna to Jesus, as the Bread of Life, God’s Word. We must be refreshed with Jesus (outpouring of the Holy Spirit) and God’s Word daily. Yesterday’ word was needed for yesterday, but today we need a fresh word from God.
Mat 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread .”
Joh 6:31-35, ”Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life : he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
Exo 16:21 Comments – In Luk 11:3 Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread, which alludes to the daily bread that God gave to the children of Israel.
Luk 11:3, “Give us day by day our daily bread.”
Exo 16:23-30 The Ordinance of the Sabbath Day – In Exo 16:23-30 we have the first discourse about the Sabbath day. As we study the Mosaic Law, it becomes apparent that this Law is built around the number “seven”. For example, the seventh day was called the Sabbath day. The seventh month was a month of festivals. The seventh year was the Sabbath year. The seventh Sabbath year ushered in the Year of Jubilee. There were seven days involved in certain feasts. There were seven weeks to be counted between certain feasts. God gave commandments of judging sin seven days for individuals and seven years for judging nations. There were seven days of uncleanness and seven days of consecration. The blood of atonement was sprinkled seven times. The oil was sprinkled seven times on the altar. There were seven lambs to sacrifice. God’s judgment was seven times for sin.
Exo 16:31 Word Study on “Manna” Strong says the Hebrew word “manna” ( ) (H4478) literally means, “a whatness (so to speak).” Gesenius tells us this word can used with the Hebrew hyphen (Maqqeph) in indirect interrogation to mean, “what,” or “who.”
Exo 16:32 Comments – John Gill says that an omer is often viewed by scholars as a man’s daily portion of manna. [75]
[75] John Gill, Exodus, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Exodus 16:32.
Exo 16:36 Comments The explanation of the omer in Exo 16:36 may have been an explanatory note added during the period when the Pentateuch was compiled shortly after the death of Moses or as late as the time of Ezra when the Old Testament was canonized and collected into its final form.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Exo 15:22 – Exo 18:27 The Journey to Mount Sinai Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27 records Israel’s journey from the shores of the Red Sea to Mount Sinai. This journey contains symbolisms of the Christian’s early journey immediately after water baptism as God divinely provides for his needs, guiding him to a place of greater spiritual maturity through the knowledge of His Word.
1. Israel Encamps at Marah ( Exo 15:22-26 ) Exo 15:22-27 records Israel’s journey immediately after their deliverance from the Egyptian army in the crossing of the Red Sea. This pericope takes the children of Israel from the shores of the Red Sea to Elim.
Israel’s first test of faith takes place at Marah, which means “bitter,” located in the Wilderness of Shur (meaning “journey”) where they become thirsty after three days of following the Lord through the wilderness. In the midst of their labours, they come to a spring of water, but find the waters bitter. Moses cuts down a tree and throws it into the water to make it sweet. The Lord then gives them a statute to obey His Word as an opportunity for them to prove their love and devotion towards Him. God had blessed the Israelites with prosperity and health as they departed Egypt. His statute promised them that if they would obey God’s Word, they would be able to walk in the blessings continually. This event could symbolize the first trial that a child of God experiences in which he must put his faith in obedience to God’s Word. Their choices would make life bitter or sweet. God gave them the choice. As God’s children, the things of this world no longer have to be bitter, for in obedience to Christ Jesus, He makes everything sweet. From the first day we believed in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, there is not a situation that we face alone. If we will seek the Lord, He will give us wisdom to deal with every difficult, bitter situation so that it becomes sweet, a blessing to us and others.
Illustration – The Lord spoke to me the night of 18-29 January 2005 and said, “The bitter and the sweet are all used by God to mould and shape your life.” This word came the same day that my sister-in-law Dyan was told by her Muslim “husband” called Nabal to leave her home and was only allowed to take one of her two children with her. It was “sweet” news for us that she has decided to leave this environment for the sake of her eternal salvation, but it is “bitter” news to know that her oldest child is being left behind. However, I know that God will work in her life in the midst of this heartache to draw her to Him and to work miracles for her as she learns to trust in Him. The following night the Lord spoke to me saying, “Be patient and you will see Me working in the midst of this situation.”
2. Israel Encamps at Elim ( Exo 15:27 ) The children of Israel found twelve springs and seventy palm trees when they encamped at Elim, which means, “trees.” In the Scriptures, trees can symbolize men, and leadership among men (Jdg 9:7-15), and wells are symbolic of the anointings of the Holy Spirit (Joh 7:38, 2Pe 2:17). These twelve springs may represent the twelve apostles of the Lamb and the seventy trees the first seventy disciples upon which the early Church in Jerusalem was founded in the upper room. This symbolizes the need for the new believer to join the body of Christ in order to continue his life of being refreshed by the Holy Spirit and walking in freedom and liberty from this world. It is in the local fellowship that a believer will find times of refreshing, in the midst of worship, the teaching of God’s Word, and genuine love from the brethren.
Jdg 9:8, “The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.”
Joh 7:38, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
2Pe 2:17, “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.”
However, these twelve springs and seventy trees may better represent the times of refreshing that God provides each of His children. Along our spiritual journey, the Lord leads us in paths of rest and peace, as described in Psalms 23. These times of refreshing follow seasons of trials.
3. Israel Encamps in the Wilderness of Sin ( Exo 16:1-36 ) In the wilderness of Sin, which means, “bush,” the children of Israel are given manna from Heaven and quail to eat. The manna symbolizes the daily word that God speaks to every one of His children as a part of His fellowship with them. God speaks to His children each day if he will just take the time to listen. The quail represent the stronger meat that God can give to those who are mature in Christ (Heb 5:12-14).
Illustration – As a young Christian in 1980, the Lord gave me a dream in which I saw an old, wooden, screen door with the familiar, metal sign “Colonial is Good Bread” fastened to the center of this door. This sign became famous because it was found on the wooden screen doors of so many country stores across the United States. The makers of Colonial Bread invested in an advertising campaign using these signs because they wanted everyone to buy a loaf of their bread when they entered the grocery store. This metal sign was not just fastened in the center of the screen door as a push plate to prevent damaging the screen; the message on this sign became embedded into the mind of every customer that entered the store to buy groceries. The Colonial Bread Company wanted everyone to partake of their bread. The unique aspect of this dream is that the metal sign on this old, wooden screen door did not read, “Colonial is Good Bread,” but rather, “The Bread of Life.” As a young Christian I interpreted this dream to mean that the Lord wanted me to open this door in my spiritual journey and partake of that bread that comes from heaven. He wanted me to read and study His Holy Word diligently, and on a daily basis.
4. The Water from the Rock ( Exo 17:1-7 ) Exo 17:1-7 records the story of God providing the children of Israel water from the rock. During Israel’s encampment at Rephidim, which means “support,” Moses struck the rock and water poured forth to refresh the children of Israel. The striking of the rock represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and it symbolized the fact that God used men to crucify Jesus on the Cross (1Co 10:4). God, through man, brought about this act. God struck Jesus once for all that we might have living water. In Num 20:8 God told Moses to speak to the rock. When Moses struck the rock the second time out of anger (Num 20:11), it was a type of crucifying the Son of God a second time (Heb 6:6).
The water represents the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues that is available for every believer who desires more of God’s presence in his/her life. It also represents the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit that every child of God can experience by praying in tongues and worshipping the Lord (Eph 5:18-19). God sends His children the gift of speaking in tongues to support and strengthen the believer.
1Co 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
Num 20:11, “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
Heb 6:6, “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
Now man can speak to Jesus, call upon his name, so that we may have living water (eternal life).
Illustration – Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays of 1986, work was slow. Therefore, I spent extra time praying. One morning the Lord as I awoke, the Lord said to me, “You will never walk in victory in your life unless you spend two hours a day praying in tongues.” During this time, I had become concerned and was asking Him why my life lacked so much victory, peace and joy. So the Saturday after New Year’s day, while praying in tongues at the church altar, I was led to turn to Eph 6:10-18. Immediately the Lord showed me that I would never have the total, abiding victory as a Christina unless I spend time daily, constantly praying in the spirit. I began doing this two hours a day then. And a heaviness lifted and peace and joy came from within, all day long.
5. Israel’s Battle with the Amalekites ( Exo 17:8-16 ) Exo 17:8-16 records the story of Israel’s first battle, which took place at their encampment of Rephidim with the Amalekites. The Lord allowed the children of Israel to be refreshed with a continual source of fresh water from the rock that Moses struck (Exo 17:1-7) prior to their attack. The water of Marah was symbolic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. The water from the rock struck by Moses is symbolic of the continual filling of the Holy Spirit through a lifestyle of praying in the Spirit (Eph 5:18).
Eph 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;”
The Amalekites could symbolize the flesh or the demonic realm that comes against the children of God on their spiritual journey. The lifting up of the rod of God in the hands of Moses could represent a believer’s declaration of the name of Jesus in taking dominion over the powers of darkness. As Moses held up the rod of God, which symbolizes the authority of the name of Jesus, the enemy was defeated. God’s children must learn to use the name of Jesus when Satan attacks the body of Christ. Had Israel remained in Egyptian bondage, the Amalekites would not have attacked them. Neither would Satan attack God’s children if they would return back into the world. The Lord once spoke to a friend of mine, saying, “A king does not fight against a city he has already conquered.”
Illustration The Lord gave me a three-part dream, which opened my eyes and taught me how to exercise the authority of the name of Jesus in every area of my life. I had learned how to pray and make my requests to the Lord known using Jesus’ name. Now, I was going to learn to use His name to take authority over Satan. The first part of the dream was a vision of a pastor friend of mine sitting in his house peacefully reading his Bible in a chair. I still remember how peaceful and tranquil the scene appeared. Then, the Lord spoke these words to me, “There is peace in a home when there is dominion in that home.” Finally, the Lord brought the words “Luk 11:21 ” to my mind. I had no idea how that verse read nor if it applied to the dream. I woke up and read this passage, “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.” I knew immediately that this dream was from God. Through the next few months, I began to study the Bible and learn how to use the name of Jesus to set my household at peace. (4 July 1988)
6. Moses Honours Jethro ( Exo 18:1-12 ) In Exo 18:1-12 Moses encamps at Mount Sinai, while the children of Israel are still at Rephidim. While Moses was encamped at the mountain of God, he honours Jethro, his father-in-law. Jethro offers the sacrifice and they eat together. Jethro’s visit to Moses could symbolize Jesus Christ as He offers His blood at the Father’s throne. Perhaps the fact that he went ahead of the encampment symbolizes that fact that Jesus went before us to God’s throne to offer His atoning sacrifice in our behalf. There he met his father-in-law, who made a sacrifice unto God. This may symbolize God the Father receiving Jesus’ sacrifice, which was actually a sacrifice that God gave to mankind for his salvation.
7. Jethro Advises Moses ( Exo 18:13-27 ) – Exo 18:13-27 records the incident in which Jethro advises Moses on how to delegate judges to assist him in judging the matters of the people. After Moses honours Jethro, his father-in-law gives Moses wisdom regarding organizing leadership among the children of Israel so that all of them can receive wisdom and ministry. This event symbolizes High Priesthood of Jesus Christ, seen in Jethro’s comment to Moses, “You be for the people an advocate before God, and you bring the problems to God.” [71] (Exo 18:19). The ordaining by Moses of leaders over the people represents church order and service. Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand to judge His church, while sending forth the Holy Spirit to anoint the five-fold ministry and give the gifts of the Spirit to the body of Christ (Eph 4:8-13). If a child of God will submit himself to the leadership of a local fellowship, he will be able to experience the gifts and anointings of the Holy Spirit and join in the ministry of helps.
[71] Translation by John I. Durham, Exodus, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 3, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), translation of Exodus 18:19.
8. Indoctrination ( Exo 20:1 to Exo 24:8 ) – The next phase of a believer’s life after regeneration is called indoctrination. The giving of the Law and statutes (Exo 20:1 to Exo 24:8) represents this phase in the Christian life. It is important to note that God guided them to Mount Sinai and throughout their entire forty-year wilderness journey with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exo 13:21). This divine guidance symbolized the fact that every child of God must learn to be led by the Holy Spirit throughout his spiritual journey.
Exo 13:21, “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:”
Motifs found within Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27 – John Durham notes a number of contrasts within this passage of Scripture. (a) Israel’s Need verses God’s Abundance Supply The children of Israel entered the wilderness journey totally dependent upon God’s provision for their every need. Time and again God reveals Himself as having more than enough to supply their needs. (b) Thirst verses Abundance of Water This passage of Scripture opens with Israel in desperate need of water, only to find bitter water; and the passage closes with Israel encamped at Elim, where there was an abundance of water and trees. Understanding that God was leading them with a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night (Exo 13:21-22), it is easy to conclude that God was testing His children. (c) Israel’s Grumbling verses God’s Loving Patience An underlying motif found in Israel’s forty-year wilderness journey is Israel’s constant grumbling and complaining, beginning in this passage, being met with God’s continual intervention to meet their need. (d) Health verses Sickness – Another contrast is made between Israel’s promise of health and healing against the backdrop of the Ten Plagues of Egypt (Exo 15:26). (e) Disorder verses Order The multitude of Israelites began this journey in an awkward manner, in their encampment, in their travelling, in their lifestyles, so that Moses was overwhelmed with their problems. God sends Jethro with the wisdom to begin setting their lives in order. These contrasts reveal that God was gradually guiding them into an orderly lifestyle of faith and obedience to Him, a lifestyle that would meet their daily needs. However, the multitude of the Israelites were grumbling against change because it clashed with their old habits and customs. [72]
[72] John I. Durham, Exodus, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 3, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), explanation of Exodus 5:22-27.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Murmuring about the Food
v. 1. And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
v. 2. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Their dissatisfied complaint was directed against both leaders, and so against the divine act of bringing them out of Egypt, that is, against Jehovah Himself.
v. 3. And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, in the last great plague which cut off the first-born of the Egyptians, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full, when they, in spite of all their other afflictions, at least had their food in sufficient quantities; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger, which was an unjust accusation bordering upon insolence and, moreover, with an amount of falsehood, for they still had at least some of their cattle with them, and the congregation was by no means on the edge of starvation.
v. 4. Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, a certain amount day after day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in My law or no. The Lord intended to test their faith and obedience in connection with this miraculous gift of bread.
v. 5. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, they should measure the portion very carefully and set it aside; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Cf v. 22.
v. 6. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt, they would be given further unmistakable evidence that it was the Lord who had brought about their deliverance;
v. 7. and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord, they would be given definite proof of His almighty power and majesty, of His glorious presence; for that He, God, heareth your murmurings against the Lord, Jehovah, the Son of God, who was the real leader of the people in its desert journey, 1Co 10:4. And what are we, that ye murmur against us? The persons of Moses and Aaron counted for nothing; it was as the ambassadors of Jehovah that they were here concerned; the people should realize that their complaint was directed against God.
v. 8. And Moses said, This shall be when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against Him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. Thus the people were reproved for their sinful murmuring.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION
THE FIRST MURMURING FOR FOOD. From Elim, or the fertile tract extending from Wady Ghurnndel to Wady Tayibeh, the Israelites, after a time, removed, and ca-camped (as we learn from Num 33:10) by the Red Sea, probably along the narrow coast tract extending from the mouth of Tayibeh to the entrance upon the broad plain of El Markha. Hence they entered upon “the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai”a tract identified by some with the coast plain, El Markha, by others with the inland undulating region known at the present day as the Debbet-er-Ramleh It is difficult to decide between these two views. In favour of El Markha are:
1. The fact that the Egyptian settlements in the Sinaitic peninsula would thus be avoided, as they seem to have been, since no contest with Egyptians is recorded;
2. The descent of the quails, who, wearied with a long flight over the Red Sea, would naturally settle as soon as they reached the shore;
3. The greater openness and facility of the El Markha and Wady Feiran route, which is admitted by all; and
4. The suitability of the latter to the particulars of the narrative in Exo 18:1-27.
In favour of the route by the Debbet-er-Ramleh are,
1. The fact that it is better watered at present than the other;
2. Its being somewhat less removed from the direct line between Wady Ghurundel and Sinai than El Markha; and
3. A certain correspondency of sound or meaning between some of the present geographical names along this route and those of the Mosaic narrative. In “the wilderness of Sin” the Israelites for the first time found themselves in want of sufficient nourishment. They hall consumed the grain which they had brought with them out of Egypt; and though no doubt they had still considerable flocks and herds, yet they were unaccustomed to a mere milk and flesh diet, having in Egypt lived principally upon bread (Exo 18:3), fish (Num 11:5), and vegetables (ibid.). They therefore “murmured,” and accused Moses and Aaron of an intention to starve them. It is quite possible that many of the poorer sorts having brought with them no cattle, or lost their cattle by the way, and not being helped by their brethren, were in actual danger of starvation. Hence God was not angry, but “heard their murmurings” (Exo 18:9) patiently, and relieved them.
Exo 16:1
They journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation came. It has been noted (Cook) that the form of expression seems to imply that the Israelites proceeded in detachments from Elim, and were first assembled as a complete host when they reached the wilderness of Sin.” This accords well with their numbers and with the character of the localities. They could only assemble all together when they reached some considerable plain. Between Elim and Sinai. This expression must be regarded as vague to some extent. On the direct line, as the crow flies, there is no “wilderness” (midbar) between Wady Ghurundel and Sinai. All is mountain and valley. All that the writer means is that “the wilderness of Sin” lay upon the ordinary, or at any rate an ordinary route between Elim and the great mountain. This is equally true of El Markha and the Debbet-er-Ramleh. On the fifteenth day of the second monthi.e; on the 15th of Zif, exactly one month after their departure from Egypt. As only seven camping places are mentioned (Num 33:5-11), and one journey of three days through a wilderness (Exo 15:22), it is evident that there must either have been long stays in several places, or that they must have often encamped in places which had no name. Viewed as an itinerary, the record is manifestly incomplete.
Exo 16:2
The whole congregation murmured, It has been observed above, that only the poorer sort could have been as yet in any peril of actual starvation; but it may well have been that the rest, once launched into the wilderness, and becoming practically acquainted with its unproductiveness, foresaw that ultimately starvation must come upon them too, when all the cattle were eaten up, or had died through insufficient nourishment Nothing is more clear than that, without the miracle of the manna, it would have been impossible for a population of two millions to have supported themselves for forty years, or even for two years, in such a region as the Sinaitic peninsula, even though it had been in ancient times three or four times as productive as at present. The cattle brought out of Egypt must have rapidly diminished (Exo 17:3); and though the Israelites had brought with them also great wealth in the precious metals, yet it must have been some time before they could establish commercial relations with the neighbouring nations so as to obtain such supplies as they needed. Thus we can well understand that at the expiration of a month the people generally should have recognized that their situation was one of great danger, and should have vented their discontent upon their leaders.
Exo 16:3
Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypti.e; “Would that God had smitten us with a painless death, as he did the first-born of the Egyptians! Then we should have avoided the painful and lingering death from starvation which we now see before us.” The cry puts on the garb of piety, and names the name of Jehovah, but indicates a want of faith in him, his power, and his promises (Exo 4:8, Exo 4:17; Exo 6:8; Exo 12:25; Exo 13:5, Exo 13:11), which was sinful, and, after the miracles that they had seen, barely excusable. When we sat by the flesh-pots of Egypt. Compare Num 11:5. Both passages make it clear that, whatever the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt from the cruelty of the taskmasters and the hard tasks set them, at any rate their sustenance was well cared forthey had abundance of agreeable food. Did eat bread. It has been said that “bread” here means “food in general” (Kalisch); and no doubt the word has sometimes that sense. But it was probably actual bread, rather than anything else, for which the Israelites were longing. See the Introduction to the chapter.
HOMILETICS
Exo 16:1-3
The unreasonableness of discontent.
The people of Israel experience now the second trial that has come upon them since the passage of the Red Sea. First, they had nothing which they could drink (Exo 15:24); now they are afraid that they will soon have nothing to eat. They have consumed their dough (Exo 12:39), their grain, their flour; many of them have consumed, or lost, their beasts. The land around them produces little or nothing that is edible; no settled inhabitants show themselves from whom they may purchase food. If there are Egyptian store-houses in the district, they are shut against the enemies of Egypt. So the Israelites, one and all, begin to despair and murmur. How irrational their conduct! The unreasonableness of discontent is shown
I. IN DISTRUSTING GOD‘S POWER OF DELIVERANCE, WHEN WE HAVE SEEN FREQUENT INSTANCES OF IT. The Israelites had been brought out of Egypt “by a mighty hand”delivered through means of a series of wonderful miracles. They had escaped the pursuit of Pharaoh by having a path made for them through the waters of the Red Sea. They had witnessed the destruction of Pharaoh’s choicest warriors by the return of the waves on either side. They had very recently thought themselves on the point of perishing with thirst; and then by the simplest possible means God had made the bitter water sweet and agreeable. Now, they had found themselves fallen into a new difficulty. They had no bread, and foresaw a time when all their food would be exhausted. They were not really, if the rich imparted of their superfluous cattle to the poor, in any immediate danger. Yet, instead of bearing the trial, and doing the best they could under the circumstances, they began to murmur and wish themselves dead. They did not reflect upon the past; they did not use it as a standard by which to estimate the future. They acted exactly as they might naturally have done, had they had no previous evidence of God’s power to deliver. And so it is to this day in human life frequently. We do not witness miracles, but we witness signal deliverances of various kindsan enemy defeated at the moment that he seemed about to carry all before himthe independence of a nation saved when it appeared to be lost-drought succeeded by copious rainsovermuch rain followed by a glorious month for harvest. Yet, each time that a calamity threatens, we despond; we forget all the past; we distrust God’s mercy; we murmur; we wish, or say we wish, that we had died before the trial came.
II. IN CONTRASTING ALL THE DISADVANTAGES OF OUR PRESENT POSITION, WITHOUT ITS COMPENSATING ADVANTAGES, WITH ALL THE ADVANTAGES, AND NONE OF THE DISADVANTAGES, OF SOME PREVIOUS ONE. The Israelites, fearing starvation, thought of nothing but the delight of sitting by the flesh-pots of Egypt, and eating bread to the full. They omitted to reflect on their severe toils day after day, on the misery of feeling they were slaves, on the murder of their children by one tyrant, and the requirement of impossible tasks by another, on the rudeness to which they were daily exposed, and the blows which were hourly showered on them. They omitted equally to consider what they had gained by quitting Egyptthe consciousness of freedom, the full liberty of worshipping God after their conscience, the constant society of their families, the bracing air of the Desert, the perpetual evidence of God’s presence and providential care in the sight of the pillar of the cloud and of fire, which accompanied them. And men still act much the same. Oh! for the delights of boyhood, they exclaim, forgetting all its drawbacks. Oh! for the time when I occupied that position, which I unwisely gave up (because I hated it). The present situation is always the worst conceivableits ills are magnified, its good points overlooked, thought nothing of Again, how unreasonable! The allegorical tale which tells of a pilgrim who wished to change his cross, and after trying a hundred others, found that the original one alone fitted him, is applicable to such cases, and should teach us a lesson of content.
III. IN ITS VENTING ITSELF TOO OFTEN ON THE WRONG PERSON. Moses and Aaron were not to blame for the situation in which the Israelites found themselves. They had done nothing but obey God from first to last. God had commanded the exodusGod had led the wayGod had forbidden the short route along the shore to the country of the Philistines, and had brought them into the “wilderness of the Red Sea,” and that desolate part of it called “the wilderness of Sin.” Moses and Aaron were but his mouthpieces. Yet the Israelites murmured against them. Truly did Moses respond”What are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.” And so are all murmurings. Men are but God’s instruments; and, in whatsoever difficulty we find ourselves, it is God who has placed us there. Murmuring against men is altogether foolish and vain. We should take our grief straight to God; we should address him, not with murmuring, but with prayer. We should entreat him to remove our burthen, or to give us strength to bear it, We should place all in his hands.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 16:1-4
Murmurings.
In the “Wilderness of Sin,” between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after the departing of Israel out of Egypt (Exo 16:1). One short month, but how much can be forgotten even in so brief a space of time! (cf. Exo 32:1). Egypt now lay at a little distance. The supplies of the Israelites were failing them. God lets the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil run out (1Ki 17:12), before interposing with his help. Thus he tries what manner of spirit we are of. Our extremity is his opportunity. Consider here
I. THE PEOPLE‘S MURMURINGS (Exo 16:2). These are brought into strong relief in the course of the narrative. “The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured” (Exo 16:2). “He heareth your murmurings against the Lord, and what are we that ye murmur against us?” (Exo 16:7). “The Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him, and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord” (Exo 16:8). “He hath heard your murmurings” (Exo 16:9). “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel” (Exo 16:12).
1. They murmured, and did not pray. They seem to have left that to Moses (cf. Exo 14:15). Remembering what Jehovah had already done for themthe proofs he had already given them of his goodness and faithfulnesswe might have thought that prayer would have been their first resource. But they do not avail themselves of it. They do not even raise the empty cries of Exo 14:10. It is a wholly unsubmissive and distrustful spirit which wreaks its unreasonableness on Moses and Aaron in the words, “Ye have brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exo 14:3). We who blame them, however, have only to observe our own hearts to see how often we are in the same condemnation. (See Hamilton’s “Moses,” Lect. 14.”Murmurs.”) It is ever easier, in times of difficulty, to murmur than to pray. Yet how much better for ourselves, as well as more dutiful to God, could we learn the lesson of coming with every trouble to the throne of grace.
“But with my God I leave my cause;
From Him I seek relief;
To Him in confidence of prayer
Unbosom all my grief”
Had Israel prayed more, relief might have come sooner.
2. Their behaviour affords some interesting illustrations of what the murmuring spirit is. Distinguish this spirit from states of mind which bear a superficial resemblance to it.
(1) From the cry of natural distress. When distress comes upon us, we cannot but acutely feel the pain of our situation, and with this is connected the tendency to lament and bewail it. The dictates of the highest piety, indeed, would lead us to imitate David in studying to be still before God. “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because thou didst it” (Psa 39:9). Yet listen to this same David’s lamentations over Absalom (2Sa 18:19). There are few in whom the spirit of resignation is so perfectly formedin whom religious motives so uniformly and entirely predominatethat a wail of grief never escapes their lips. It would, however, be cruel to describe these purely natural expressions of feeling as “murmurings,” though it is to be admitted that an element of murmuring frequently mingles with them.
(2) From the expostulations of good men with God, caused by the perplexity and mystery of his dealings with them. Such expostulations, e.g; as those of Moses in Exo 5:22, Exo 5:23; or of Job, in several of his speeches (Job 7:11-21; Job 10:1-22, etc.); or of Jeremiah (Jer 4:10; Jer 20:7). As Augustine says of Moses, “These are not words of contumacy or indignation, but of inquiry and prayer.”
3. Even from the desperate speeches of good men, temporarily carried beyond bounds by their sorrow. Job enters this plea for himself”Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind” (Job 6:26); and we feel at once the justice of it. This was not murmuring. These wild speechesthough not blamelesswere but a degree removed from raving. What elements, then, do enter into the murmuring spirithow is it to be described?
(1) At the basis of it there lies distrust and unsubmissiveness. There is distrust of God’s goodness and power, and want of submission to his will in the situation in which he has placed us. The opposite spirit is exemplified in Christ, in his first temptation in the wilderness (Mat 4:1-4; cf. Deu 8:3).
(2) Connected with this, there is forgetfulness of, and ingratitude for, benefits formerly received. This is very conspicuous in the case of these Israelites (verse 3).
(3) The characteristic feature of this spirit is the entertaining of injurious thoughts of Godthe attempt to put God in the wrong by fastening on him the imputation of dealing harshly and injuriously with us. The murmuring spirit keeps the eye bent on self, and on self’s fancied wrongs, and labours hard to make out a case of ill treatment. Its tone is complaining. It would arraign the Eternal at its puny bar, and convict him of injustice. It is narrow, self-pitying, egoistic.
(4) It expresses itself in accusations and reproaches. The mental point of view already indicated prepares the way for these, and leads to them being passed off as righteous charges. God is charged foolishly (Job 1:22).
(5) It is prone to exaggeration. The Israelites can hardly have been as well off in Egypt as they here pretend, though their words (verse 3) show that their rations in bondage must have been fairly liberal. But the wish to make their present situation look as dark as possible, leads them to magnify the advantages of their former one. They did not think so much of it when they had it.
(6) Murmuring against God may not venture to express itself directly, and yet may do so indirectly. The murmuring of the Israelites was of this veiled character. They masked their rebellion against God, and their impeaching of his goodness, by directing their accusations against his servants. It was God against whom they murmured (verse 7, 8), but they slightly veiled the fact by not mentioning God, but by speaking only of Moses and Aaron. We should remember this, in our contendings with Providence. The persons on whom our murmuring spirit wreaks itself may be secondary agentsthe voluntary or involuntary causes of our misfortunesor even persons in no way directly concerned with our troublebut be they who they may, if the spirit be bitter and rebellious, it is God, not they, whom we are contending against (cf. Gen 50:19, Gen 50:20; 2Sa 17:10).
II. GOD‘S SURPRISING TREATMENT OF THESE MURMURINGS (verse 4). It is a most astonishing fact that on this occasion there is not, on God’s part, a single severe word of reproof of the people’s murmurings, far less any punishment of them for it. It could not at this time be said”Some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1Co 10:10). The appearance of the glory in the cloud warned and abashed, but did not injure them (verse 10). The reason was not that God did not hear their murmuring, nor yet that he mistook its import, as directed ostensibly, not against him, but against Moses and Aaron. The Searcher of Hearts knows well when our murmurings are against Him (verses 7, 8). But,
1. He pitied them. They were really in great need. He looked to their need, more than to their murmurings. In his great compassion, knowing their dire distress, he treated their murmurings almost as if they were prayersgave them what they should have asked. The Father in this way anticipated the Son (Mat 15:32).
2. He was forbearing with them in the beginning of their way. God was not weakly indulgent. At a later time, when the people had been longer under training, they were severely punished for similar offences (cf. Num 21:5); but in the preliminary stages of this wilderness education, God made large and merciful allowances for them. Neither here, nor at the Red Sea, nor later, at Rephidim, when they openly “tempted” him (Job 17:1-8), do we read of God so much as chiding them for their wayward doings: he bore with them, like a father bearing with his children. He knew how ignorant they were; how much infirmity there was about them; how novel and trying were the situations in which he was placing them; and he mercifully gave them time to improve by his teaching. Surely a God who acts in this way is not to be called “an hard master.” Instead of sternly punishing their murmurings, he took their need as a starting-point, and sought to educate them out of the murmuring disposition.
3. He purposed to prove them. He would fully supply their wants, and so give them an opportunity of showing whether their murmuring was a result of mere infirmityor was connected with a deeply ingrained spirit of disobedience. When perversity began to show itself, he did not spare reproof (verse 28).J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Exo 16:1. Came unto the wilderness of Sin The children of Israel continued some time at Elim, according to the account given in this verse, compared with the note on Exo 16:27 of the former chapter. It was now just a month since they had left Egypt. “We have a distinct view of Mount Sinai from Elim,” says Dr. Shaw; “the wilderness, as it is called, of Sin, lying betwixt them. We traversed these plains in nine hours; being all the way diverted with the sight of lizards and vipers, which are here in great numbers. We were afterwards near twelve hours in passing the many windings and difficult ways which lie betwixt these deserts and those of Sinai. The latter consist of a beautiful plain, more than a league in breadth, and nearly three in length, lying open towards the north-east, where we enter it; but it is closed up to the southward by some of the lower eminences of Mount Sinai.
In this direction, likewise, the higher parts of this mountain make such encroachments upon the plain, that they divide it into two, each of them capacious enough to receive the whole encampment of the Israelites. That which lies to the eastward may be the desert of Sinai, properly so called, where Moses saw the angel of the Lord in the burning bush, while he was guarding the flocks of Jethro, ch. Exo 3:2. A convent, called the convent of St. Catherine, is built over the place of this divine appearance. It is near three hundred feet square, and more than forty in height, being built partly of stone, partly with mud and mortar mixed together. [That which is supposed to have been] the more immediate place of the Shechinah is honoured with a little chapel, which the old fraternity of St. Basil has in such esteem and veneration, that, in imitation of Moses, they put off the shoes from off their feet whenever they enter it.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

FIFTH SECTION
The journey through the wilderness to Sinai. Want of water. Marah. Elim. The Wilderness of Sin. Quails. Manna. Rephidim (Massah and Meribah). The Amalekites. Jethro and his advice, a human prelude of the divine legislation
Exo 15:22 to Exo 18:27
The stations as far as Sinai
1. Marah
Exo 15:22-26
22So [And] Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 23And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the [drink the] waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25And he cried unto Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree, which, when he had cast [and he cast it] into the waters, the [and the] waters were made sweet: there he 26made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved [tried] them, And said, If thou wilt diligently [indeed] hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these [the] diseases upon thee, which I have brought [put] upon the Egyptians: for I am Jehovah that healeth thee.
2. Elim. Exo 15:27
27And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells [fountains] of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.
3. The Wilderness of Sin. (The Manna and the Quails.)
Exo 16:1-36
1And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God [Would that] we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and [flesh-pots,] when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with 4hunger. Then said Jehovah [And Jehovah said] unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate [a daily portion] every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no [not]. 5And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 6And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then shall ye know that Jehovah hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. 7And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of Jehovah; [since] he heareth your murmurings against Jehovah: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 8And Moses said, This shall be, when [And Moses said, Since] Jehovah shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that [since] Jehovah heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him, and [against him,] what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against Jehovah. 9And Moses spake [said] unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before Jehovah: for he hath heard your murmurings. 10And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the 11glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 12I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God. 13And it came to pass that at even [at even that] the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host [camp]. 14And when the dew that lay [the layer of dew] was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay [the wilderness] a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. 15And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna [What is this?],7 for they wist [knew] not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the 16bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat [for food]. This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man [a head], according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which [that] are in his tents [tent]. 17And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 18And when they did mete [And they measured] it with an [the] omer, he [and he] that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. 19And Moses said [said unto them], Let no man leave of 20it till the morning. Notwithstanding [But] they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them [and some] left of it until the morning, and it bred worms,8 and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. 21And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. 22And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man [each man]: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23And he said unto them, This is that which Jehovah hath spoken, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath [is a day of rest, a holy sabbath] unto Jehovah: bake that which ye will bake to-day [bake], and seethe [boil] that [that which] ye will seethe [boil]; and that which [all that] remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. 24And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. 25And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto Jehovah: to-day ye shall [will] not find it in the field. 26Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the [onthe seventh day is a] sabbath, in [on] it there shall be none. 27And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to [day to] gather, 28and they found none. And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 29See, for that Jehovah hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30So the people rested on the seventh day. 31And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made [like cake] with honey. 32And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah commandeth, Fill an omer of it [An omer full of it] to be kept for [throughout] your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. 33And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot [basket], and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay 34it up before Jehovah, to be kept for [throughout] your generations. As Jehovah commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 35And the children of Israel did eat manna [the manna] forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna [the manna], until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. 36Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
4. Rephidim. The place called Massah and Meribah
Exo 17:1-7
Exo 17:1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys [journey by journey], according to the commandment of Jehovah, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the 2people to drink. Wherefore [And] the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt Jehovah? 3And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast [Wherefore hast thou] brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4And Moses cried unto Jehovah, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to [a little more, and they will] 5stone me. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Go on [Pass on] before the people, and take with thee of the elders of the people; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine [thy] hand, and go. 6Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that [and] the people may [shall] drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us, or not?
5. Amalek. The dark side of heathenism
Exo 17:8-16
8Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to-morrow I will 10stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine [my] hand. So [And] Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12But Moses hands were heavy: and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge 14of the sword. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a [the] book, and rehearse [lit. put] it in the ears of Joshua: for [that] I will utterly put 15[blot] out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an 16altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: For [And] he said, Because Jehovah hath sworn that [For a hand is upon the throne of Jah;9] Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
6. Rephidim and Jethro. The bright side of heathenism
Exo 18:1-27
1When [Now] Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and [how] that Jehovah had brought Israel out 2of Egypt; Then [And] Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses wife, after he had sent her back [after she had been sent away], 3And her two sons; of which [whom] the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien 4[a sojourner] in a strange land: And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine [my] help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: 5And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped [was encamped] at the mount of God: 6And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her. 7And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent. 8And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israels sake, and [sake] all the travail [trouble] that had come upon them by the way, and how Jehovah delivered them. 9And Jethro rejoiced for [over] all the goodness [good] which Jehovah had done to Israel whom he had delivered [in that he had delivered them] out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10And Jethro said, Blessed be Jehovah, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all [all the] gods: for [yea], in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above [dealt proudly against] them. 12And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God. 13And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. 14And when Moses father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? 15And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God: 16When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make 17[I make] them know the statutes of God, and his laws. And Moses father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. 18Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this [the] thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself [able to do it] alone. 19Hearken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel, and God shall be [God be] with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward [before God], that thou mayest bring [and bring thou] the causes [matters] unto God: 20And thou shalt teach [And teach] them ordinances and laws [the statutes and the laws], and shalt shew [and shew] them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. 21Moreover [But] thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness [unjust gain]; and place such over them, to be [as] rulers of thousands, and [thousands,] rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: 22And let them judge the people at all seasons [times]: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they [they themselves] shall judge: so shall it be [so make it] easier for thyself, and they shall [let them] bear the burden with thee. 23If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt [wilt] be able to endure, and all this 24people shall also [people also will] go to their place in peace. So [And] Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in-law, and did all that he had said. 25And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26And they judged the people at all seasons [times]: the hard causes [matters] they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 27And Moses let his father-in-law depart; and he went his way into his own land.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo 16:15 . Gesenius and Knobel derive from , to apportion; Frst (Concordance) from the Sanscrit mani. But most scholars, following the evident implication of the narrative itself, regard as the Aramaic equivalent of . Even Frst so renders it in his Illustrirte Pracht-Bibel. Comp. Michaelis, Supplementa ad Lexica Hebraica.Tr.].
[Exo 16:20. And it bred worms: . The Heb. word seems to be the Fut. of defectively written, and therefore to mean: rose up into (or with) worms. Kalisch says, that the form is used instead of to show that it comes from (?) in the sense of putrefy. So Maurer and Ewald (Gr., 281, d). But it is doubtful whether (assumed as the root from which comes worm) really means putrefy at all. Frst defines it by crawl. Moreover, it would be inverting the natural order of things to say, that the manna became putrid with worms; the worms are the consequence, not the cause, of the putridness. Rosenmller, Frst, Arnheim and others render by swarm, abound, but probably as a free rendering for rose up. De Wette: da wuchsen Wrmer. The A. V. rendering may stand as a substantially correct reproduction of the sense.Tr.].
[Exo 17:16. We have given the most literal rendering of this difficult passage. But possibly , instead of meaning for (or because), may (as often in Greek) be the mere mark of a quotation, to be omitted in the translation. The meaning of the expression itself is very doubtful. The A. V., following some ancient authorities, takes it as an oath; but for this there is little ground. Keil interprets: The hand raised to the throne of Jehovah in heaven; Jehovahs war against Amalek, i.e. the hands of the Israelites, like those of Moses, must be raised heavenward towards Jehovahs throne, while they wage war against Amalek. Others interpret: Because a hand (viz. the hand of the Amalekites) is against the throne of Jah, therefore Jehovah will forever have war with Amalek. This interpretation has the advantage over Keils of giving a more natural rendering to , which indeed in a few cases does mean up to, but only when it is (as it is not here) connected with a verb which requires the preposition to be so rendered. Others (perhaps the majority of modern exegetes) would read (banner), instead of (throne), and interpret: The hand upon Jehovahs banner; Jehovah has war, etc. This conjecture is less objectionable than many attempted improvements of the text, inasmuch as the name of the altar, Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah, my banner), seems to require an explanation, and would receive it if the reading were , instead of Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
General Survey of the Section. Israels journey from the shore of the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai. The host enters the wilderness of Shur (the same as the wilderness of Etham), and its first camping-place is by the bitter waters of Marah. The second is Elim. Next comes the encampment on the Red Sea recorded in Numbers 33. Still later the entrance into the wilderness of Sin, and the encampment in it. With this is connected the sending of the manna and of the quails. Then follows the stay in Rephidim with three leading events: the water from the rock, the victory over Amalek, and Jethros advice concerning an orderly judicial system. According to Numbers 33 it must be assumed that the people encamped on the Red Sea just as they touched the wilderness of Sin; for it was not till after this that they entered the wilderness (Exo 16:11), as they also at the first entered the wilderderness of Shur, on the borders of which they found themselves at the very outset. Between the encampment on the Red Sea and that in Rephidim we find in the Book of Numbers Dophkah and Alush; and it is said that they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin to Dophkah. Knobel observes that these two stations, not mentioned in Exodus, are omitted because nothing of historical importance is connected with them. Also about this journey from Ayun Musa to Sinai there has been an immense deal of discussion, as well as about the journey from Raemses to the Red Sea. Vid. Robinson I., p. 90, Brm, Israels Wanderung von Gosen bis zum Sinai (Elberfeld, 1859); Strauss, Sinai und Golgotha, p. 124; von Raumer, Palstina, p. 480; Tischendorf, Aus dem heiligen Lande, p. 23; Kurtz, History of the Old Covenant III., p. 15 sqq.; Bunsen V., 2, p. 155; and the commentaries.
There is general agreement as to the locality of the first stations. It is assumed that Israel, after the passage of the sea, encamped at Ayun Musa (the Wells of Moses), opposite the high mountain Atakah, on the other side of the Red Sea. The next camping-place, Marah (Bitterness), is found about sixteen and a half hours, or a three days journey beyond, by the well Howara or Hawara, of which Robinson says: The basin is six or eight feet in diameter, and the water about two feet deep. Its taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter. The Arabs consider it as the worst water in all these regions (Pal. II., p. 96). Cf. Seetzen III., p. 117, and Keil II., p. 58, who quotes divergent opinions of Ewald and Lepsius.The next camping-place, Elim, is two and a half hours further south, in what is now the Wady Ghurundel, with a beautiful vegetation consisting in palms, tamarisks, acacias, and tall grass,a prominent stopping-place on the way from Suez to Sinai. The way from Howara to this place is short, but the camping-places of an army in march, like that of the Israelites, are always determined by the supply of water (Keil). The fourth stopping-place, called in Num 33:10 the one on the Red Sea, is found at the mouth of Wady Taiyibeh (Robinson I., p. 105), eight hours beyond Wady Ghurundel. From this point the route becomes less easy to fix. In Num 33:11 we read: They removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.10 Here in Exodus it is said that the wilderness lies between Elim and Sinai. This addition seems designed not only to give the general direction (since that would be quite superfluous), but to designate the middle point between Elim and Sinai. The chief question here is, whether the wilderness of Sin as traversed by the Israelites, is to be located further south on a sea coast, where the plain is for the most part a good hour wide, as is assumed by many (not all, as Brm says), or whether the high table land el Debbe, or Debbet en Nasb, with its red sand and sand-stones, is to be taken for the Wilderness of Sin (Knobel). Accordingly, there are two principal routes, of which the first again branches into two. By the coast route one can go along the coast as far as Tur (Ewald), and from that in a northeast direction come to Sinai; or more directly (i.e., at first in an inland direction from the fountain Murkha) enter through the wadies Shellal and Badireh (Butera) into the wadies Mukatteb and Feiran, and reach Mt. Horeb (de la Borde, von Raumer, and others).11 The other route, the mountain or highland route (Burckhardt and others) turns from Taiyibeh southeast through Wady Shubeikah over a high table-land, with the mountain Sarbut el Jemel, then through Wady Humr upon the wide sandy plain el Debbe, or Debbet en Nasb (Keil), and on through several wadies directly to Horeb. For and against each of these routes much may be said. Cf. Knobel, p. 162 sqq.; Keil II. p. 61. According to the latter view, advocated by Knobel and Keil, the camping-place in the wilderness of Sin is to be sought in Wady Nasb, where among date-palms a well of ample and excellent water is to be found. The second seacoast route was taken by Strauss and Krafft (Sinai und Golgotha, p. 127). Also the last time by Tischendorf (Aus dim heiligen Lande, p. 35). The same way is preferred by Brm in his work Israels Wanderung, etc. Likewise Robinson regards this as the course taken by the Israelites, though he himself took the one on the table-land. To decide is not easy, and is of little importance for our purpose. But the following observations may serve as guides: (1) If, as is most probable, the names Sin and Sinai are connected etymologically, this is an argument for the table-land route, especially as it also seems to lie more nearly midway between Elim and Sinai; (2) the water seems here to be, though less abundant, yet better, than in most of the salty fountains on the seacoast, whose turbidness also is easily to be explained by its situation on the coast (vid. Robinson, p. 110); (3) on the table-land, in the depressions of which vegetation was everywhere found, there was certainly better provision for the cattle than on the seacoast, where they were often entirely separated from pasture land by mountain barriers; (4) if the encampment in the wilderness of Sin was also an encampment on the Red Sea, the preceding encampment could not, without causing confusion, be designated by the term on the Red Sea. So much for the mountain route. Ritter has argued against the view that the journey was made on the table-land through Wady Nasb, in the Evangelischer Kalender. Vid. Kurtz III., p. 61. For the rest, each way had its peculiar attractions as well as its peculiar difficulties. The mountain route allowed the host to spread itself, as there was much occasion for doing; it presented grand views, and prepared the people for a long time beforehand for its destination, Sinai. It is distinguished by the singular and mysterious monuments of Surabit el-Khadim (Robinson I., p. 113; Niebuhr, p. 235). By the way which runs half on the seacoast, half through the mountains, we pass through the remarkable valley of inscriptions, Mukatteb, and through the grand valley Feiran, rich in tamarisks, in whose vicinity lies the lofty Serbal, regarded by Lepsius as the mountain on which the law was given. On the inscriptions on the rocks and cliffs in the valley Mukatteb, see Tischendorf, Aus dem h. Lande, p. 39 sqq.; Kurtz III., p. 64. By these they are ascribed for the most part to Nabatan emigrants and to pilgrims going to attend heathen festivals. On the rock of inscriptions see also Ritters reference to Wellsted and von Schubert, Vol. XIV., p 459. On the former city Faran in Feiran, see Tischendorf, p. 46. The camping-place in the wilderness of Sin is, as follows from the above, variously fixed; according to some it is the plain on the sea south of Taiyibeh, which, however, must then be called the wilderness of Sin up to the mountain range, if the camping-place is to be distinguished from the one on the Red Sea; according to Bunsen and others, the camping-place was in the place called el Munkhah. According to others, it is the large table-land el Debbe or Debbet en Nasb. The camping-places in the wilderness of Sin being indeterminate, so are also the two following ones at Dophkah and Alush (Num 33:12). Conjectures respecting the two stations beyond the wilderness of Sin are made by Knobel, p. 174, and Bunsen, p. 156. The last station before the host arrives at Sinai is Rephidim. This must have been at he foot of Horeb, for Jehovah stood on the rock on Horeb, when He gave water to the people encamped in Rephidim (Exo 17:6), and at the same place Moses was visited by Jethro, who came to him at the mount of God (Knobel). This is a very important point fixed, inasmuch as it seems to result from it, that Serbal is to be looked for north of, or behind, Rephidim and Horeb, but the Mt. Sinai of the Horeb range in the south.12 The great plain at the foot of Horeb, where the camp of the Israelites is sought, is called the plain er–Raha (Knobel derives , breadth, surface, plain, from , to be spread).13 For a refutation of Lepsius. who finds Rephidim in Wady Feiran, and Sinai in Serbal, see Knobel, p. 174. On Serbal itself (Palm grove of Baal) vid. Kurtz III., p. 67. Between Serbal and the Horeb group lies Wady es-Sheikh. From the mouth of this wady towards Horeb the plain of Rephidim is thought to begin. Other assumptions: The defile with Moses seat, Mokad Seidna Musa, or the plain of Suweiri. Perhaps not very different from the last mentioned (vid. Keil II., p. 79; Strauss, p. 131). The most improbable hypothesis identifies Rephidim with Wady Feiran (Lepsius).14
1. Marah. Exo 15:22-26
On the wilderness of Shur, vid. Keil II., p. 57. Particulars about Howara [Hawara (Robinson), Hawwara (Palmer)], Knobel, p. 160.The bitter salt water at Marah.15 The miracle here consists in great part in the fact that Jehovah showed Moses a tree by which the water was made drinkable. That the tree itself was a natural tree is not denied by the strictest advocates of a literal interpretation. A part of the miracle is to be charged to the assurance of the prophetic act, and the trustful acceptance of it on the part of the people. Various explanations: The well was half emptied, so that pure water flowed in (Josephus); the berries of the ghurlud shrub were thrown in (Burckhardt). According to Robinson, the Beduins of the desert know no means of changing bitter salt water to sweet. In Egypt, as Josephus relates, bad water was once purified by throwing in certain split sticks of wood (Brm). This leads to the question, how far the salt water might have been made more drinkable by Moses dipping into it a crisp, branchy shrub, as a sort of distilling agent. For this the numerous clumps of the ghurkud shrub which stand around the well, and whose berries Burckhardt wished to make use of, are very well suited. The distillation consists in the art of separating, in one way or another, salt, from water, especially by means of brushwood; generally, for the purpose of getting salt; but it might be done for the opposite purpose of getting water. In proportion as a bunch of brushwood should become incrusted with the salt, the water would become more free from the salt. For the rest, Robinson observes, concerning the water of the fountain Hawara, Its taste is unpleasant, saltish, and somewhat bitter; but we could not perceive that it was very much worse than that of Ayun Musa. It must further be considered that the Jews had the soft, agreeable Nile water in recollection. Kurtz has even found an antithesis in the fact that Moses made the undrinkable water at Marah drinkable, as he had made the sweet water of the Nile un-drinkable. We are here also to notice that the effect of Moses act was not permanent, but consisted only in the act itself, the same as is true of the saving effect of the sacraments in relation to faith. Here, too, is another proof that Moses had a quite peculiar sense for the life of nature, a sense which Jehovah made an organ of His Spirit. With the curing of the well Jehovah connected a fundamental law, stating on what condition He would be the Saviour of the people. Brm (p. 114) points out, with reason, that the Israelites, in drinking salty water, which has a laxative effect, might well apprehend that the much-dreaded sicknesses of Egypt, the pestilence, the small-pox, the leprosy, and the inflammation of the eyes, caused by the heat and the fine dry sand, together with the intense reflection of light, might attack them here also in the wilderness, the atmosphere of which otherwise has a healing effect on many diseased constitutions. Therefore, in curing that well, Jehovah established the chief sanitary law for Israel. It is very definite, as if from the mouth of a very careful physician well acquainted with his case. General rule: perfect compliance with Jehovahs direction! Explanation of it: if thou doest what is right in His eyes, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes (in reference to the means of spiritual recovery, dietetics), then I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians, for I am Jehovah, thy physician.But how can it be added, and there he proved them? The whole history has been a test of the question, whether the people would obey the directions of Jehovah given through Moses, and particularly whether, after the singular means employed by Moses, they would drink in faith. Every test of faith is a temptation for sinful man, because in his habituation to the common order of things lies an incitement not to believe in any extraordinary remedy, such as seems to contradict nature. But out of the actual temptation which the people had now passed through, proceeded this theocratic sanitary law, as a temptation perpetually repeating itself. There is even still a temptation in the principle of the theocratic therapeutics, that absolute certainty of life lies in absolute obedience to Gods commands and directions. According to Keil, the statute here spoken of does not consist in the divine utterance recorded in Exo 15:26, but in an allegorical significance of the fact itself: the leading of the Israelites to bitter water which the natural man cannot and will not drink, together with the making of this water sweet and wholesome, is to be a , that is, a statute and a law, showing how God at all times will lead and govern His people, and a , that is, an ordinance, inasmuch as Israel may continually depend on the divine help, etc. If this is so, then the text must receive an allegorical interpretation not obviously required.
Furthermore, it is a question whether, after the tremendous excitements through which the people had passed, bitter and salty water like that at Marah, might not have been more beneficial than hurtful to them. Salt water restores the digestion when it has been disturbed by excitement. Notice, moreover, the stiff-neckedness or stubbornness peculiar to the disposition of slaves just made free, as it gradually makes its appearance and increases. It was in their distress at Pi-hahiroth that they first gave utterance to their moroseness; true, they cried to Jehovah, but quarrelled with Moses. They seemed to have forgotten the miracle of deliverance wrought in the night of Egypts terror. Here they even murmur over water that is somewhat poorer than usual. The passage through the Red Sea and the song of praise seem to be forgotten. In the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation murmurs against Moses and Aaron, i.e., their divinely appointed leaders, from fear of impending famine, probably because the supplies brought from Egypt were running low;the ample refreshment enjoyed at Elim seems to be forgotten. In Rephidim they murmur on account of want of water;the miraculous supply of manna and quails seems to be forgotten. On the other hand, however, the wise augmentation of severity in the divine discipline becomes prominent. At Marah nothing is said of any rebuke uttered by Jehovah, as is done later, Num 11:14; Num 11:20. Especially noticeable is the great difference between the altercation at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, and the mutiny at Kadesh, Numbers 20. The altercation there is expressly called a striving with Jehovah, Exo 15:13.
2. Elim. Exo 15:27
A fine contrast with Marah is afforded here, both in nature, and in the guidance of the people of God, and in the history of the inner life. In Elim, Baumgarten and Kurtz find a place expressly prepared for Israel, inasmuch as by the number of its wells and palm trees it bears in itself the seal of this people: every tribe having a well for man and beast, and the tent of each one of the elders of the people (Exo 24:9) having the shade (according to Baumgarten, the dates) of a palm-tree. Even Keil finds this too supernaturalistic; at least, he observes that, while the number of the wells corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel, yet the number of the palm trees does not correspond to that of the elders, which, according to Exo 24:9, was much (?) greater. On neither side is the possibility of a symbolical significance in the numbering thought of; without doubt, however, the emphasis given to the number seventy is as significant as that given to the number twelve. Keils allusion to the 23d Psalm is appropriate. See particulars about Elim in Knobel, p. 161; Tischendorf, p. 36.16
3. The Wilderness of Sin. Chap. Exo 16:1-36
Notice first the aggravated character of the murmuring. Now the whole congregation murmurs. And not against Moses alone, but against Moses and Aaron, so that the murmuring is more definitely directed against the divine commission of the two men, and so against the divine act of bringing them out of Egypt, that is, against Jehovah Himself. Moreover, the expression of a longing after Egypt becomes more passionate and sensual. At first they longed resignedly for the graves of Egypt, in view of the danger of death in the desert. The next time, too, they say nothing about their hankering after the Nile water in view of the bitter water of Marah. But now the flesh-pots of Egypt and the Egyptian bread become prominent in their imagination, because they conceive themselves to be threatened with famine. Corresponding to the aggravation of the murmuring are the beginnings of rebuke. Says Knobel, What the congregation had brought with them from Egypt had been consumed in the thirty days which had elapsed since their exodus (Exo 16:1), although the cattle brought from Egypt (Exo 12:38) had not yet all been slaughtered or killed by thirst (?), since after their departure from the wilderness of Sin they still possessed cattle at Rephidim, which they wished to save from thirsting to death (Exo 17:3). For the herds had not been taken merely to be at once slaughtered; and meat could not take the place of bread. In their vexation the people wish that they had died in Egypt, while filling themselves from the flesh-pots, by the hand of Jehovah, i.e., in the last plague inflicted by Jehovah upon Egypt, rather than gradually to starve to death here in the wilderness. In the verb used ( Niph.) is expressed a murmuring just passing over into contumacy. Yet here too Jehovah looks with compassion upon the hard situation of the people, and hence regards their weakness with indulgence.
The natural substratum of the double miracle of feeding, now announced and brought to pass, is found in the food furnished by the desert to nomadic emigrants. The manna is the miraculous representative of all vegetable food; the quails denote the choicest of animal prey furnished by the desert. The first element, in the miracle is here too the prophetic foresight and assurance of Moses. The second is the actual miraculous enhancement of natural phenomena; the third is here also the trustful acceptance of it: the miracle of faith and the religious manifestation answering to it. The ultra-supernaturalistic view, it is true, is not satisfied with this. It holds to a different manna from that provided by God in nature, and ought, in consistency, to distinguish the quails miraculously given from ordinary quails.
In this case, too, the trial of faith was to be a temptation (Exo 16:4), to determine whether the people would appropriate the miraculous blessing to themselves in accordance with the divine precept, and so recognize Jehovah as the giver, or whether they would go out without restraint I and on their own responsibility to seize it, as if in a wild chase. Here, therefore, comes in the establishment of the fundamental law concerning the healing of life; and this is done by the ordaining of the seventh day as a day of rest, the Sabbath. As man, when given over to a merely natural life, is inclined to seek health and recuperation without regarding the inner life and the commandments of God, so he is also inclined to yield himself passionately and without restraint to the indulgence of the natural appetite for food, and, in his collection of the means of nourishment, to lose self-collection, the self-possession of an interior life. As a token of this the Sabbath here comes in at the right point, and therefore points at once from the earthly manna to the heavenly manna, (vid.John 6).17
The announcement of the miracle. I will rain. The first fundamental condition of the feeding: recognition of the Giver, comp. Jam 1:17.From heaven. Though this in general might also be said of bread from the earth, yet here a contrast is intended. From the sky above, i.e., as a direct gift.The people shall go out and gather. A perpetual harvest, but limited by divine ordinance.A daily portion every day. Reminding one of the petition, Give us this day, etc. An injunction of contentment.On the sixth day. They will find, on making their preparation of the food, that the blessing of this day is sufficient also for the seventh.At even. A gift of flesh was to precede the gift of manna. Thereby they are to understand that Jehovah has led them out of Egypt, that He has provided for them a substitute for the flesh-pots of Egypt. But on the next morning they shall see the glory of Jehovah, i.e., they shall recognize the glorious presence of Jehovah in the fact that He has heard their murmuring against Moses and Aaron, and has applied it to Himself, in that He presents them the mannaFor what are we? Thus do the holy men retire and disappear behind Jehovah.But the people also must come to this same conviction, must repent of their murmurings, and feel that they have murmured against Jehovah, not against His servants. Thus with perfect propriety is a sanction of the sacred office interwoven into the same history into which the history of the Sabbath is interwoven. Hence it follows also that the true sacred office must authenticate itself by miraculous blessings. Both are sealed by a specially mysterious revelation. It is significant that in this connection Aaron must be the speaker (Exo 16:9), that he must summon the people before Jehovah to humble themselves before His face on account of their murmuring. Equally significant is it, that the congregation, while Aaron speaks, sees the manifestation of Jehovahs glory in the cloud. Especially significant, however, is it, that they see this glory rest over the wide wilderness, as they turn and look towards it. A most beautiful touch! With the wilderness itself the way through the wilderness is transfigured at this moment. If we assume (with Keil) that the summons to appear before Jehovah is equivalent to a summons to come out of the tents to the place where the cloud stood, then it must be further assumed, that the cloud suddenly changed its position, and removed to the wilderness, or else appeared in a double form. Neither thing can be admitted. Hereupon follows the last solemn announcement of the miraculous feeding, as the immediate announcement of Jehovah Himself.
The double miracle itself.The quails came up.This narrative has its counterpart in the narrative of the quails in Num 11:4 sqq., just as the chiding on account of want of water at Rephidim has its counterpart in the story of the water of strife (Meribah), distinctively so-called in Numbers 20. The relation of the narratives to one another is important. The murmuring of the people in the beginning of their journey through the wilderness is treated with the greatest mildness, almost as a childs sickness; but their murmuring towards the end of the journey is regarded as a severe offence, and is severely punished; it is like the offence of a mature man, committed in view of many years experience of Gods miraculous help. At the water of strife even Moses himself is involved in the guilt, through his impatience; and the gift of quails in abundance is made a judgment on the people for their immoderate indulgence. Another difference corresponds to the natural features of the desert: the quails do not keep coming; but the people find themselves accompanied by the manna till they are tired of eating it.Came up.. The coming on of a host of locusts or birds has the optical appearance of a coming up., with the article of a word used collectively of a class (Keil). LXX. , Vulg. coturnices. Large quails, whose name in Arabic comes from their fatness, fat. Says Knobel: They become very fat, increase enormously, and in the spring migrate northward, in the autumn southward. Here we are to conceive of a spring migration. For the events described took place in the second month, i.e. about our May (Exo 16:1; Num 10:11), and the quails came to the Israelites from the south-east, from the Arabian Gulf (Psa 78:26 sq.; Num 11:31). In his journey from Sinai to Edomitis in March, Schubert (II., p. 360 sq.) saw whole clouds of migratory birds, of such extent and denseness as never before; they came from their southern winter-quarters, and were hastening toward the sea-coast (?). Probably they were quails, at least in part. Further particulars on the abundance of quails in those regions, see in Knobel (p. 166) and Keil (II., p. 66). They are sometimes so exhausted that they can be caught with the hand (Keil). Some identify the fowl with the kata of the Arabs [a sort of partridge]. Of course it must be assumed that the Israelites in the wilderness were no more confined to the quails for meat than to the manna for bread.
The manna. Exo 16:13-14. A layer of dew. A deposit or fall of dew.A dust, i.e. an abundance of small kernels. If the . is explained simply according to the verb , to peal off, scale off, we get the notion of scaly or leaf-shaped kernels, but not that of coagulated kernels. But perhaps the notion of shelled kernels of grain is transferred, in accordance with appearance, to these kernels. According to Exo 16:31 and Num 11:7, says Knobel, the manna resembled in appearance the white coriander seeds (small, round kernels of dull white or yellowish green color) and the bdellium (resin). Again he says: According to the Old Testament, the dew comes from heaven (Deu 33:13; Deu 33:28; Pro 3:20; Zec 8:12; Hag 1:10); with it the manna descended (Num 11:9); this seems therefore like bread rained down from heaven, and is called corn of heaven, bread of heaven (Psa 78:24; Psa 105:40). Further on Knobel relates that the ancients also supposed, that honey rained down from the air; hence he should more exactly distinguish between the notions of atmosphere and of heaven as the dwelling-place of God, comp. Joh 6:31-32.Man hu.The explanation that is to be derived from , to apportion, and that this expression therefore means: a present is that (Kimchi, Luther, Gesenius, Knobel. Kurtz), does not suit the context, which would make Moses repeat what the people had said before him, to say nothing of the fact that the derivation of the notion present from the verb is disputed. On the contrary, the interpretation of the LXX., Keil and others, , perfectly accords with the connection. They said: What is that? because they did not know what it was. for belongs to the popular language, and is preserved in Chaldee and Ethiopic, so that it is indisputably to be regarded as an old Shemitic form (Keil).
The natural manna and the miraculous manna.Comp. the articles in the Bible Dictionaries. Keil says: This bread of heaven was given by Jehovah to His people for the first time at a season and in a place where natural manna is still found. The natural manna is now found in the peninsula of Sinai usually in June and July, often even as early as in May, most abundantly in the vicinity of Mt. Sinai, in Wady Feiran and Es-sheikh, but also in Wady Ghurundel and Tayibeh (Seetzen, Reisen, III., p. 76, 129), and some valleys south-east of Mt. Sinai (Ritter, XIV., p. 676), where it in warm weather oozes by night out of the branches of the tarfa-tree, a sort of tamarisk, and in the form of small globules falls down upon the dry leaves, branches, and thorns which lie under the trees, and is gathered before sunrise, but melts in the heat of the sun. In years when rain is abundant, it falls more plentifully for six weeks; in many years it is entirely wanting. It has the appearance of gum, and has a sweet, honey-like taste, and when copiously used, is said to be a gentle laxative (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 600; Wellsted in Ritter, p. 674). There are thus presented some striking points of resemblance between the manna of the Bible and the tamarisk manna. Not only is the place where the Israelites first received manna the same as that in which it is obtained now, but the time of the year is the same, inasmuch as the 15th day of the second month (Exo 16:1) falls in the middle of our May, or even still later. Also in color, form and appearance the resemblance is unmistakable, since the tamarisk manna, though of a dull yellow color, yet when it falls upon stones is described as white; the resemblance is likewise seen in the fact, that it falls in kernels upon the earth, is gathered in the morning, melts in the sun, and tastes like honey. While these points of agreement indubitably point to a connection between the natural and the Biblical manna, yet the differences which run parallel with all of the resemblances indicate no less clearly the miraculous character of the heavenly bread. Thus Keil leaves the matter, without reconciling the two positions. The miraculous manna, he says, was enjoyed by the Israelites forty years long everywhere in the wilderness and at all seasons of the year in quantity equal to the wants of the very numerous people. Hengstenbergs theory (Geschichle des Bileam, p. 280) that the natural manna which is formed on the leaves of the tarfa-bush by the sting of an insect (according to a discovery of Ehrenbergs), is the natural substratum of the miraculous abundance of manna, is combated by Kurtz III., p. 34. Kurtz can conceive that the people lived at Kadesh thirty-seven years in apostasy, and that nevertheless during all this time they received regularly their portion of manna for every man. By this method of distinguishing the miraculous from the natural manna, we come to the hypothesis, that the people of Israel were fed with two kinds of manna; for it will certainly not be assumed that the natural fall of manna during all this time was supernaturally suspended, as in a similar manner Keil on Exo 16:10 makes out two pillars of cloud. Von Raumer and Kurtz, we may remark, go as much beyond Keil, as Keil does beyond Hengstenberg. Vid. Keil, p. 72, and the note on the same page. Between the baldly literal interpretation and the embellishments of wonder-loving legends the view above described recognizes nothing higher; it does not understand the symbolic language of the theocratic religion, nor see how an understanding of this lifts us as much above the mythical as the literal interpretation. The defect of the latter consists, as to substance, in the circumstance that it identifies the conception of nature with that of the common external world raised by a Providential government only a little above a material system; as to form, it is defective in that it identifies the word and the letter, and cannot understand and appreciate the specific difference between the heathen myth and the symbolical expression of the theocratic spirit as it blends together ideas and facts. Kurtz refers to the miracle in John 2, without clearly apprehending that this miracle would be the merest trifle, if his notion of the miracle of the manna is the correct one, to say nothing of the evident conflict of this with Joh 6:32. Knobel, whose learned disquisition on the manna (p. 171 sqq.) should be consulted, thus states the distinctive features of the miraculous manna, which he regards as a legendary thing: (a) The manna, according to the Biblical account, comes with the mist and dew from heaven (Exo 16:14);so Kurtz III., p. 28. But since the mist does not come down from the throne of God, the meaning is simply that it comes from above, not from below. (b) It falls in such immense abundance that every person of the very numerous people daily receives an omer (Exo 16:16; Exo 16:36). The omer, however, is a very moderate hand measure, the tenth part of an ephah, originally hardly a definite quantity, vid. Keil II., p. 74. (c) Furthermore, those who gather the manna collect always only just what they need, no more and no less. This is clearly to be symbolically explained of contentedness and community. (d) The manna falls only on the six working-days, not on the seventh day, it being the Sabbath (Exo 16:26 sq.). On this is to be observed that this extraordinary fact was needed only once, in order to sanction the Sabbath; the fact may also be explained by the circumstance that on the day before an extraordinary, double fall of manna took place. (e) The manna which is kept over from one working-day to another becomes wormy and offensive (Exo 16:20), whilst that preserved from the sixth day to the seventh keeps good (Exo 16:24), for which reason, except on the sixth day, the manna must always be eaten on the day when it is gathered. This too is a singular, enigmatical fact; but it is cleared up by looking at it in its rich ideal light. The supply which heathen providence heaps up breeds worms, decays, and smells offensively: not so the supply required by the Sabbath rest, sacred festivities, and divine service. (f) It is ground in the hand-mill, crushed in the mortar, and cooked by baking or boiling, made e.g. into cakes (Exo 16:23, Num 11:8). (g) It appears in general as a sort of bread, tasting like baked food (Exo 16:31, Num 11:8), and is always called , even (vid. Exo 16:15), to say nothing of the miraculous doubling of the quantity (Exo 16:5; Exo 16:22). This latter feature comes at once to nothing, if we assume that on the sixth day there was a double fall of manna.18 How far the manna, which contains no farinaceous elements, but only glucose, was mingled with farinaceous elements, in order to be used after the manner of farinaceous food, we need not inquire; at all events the Israelites could not afterwards have said, of a properly farinaceous substance, and that too of a superior kind, Our soul loatheth this light food. The splendor with which faith, wonder, and gratitude had invested the enjoyment of the miraculous food had vanished. According to Keil, the connection of the natural manna with the miraculous manna is not to be denied, but we are also not to conceive of a mere augmentation, but the omnipotence of God created from the natural substance a new one, which in quality and quantity as far transcends the products of nature as the kingdom of grace and glory outshines the kingdoms of nature. But Christ, in John 6, speaks of a manna in the kingdom of grace and glory, in contrast with the Mosaic manna.According to Kurtz, who, especially in opposition to Karl Ritter, follows the opinion of Schubert, the manna was prepared by a miracle of omnipotence in the atmosphere; according to Schubert, that tendency to the production of manna which at the right time permeated the vitalizing air, and with it all the vital forces of the land, has propagated itself still, at least in the living thickets of the manna-tamarisks. The natural manna, then, is a descendant of the Biblical manna, but a degenerate sort, developed by the puncture made by the cochineal insect in the branches of the tarfa-shrub !
We are specially to consider further (1) the preservation of a pot, containing an omer of manna, in the sanctuary; (2) the specification of the time during which the use of manna by the Israelites lasted. As to the first point, the object was to preserve the manna as a religious memorial; hence the expression of the LLX., , is exegetical. The historian here evidently anticipates the later execution of the charge now given. Comp. Hengstenberg, Pentateuch II., p. 169 sqq. (Kurtz). As to the second point, it is expressively said that Israel had no lack of the miraculous manna so long as they were going through the wilderness; but Kurtz infers from Jos 5:11-12, that the Jews did not cease to eat manna till after the passover in Gilgal, though they had other food besides. The correct view is presented in the Commentary on Joshua, Exo 5:12, where stress is laid on the contrast between Jehovahs immediate preservation of the food of the wilderness, on the one hand, and the historical development that took the place of this, on the other hand, i.e., the natural order of things which belongs to civilized life; corresponding to the fact that the ark took the place of the pillar of cloud and fire, as leader of the people.
The question whether in this narrative the Sabbath is instituted for the first time (Hengstenberg), or again renewed (Liebetrut), is thus decided by Kurtz (III., p. 42): The observance of the Sabbath was instituted before the law, may even in Paradise, but the law of the Sabbath first received a legal character through the revelation on Sinai, and lost it again through the love which is the fulfilling of the law, in the new covenant (Col 2:16-17). In the fulfilment nothing indeed is lost, but every law becomes a liberating principle. It is noticeable how in the history of Moses, patriarchal customs, to which also probably the Sabbath belonged, are sanctioned by miraculous events and receive a legal character; as has already been seen in various instances (festivals, worship, sanitary laws, official rank, the Sabbath).
4. Rephidim
a. Rephidim and the place called Temptation and Strife.
Following the route of the mountain road the Israelites now came out of the region of the red sandstone into that of porphyry and granite (Knobel, p. 174). They came thither according to their days journeys, i.e., after several days journeys. In Num 33:12 the two stations Dophkah and Alush are mentioned. On the conjecture of Knobel (p. 174) concerning these places, vid. Keil II., p. 76.
According to Knobel (p. 176), popular tradition transfers the occurrence here mentioned to Kadesh, therefore to a later time, (Num 20:8). It is a universal characteristic of modern scientists that, not being free from the propensity to give predominant weight to sensible things, they are easily carried away with external resemblances, hence with allegories, and so may disregard the greatest internal differences of things. Thus as the external resemblance of man to the monkey is more impressive to the naturalist than the immense inward contrast, so Biblical criticism often becomes entangled in this modern allegorizing; even Hengstenberg pays tribute to it in identifying the Simon of Bethany with the Pharisee Simon on the Lake of Galilee, and so, the Mary of Bethany with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus.
As the sending of the quails in Num 11:5 sqq., forms a companion-piece to that in Exodus 16, so the water of strife in Num 20:2 sqq., to the water of strife in Rephidim. There is a resemblance even in the sounds of the names of the deserts Sin ( thorn?), and Zin ( low palm). So also the want of water and the murmurs of the people, and in consequence of this the seemingly identical designation of the place; also the giving of water out of the rock. Aside from the difference of time and place, the internal features of the two histories are also very different; even the difference in the designations is to be observed, the place Massah and Meribah (temptation and strife), and the water Meribah, over which the children of Israel strove with Jehovah, and He was sanctified (shown to be holy) among them. In the first account Jehovah is only tempted by the people; in the second, He is almost denied. In the one, Moses is said to smite the rock, away from the people, in the presence of the elders; in the other, he and Aaron are said to speak with the rock before all the people. Also the summary description of the journey in Deu 1:37, leaves no doubt that the second incident is entirely different from the first. Likewise in Deu 33:8, two different things are mentioned, and the temptation at Massah is distinguished from the strife at the water of strife, (comp. Psa 95:8). It lies in the nature of the case that the religious mind would celebrate in a comprehensive way its recollection of the most essential thing in the two events, viz., the miraculous help of Jehovah, Deu 8:15, Isa 48:21, Psa 78:15; Psa 78:20; Psa 105:41; Psa 114:8, Neh 9:15. Why chide ye with me?The true significance of this chiding with him Moses at once characterizes: it is a tempting of Jehovah. This he could do after what he had affirmed in Exo 16:8-9. After the giving of the quails and the manna, designed to confirm the divine mission of Moses and Aaron, they had now to do with Jehovah, when they quarrelled with Moses. But how far did they tempt Jehovah? Not simply by unbelieving doubt of the gracious presence of the Lord (Keil). They sinfully tested the question whether Jehovah would again stand by Moses, or would this time forsake him. Hence their reproach against Moses reaches the point of complaining that he is to blame for their impending ruina complaint which might well have been followed by stoning. Jehovahs command corresponds with this state of things. Moses is to go confidently away from the people to the still distant Horeb, but to take with him the elders of the people as witnesses, and there to smite the rock with his rod. But Jehovah is to stand there before him on the rock. Does this mean, as Keil represents, that God humbles Himself like a servant before his master? He rather appears as Moses visible representative, who rent the rock and produced the miraculous spring. The rock that followed them, says Paul, was Christ (1Co 10:4). Thence again is seen the divine human nature of the miracle, a mysterious synthesis of natural feeling and prophecy of grace. On Tacitus invidious narrative of Moses having discovered a spring of water by means of a drove of wild asses, see Kurtz III., p. 48.
b. Rephidim and Amalek. Hostile Heathendom.
As in the account of Amalek we see typically presented the relation of the people of God to the irreconcilably hostile heathendom; so in that of Jethro their relation to heathendom as manifesting a kindly disposition towards the theocracy.
Exhaustive treatises on the Amalekites may be found in the dictionaries and commentaries, especially also in Hengstenberg (Pentateuch II., p. 247 sqq., and Kurtz III., p. 48). In the way nations used to be formed, Amalek, a grandson of Esau, might quite well have become a nation by Moses time (vid. Genesis 36), Edomite leaders forming a nucleus around which a conglomerate multitude gathered. The Edomite tendency to barbarism was perpetuated in Amalek, and so in his descendants was developed a nation of Bedouin robbers, who might have spread from Idumea to Sinai, and perhaps in their capacity as waylayers had come to give name to a mountion of the Amalekites in the tribe of Ephraim (Jdg 12:15). Thus might a little people, which was kindred to Israel in the same way as Edom was, after Israel was regenerated to be the people of God, be the first to throw themselves hostilely in their way, and thus become the representative of all hostile heathendom, as opposed to the people and kingdom of God. In accordance with this was shaped the theocratic method of warfare against Amalek. and the typical law of war (see Keil II., p. 77). It is significant that the Midianites in the branch represented by Jethro should present heathendom on friendly terms with Israel, although the relationship was much less close. On the denial of the identity between the Amalekites and the above-mentioned descendants of Esau, see Kurtz III., p. 49. The descendant of Esau might, however, have received his name Amalek by transfer from the Bedouin horde which became subservient to him.
Then came Amalek. According to Deu 25:18, the attack of the Amalekites was a despicable surprise of the feeble stragglers of the Israelites. We have to conceive the order of the events to be about as follows: The murmuring on account of want of water and the relief of that want took place immediately after the arrival at Rephidim of the main part of the host which had hurried forward, whilst the rear, whose arrival had been delayed by fatigue, was still on the way. These were attacked by the Amalekites (Kurtz). The several features in the contest now beginning are these: Joshua with his chosen men; Moses on the mountain; the victory; the memorial of the fight; the altar Nissi and its typical significanceeternal war against Amalek!
Joshua. Jehovah is help, or salvation. Thus, according to Num 13:16, his former name, Hoshea (help, or salvation) was enriched; and perhaps the present war and victory occasioned the change.Choose us out men. It was the first war which the people of God had to wage, and it was against a wild and insidious foe. Hence no troops of doubtful courage could be sent against the enemy, but a select company must fight the battle, with Joshua at the head, whose heroic spirit Moses had already discovered. Precipitancy also was avoided. They let the enemy remain secure until the following day. The host of warriors, however, had to be supported by the host of spirits in the congregation interceding and blessing, as represented by Moses in conjunction with Aaron and Hur. See my pamphlet Vom Krieg und vom Sieg.
The completed victory was to be immortalized by the military annals (the book) and by the living recollections of the host (in the ears of Joshua).The altar Nissi (Jehovah my banner), however, was to serve the purpose of inaugurating the consecration of war by means of right military religious service. Accordingly, the two essential conditions of the war were, first, Jehovahs summoning the people to the sacred work of defense, secondly, Jehovahs own help. And also the war against Amalek is perpetuated until he is utterly destroyed only in the sense that Amalek typically represents malicious hostility to the people and kingdom of God.
Hur comes repeatedly before us (Exo 24:14, Exo 31:2) as a man of high repute, and as an assistant of Moses. Josephus (Ant. III. 2, 4), following a Jewish tradition, of the correctness of which there is much probability, calls him the husband of Miriam, Moses sister (Kurtz). According to Exo 31:2, he was the grandfather of Bezaleel, the architect of the tabernacle, of the tribe of Judah, and the son of Caleb (Chron. Exo 1:17.)
It is clear that the transaction with the rod of Moses was in this case too a symbolic and prophetic, a divine and human, assurance of victory. Therefore the rod must be held on high, and inasmuch as Moses hands cannot permanently hold it up, they must be supported by Aaron and Hur. In the holy war the priesthood and nobility must support the prophetical ruler. Thus is produced an immovable confidence in Jehovah Nissi, afterwards called Jehovah Sabaoth (of hosts). From His throne, through Moses hand, victorious power and confidence flow into the host of warriors. The book begun by Moses, in which the victory over Amalek is recorded, is important in reference to the question concerning the authority of the Bible. When Jehovah further commands Moses to intrust to Joshua the future extirpation of Amalek, it becomes evident even now that he is destined to be Moses successor (Kurtz). A conjecture about the hill where Moses stood may be found in Knobel, p. 177; Keil, II., p. 79. Subsequent wars waged against Amalek by Saul and David are narrated in 1 Samuel 15, 27, 30. Kurtz regards the elevated hand of Moses not as a symbol of prayer to Jehovah, but only of victorious confidence derived from Jehovah, III., p. 51. Keil rightly opposes the separation of the bestowment of victory from prayer, p. 79, but goes to the other extreme when he says, The elevated rod was a sign not for the fighting Israelites, since it cannot even be made out that they, in the confusion of battle, could see it, but for Jehovah. In all human acts of benediction prayer and the impartation of the blessing are united.
c. Jethro, and heathendom as friendly to the people of God.
Inasmuch as chap. 19 records the establishment of the theocracy, or of the typical kingdom of God, it is in the highest degree significant that the two preceding sections fix the relation and bearing of the people of God towards heathendom. Out of one principle are to flow two opposing ones, in accordance with the twofold bearing of heathendom. The heathen, represented by Amalek, who are persistently hostile, wage war against Jehovah Himself; on them destruction is eventually to be visited. The heathen, however, represented by Jethro, who are humane and cherish friendship towards the people of God, sustain towards Christianity, as it were, the relation of catechumens. The people of God enter into commercial and social intercourse with them under the impulse of religion and humanity; similarly James defines the relation of Christianity to Judaism. [There is nothing about this in his Epistle. Is the reference to Act 15:20-21?Tr.]
(i.) The pious heathen as guest, relative, and protector of Moses family, and as guardian of the spiritual treasures of Israel. Exo 18:1-4.
It seems like too legal a conception, when Keil calls Jethro the first-fruits among the heathen that seek the living God, and incidentally adduces his descent from Abraham. Jethro did not become a Jew, but remained a priest in Midian, just as John the Baptist did not become, properly speaking, a Christian, but remained a Jew. It is more correct, when Keil says that Amalek and Jethro typify and represent the two-fold attitude of the heathen world towards the kingdom of God. In opposition to the special conjectures of Kurtz and Ranke, especially also the assumption that there was not time enough in Rephidim for this new incident, see Keil, II. p. 84.19
(ii.) The pious heathen as sympathetic friend of Moses and of the people of God in their victories. Exo 18:5-9.
Notice the delicate discretion which both men observe, with all their friendship towards each other. Jethro does not rush impetuously forward; he sends word of his approach. Moses receives him with appropriate reverence, but first leads him into his tent; for whether and how he may introduce him to his people, is yet to be determined.
(iii.) Religious song and thank-offering of the pious heathen. Exo 18:10-12.
The lyrical,20 festive recognition of the greatness of Jehovah in His mode of bringing the Egyptians to confusion through their very arrogance does not involve conversion to Judaism; neither does the burnt-offering and the thank-offering: but they do indicate ideal spiritual fellowship, aside from social intercourse.
(iv.) The religious and social fellowship of the people of God, even of Aaron the priest, and of the elders, with the pious heathen. Exo 18:12.
A proof that the religious spirit of the Israelites was as yet free from the fanaticism of the later Judaism is seen in the fact that Aaron and the elders could take part in a sacrificial feast with Jethro. Common participation in the Passover meal would have been conditioned on circumcision.
(v.) The political wisdom and organizing talent of the pious heathen thankfully recognized and humbly used by the great prophet himself. Exo 18:13-26.
Jethros advice given to Moses, like political institutions and political wisdom, is not a gift of immediate revelation, but a fruit of the sensus communis. But observe that Jethro acknowledges the prophetic vocation of Moses, and Jehovahs revelation in regard to all great matters (questions of principle), just as Moses acknowledges the piety of his political wisdom. Moses and Jethro came nearer together than the medival church and ordinary liberalism. Exo 18:17-18 contain very important utterances concerning the consequences of such a hierarchy. On the distribution of the people according to the decimal system, see Keil, II., p. 87. The decimal numbers are supposed by him to designate approximately the natural ramifications of the people [ten being assumed to represent the average size of a family]. A further development of the institution (comp. Deu 1:9) took place later, according to Num 11:16.
(vi.) Distinct economies on a friendly footing with each other. Exo 18:27.
Analogous to this occurrence is the covenant of Abraham with Abimelech; the friendly relations maintained by David and Solomon with Hiram, king of Tyre, the queen of Sheba, etc.
Footnotes:
[7][Exo 16:15 . Gesenius and Knobel derive from , to apportion; Frst (Concordance) from the Sanscrit mani. But most scholars, following the evident implication of the narrative itself, regard as the Aramaic equivalent of . Even Frst so renders it in his Illustrirte Pracht-Bibel. Comp. Michaelis, Supplementa ad Lexica Hebraica.Tr.].
[8][Exo 16:20. And it bred worms: . The Heb. word seems to be the Fut. of defectively written, and therefore to mean: rose up into (or with) worms. Kalisch says, that the form is used instead of to show that it comes from (?) in the sense of putrefy. So Maurer and Ewald (Gr., 281, d). But it is doubtful whether (assumed as the root from which comes worm) really means putrefy at all. Frst defines it by crawl. Moreover, it would be inverting the natural order of things to say, that the manna became putrid with worms; the worms are the consequence, not the cause, of the putridness. Rosenmller, Frst, Arnheim and others render by swarm, abound, but probably as a free rendering for rose up. De Wette: da wuchsen Wrmer. The A. V. rendering may stand as a substantially correct reproduction of the sense.Tr.].
[9][Exo 17:16. We have given the most literal rendering of this difficult passage. But possibly , instead of meaning for (or because), may (as often in Greek) be the mere mark of a quotation, to be omitted in the translation. The meaning of the expression itself is very doubtful. The A. V., following some ancient authorities, takes it as an oath; but for this there is little ground. Keil interprets: The hand raised to the throne of Jehovah in heaven; Jehovahs war against Amalek, i.e. the hands of the Israelites, like those of Moses, must be raised heavenward towards Jehovahs throne, while they wage war against Amalek. Others interpret: Because a hand (viz. the hand of the Amalekites) is against the throne of Jah, therefore Jehovah will forever have war with Amalek. This interpretation has the advantage over Keils of giving a more natural rendering to , which indeed in a few cases does mean up to, but only when it is (as it is not here) connected with a verb which requires the preposition to be so rendered. Others (perhaps the majority of modern exegetes) would read (banner), instead of (throne), and interpret: The hand upon Jehovahs banner; Jehovah has war, etc. This conjecture is less objectionable than many attempted improvements of the text, inasmuch as the name of the altar, Jehovah-nissi (Jehovah, my banner), seems to require an explanation, and would receive it if the reading were , instead of Tr.].
[10]Inasmuch as Pelusium, as being a marshy city, is culled Sin, and Sinai, being a rocky mountain, is just the opposite, the question arises: What is the common feature of a marshy wilderness, and of a rocky mountain range? Possibly, the points and denticulations of the thorn-bush. An old interpretation calls Sinai itself a thorn-bush, from the thorn-bush () in which Jehovah revealed Himself to Moses. The stony wilderness may have the thorn-bush in common with the marshy fens.
[11][Lange omits another way which might have been taken, viz., from el-Murkhah along the coast, and thence up Wady Feiran, instead of the more direct way through the wadies Shellal and Mukatteb into Wady Feiran. This is the course which the members of the Sinai Survey Expedition unanimously decided to be the most probable, inasmuch as the road over the pass of Nagb Buderah, between the wadies Shellal and Mukatteb, must have been constructed at a time posterior to the Exodus (E. H. Palmer: The Desert of the Exodus, p. 275). Robinson also mentions this route as at least equally probable with the other (I., p. 107). Palmer is quite decided that no other route afforded facilities for a large caravan such as that of the Israelites.Tr.]
[12][This is not perspicuous. Inasmuch as Serbal is not mentioned in the Bible, no inference can be drawn from these circumstances respecting its location. Moreover, Serbal is not north of Sinai (Jebel Musa), but nearly easta little north only. And why is north called behind? The hinder region, according to Hebrew conceptions, is in the west.Tr.]
[13][The theory that Rephidim is to be sought in er-Raba (advocated by Knobel, Keil, Lange, and others), is certainly open to the objection that that plain is close by Mt. Sinai itself, and is in all probability the camping-place before the mount, mentioned in Exo 19:1-2. Palmer (p. 112) and Robinson (I., p. 155) are emphatic in the opinion that the plain of Sebaiveh, south-east of Jebel Musa, is quite insufficient to have accommodated the Israelitish camp. Rephidim, therefore, being (according to Exo 19:2) at least a days march from the place whence Moses went up to receive the law, cannot well have been er-Raha. Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, p. 40) and Palmer defend the old view that it is to be looked for at Feiran, near Mt. Serbal. Palmer argues that the distance, apparently much too great to have been traversed in a single day, is no insuperable objection, provided that by the wilderness of Sinai we understand the mouth of Nagb Hawa, which may have been reached in a single day by the direct route from Feiran.Tr.]
[14][On this point see the last note. A good map of the whole peninsula is to be found in Smith and Groves Atlas of Ancient Geography.Tr.]
[15]The Arabs call the well exitium, interitus, probably in accordance with the notion that that which is bitter is deadly (2Ki 4:40). Knobel. The Arabs may make humorous remarks about bad wells of water, like the Germans on bad wines, in hyperbolical expressions which are not to be taken literally.
[16][Wilson, (Lands of the Bible, Vol. I., p. 174), would identify with Elim, not Wady Ghurundel, but Wady Waseit (Useit), five or six miles south of Wady Ghurundel.Tr.].
[17]Further on follows the fundamental law of warfare in self-defence against heathen enemies, as well as the fundamental law for the unhesitating appropriation of heathen wisdom.
[18][This reply, apparently not very clear, is the same as the one made above to specification (d) of Knobel. Lange distinguishes between a miraculous fall and an extraordinary fall, and supposes besides that the extraordinary (double) fall may have been limited to one occasion.Tr.]
[19][Kurtzs conjecture is that what led Jethro to visit Moses was the report of the victory of the Israelites over Amalek; to which the reply is that nothing is said of this, but, on the contrary, that it was the report of the deliverance from Egypt that occasioned the visit. Rankes conjecture is that Jethros visit took place after the giving of the law, on the ground that the stay at Rephidim was too short; to which it is replied that, if (as is assumed from Exo 16:1 and Exo 19:1) half a month intervened between the arrival at the wilderness of Sin and the arrival at the wilderness of Sinai, ample time is afforded for all that is recorded in Exodus 18.Tr.]
[20][Lange regards Exo 18:10-11 as poetic in form.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS
Israel, having left the Red sea, journeyeth into the wilderness, and from Elim arrives at Sin. The people murmur for want of bread. God supplies them miraculously, in a method till then unknown. Manna is rained from heaven, and quails cover the camp. The people are taught how to gather their daily provisions; and a pot of manna is, at the command of God, laid up for a memorial. These are the contents of this Chapter.
Exo 16:1
And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
If the Reader will be at the pains to calculate, he will find that Israel had been just a month from Egypt, when they arrived at the wilderness of Sin. See Exo 12:17-18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Exo 16:2
It is ‘worthy of remark,’ Milton indignantly observes in his Second Defence, ‘that those who are the most unworthy of liberty are wont to behave most ungratefully towards their deliverers’.
Compare the further application of this passage by Milton in his tract on ‘The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, and the Excellence thereof, compared with the Inconveniences and Dangers of Readmitting Kingship in this Nation’. Towards the close of his remonstrance, he writes thus: ‘If the people be so affected as to prostitute religion and liberty to the vain and groundless apprehension that nothing but kingship can restore trade… and that therefore we must forego and set to sale religion, liberty, honour, safety, all concernments Divine or human, to keep up trading: if, lastly, after all this light among us, the same reason shall pass for current, to put our necks again under kingship, as was made use of by the Jews to return back to Egypt and to the worship of their idol queen, because they falsely imagined that they then lived in more plenty and prosperity; our condition is not sound, but rotten, both in religion and all civil prudence…. But I trust I shall have spoken persuasion to abundance of sensible and ingenuous men; to some, perhaps, whom God may raise from these stones to become children of reviving liberty; and may reclaim, though they seem now choosing them a captain back for Egypt, to bethink themselves a little, and consider whence they are rushing; to exhort this torrent also of the people, not to be so impetuous, but to keep their one channel.’ Contrast the character of the Duke of Wellington, as Coleridge in his Table-Talk (4 July, 1830) draws it: ‘He seems to be unaccustomed to, and to despise, the inconsistencies, the weaknesses, the bursts of heroism followed by prostration and cowardice, which invariably characterize all popular efforts. He forgets that, after all, it is from such efforts that all the great and noble institutions of the world have come.’
Exo 16:4
St. John of the Cross notes on this text that the manna was not given to the Israelites until the corn they had brought from Egypt failed. ‘This teaches us that we must first renounce all things, for this manna of the angels neither belongs nor is given to the palate which still relishes the food of men.’ He quotes the words of Num 11:4 , ‘Who shall give us flesh to eat?’ ‘They would not content themselves with that so simple manna, but desired and begged for manna of flesh. And our Lord was displeased because they wished to mix so low and coarse a food with one so high and pure: a manna which, simple as it was, contains within itself the savour of all foods.’
Obras, vol. 1. p. 19.
References. XVI. 4. J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 287. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2332. XVI. 4-12. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, etc., p. 65. XVI. 14, 15. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, vol. ii. p. 239.
Holy Communion: The Bread of Life
Exo 16:15

Our subject is the supply given by God to His people for one of their great needs. In the wilderness, where no food could grow or could be obtained, God gave His people bread from heaven to eat.
I. The Jews expected the Messiah to give them food from heaven. The manna they expected from their second Redeemer may not have been bodily food; it was, according to some interpreters, food for the soul. The second Redeemer brought with Him from heaven heavenly food. But, alas! the Jews did not recognize the heavenly food when it came.
II. We are travelling through the wilderness of our promised land, and that wilderness provides us with nothing which can supply the wants of our being. God gives us day by day our daily bread, but man cannot live by bread alone. So God gives us something more precious, something which can really sustain our life. He gives us that which is no product of earth, the true bread from heaven the living bread the only bread which can support us in our journeyings the only food which can deliver us from death, and that food is the Son of God Whom He sent to be the life of the world.
III. And how do we feed upon Him? We can feed upon Him at any time. We do feed upon Him when our faith goes forth from us and takes hold of Him as the source and stay of our life. But undoubtedly there is a special means provided for us by God that we may feed upon Him, namely, the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.
We need faith above all in our Communions. Faith to realize the Presence of the Saviour faith to feed upon His Body and Blood faith to assimilate the Divine life which flows to us from Him. Having deep repentance and true faith, we shall necessarily have fervent love, for we shall know and feel the greatness of God’s love to us unworthy sinners. Having then all three Christian virtues, we shall nourish our souls to everlasting life by feeding on the manna in Christ’s own way. And having the Divine life within us, we shall pass along our desert way, till Jordan being past, we shall no longer need to receive our heavenly gifts through earthly signs. Sacraments will cease when we see our Lord face to face, even as the manna ceased when the Israelites entered Canaan.
F. Watson, The Christian Life Here and Hereafter, p. 79.
Reference. XVI. 15. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Blessed Sacrament, p. 24.
Exo 16:16
The same hand that rained manna upon their tents could have rained it into their mouths or laps. God loves we should take pains for our spiritual food. Little would it have availed them, that the manna lay about their tents, if they had not gone forth and gathered it, beaten it, baked it. Let salvation be never so plentiful, if we bring it not home and make it ours by faith, we are no whit the better.
Bishop Hall.
An Omer for Each Man

How great a virtue is temperance, how much of moment through the whole life of man! Yet God commits the managing so great a trust, without particular law or prescription, wholly to the demeanour of every grown man, and therefore when He Himself tabled the Jews from heaven, that omer, which was every man’s daily portion of manna, is computed to have been more than might have well sufficed the heartiest feeder thrice as many meals. For those actions which enter not into a man, rather than issue out of him, and therefore defile not, God trusts him with the gift of reason to be his own chooser.
Milton, Areopagitica.

References. XVI. 29. R. F. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. 1906, p. 1. XVI. 35. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 229. XVII. 1-7. K. Moody-Stuart, Light from the Holy Hills, p. 42.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

1. And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin (exactly one month after the departure from Egypt), which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt 2. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured (this is the third murmuring) against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
3. And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God (Heb. omits the word God ) we had died by the hand of the Lord (perhaps an allusion to the last of the plagues) in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full (a compliment to Egypt); for ye have brought us forth into, this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
4. Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day (a day’s meal for a day), that I may prove them (what God did in Eden) whether they will walk in my law, or no.
5. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day (in Egypt the week of seven days was at this time unknown) they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
6. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:
7. And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?
8. And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.
9. And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord: for he hath heard your murmurings,
10. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud (the pillar of the cloud is meant).
11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
12. I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.
13. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up (the common quail is very abundant in the east), and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host (literally, there was a lying of dew).
14. And when the dew that lay was gone up (drawn by the heat of the sun), behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
15. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna (what is this?); for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat (and which they did eat for forty years).
16. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer (about three pints English) for every man (for every head), according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
17. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
18. And when they did mete it with an omer (publicly measured in the camp), he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
19. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
20. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
21. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
22. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses (who had either not made known the law, or the rulers had forgotten it).
23. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord (not the rest. The absence of the article intimates that it is a new thing that is announced): bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
24. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
25. And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to-day ye shall not find it in the field.
26. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
27. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
28. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my laws?
29. See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
30. So the people rested on the seventh day.
31. And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna: and it was like coriander seed, white (a small round grain, of a whitish or yellowish grey); and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
32. And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
33. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.
34. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept.
35. And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
36. Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
Manna In the Wilderness
Exo 16

Always remember that these are the people who had just been singing. Whatever they did they seemed to do with a will. We thrilled under their song: we called it sublime, religiously impressive, and morally full of the spirit of education and comfort. The song has hardly died away from their lips when they begin to murmur. They first murmured at Marah because the waters were bitter, and now they murmur in the wilderness because food is scanty. There are many people who sing with great expression and fervour when everything is going just as they want it to go. Their song is full of emptiness; it is a vain speech and a profanation of music. There are many such living and have lived in all ages. We know how their business is going by the way in which they accost us. They have no souls. Always remember, further, that just one month had elapsed since the departure from Egypt. The poet makes a point of the two little months that had elapsed between two circumstances which were apparently incongruous and irreconcilable. He cries the more bitterly when he says, “But two months two little months!” Here that act, so startling, marked by cruelty and by baseness of design, is completely outdone: for there was but one month one little month between the mighty deliverance and the atheistic murmuring. It is difficult to have a solid piety really four-square, permanent in its dignity, independent of all circumstances, except so far as its immediate being is concerned, a piety founded upon a rock lifting up its turrets and pinnacles to the sky, defying all wind, and thunder, and tumult of the elements. Until we realise such a piety as that, our education is immature and incomplete.
Observe how the most astounding miracles go for nothing. Then the miracles were nothing to those who observed them. They were applauded at the time, they sent a little thrill through those who looked upon them with eyes more or less vacant and meaningless; but as to solid result, educational virtue and excellence, the miracles might as well not have been wrought at all. It was the same in the days of Jesus Christ. All his miracles went for nothing amongst many of the people who observed them. A miracle is a wonder, and a wonder cannot be permanent. Wonders soon drop into commonplaces, and that which astounded at first lulls at last, yea, that which excited a kind of groping faith may by repetition soon come to excite doubt and scepticism and fear. What wonder, then, if the miracles having thus gone down in importance and value, the most splendid personal services followed in their wake? This is a necessary logic; this is a sequence that cannot be broken. He who goes down on the Divine or upward side of his nature must go down on the human and social side in the same proportion; when faith in miracles goes, faith in all that is noblest in brotherhood will follow it. A kind of socialism will be trumped up, a species of commonwealth will be attempted, men will try to make up for their non-religion by their surplus philanthropy; but the adequate truths being absent the attempt will end in spasm, and impotence, and uselessness. We owe more to the religious element than we suppose. Religion is not confined to the region of contemplation, speculation, metaphysical inquiry, secret and ineffective worship. It comes down into all the lines of life; it lifts up common speech into uncommon eloquence; it raises out of the stones children unto Abraham; it turns the common supper-bread into a symbol of the Lord’s body. Do not let us imagine, then, that we can dismiss faith in the miracles, faith in inspiration, faith in the Bible, and yet retain society in all its deepest meaning and tenderest ministries and noblest uses. When the altar falls, the home is no longer safe.
Observe what an effect long servitude had produced upon the children of Israel. Was there ever a meaner cry than this: “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full”? That is not manly. How is such un manliness of whining and whimpering to be accounted for? By long subjugation; by days and months and years and generations of servitude. The man can be driven out of the man; the man can be debased into almost a beast of burden. He can forget his yesterdays, his heaven-pointing book, his prayer, and all the upward look that made him almost an angel. Servitude has done this in every country; and we cannot expect people who have been for generations in bondage to stand up and claim intellectual equality with men who have been living under the sun of freedom century after century. The criticism would be unfair. Were this a merely historical matter, it would be of comparatively little consequence; but it is a spiritual matter. The eternal form of the lesson is this: that servitude to sin takes the pith out of manhood. A man cannot be both a bad man and a strong man. The law unwritten, if you please of heaven, of the eternities is against this anomaly. Repeat the sin, and you drop into a deeper baseness; renew your loyalty to the devil, and your power of resisting him goes down with every new act of obeisance. So the time comes when the strong man becomes himself in abject servility to the foe. He who once could say No with all the roundness and emphasis of the thunder, can now only whisper his consent to the temptations of the devil. Virtue grows stronger and stronger. He that hath clean hands becomes a mightier man every day; at the last he is a giant, as in the midst he was a hero.
What do the people do? They rest in second causes. The people saw no further than Moses and Aaron: they complained against their leaders; they murmured against the Divinely-appointed princes of Israel. What is the all-healing method of looking at things? looking at the whole, or taking a comprehensive view. This is the difficulty of all time. It is the supreme trial of many men. Who can see a whole horizon? Who has a pivotal mind that can turn round and see all that there is to be seen? We suffer from our very intensity of mind, that is to say, from our power of fixing the attention upon one point only and not taking the whole circle and the whole balance of the Divine economy. What a difference there is amongst men in this respect! How needful it is to get rid of the sophism that one man is equal to another, or is upon a level with another, or is to be accounted only as one by any other. We need correction upon the matter of personality. Moses was more than a person in the narrow and familiar sense of that term. So are all the prophets and leaders of the Church, so are all the seers and mighty men of God in every age. Luther was not one; Wesley was not one simply a man, a figure, a unit. There are personalities that are compendiums; there are individualities that are full of nations and empires and fatherhoods of glory. There are Abrahams who have in them a multitude no more to be counted than is the sand upon the seashore. So when we talk about “personal following” we talk about that which needs definition. Who is the person? Is he the father of a multitude, the prince of nationalities? Is he fruitful of thought, having ideas on which ages may feed? So we say “Take him for all in all,” or, to use a commoner form of expression, “Looking at him all round.” But in many cases there is no “all for all” to take: there is no “all round” to survey. In such instances, we cannot talk about persons and personalities and individual followings, for following there will be little or none. It is the man who is himself a Multitude that takes the nations with him. Moses, therefore, is not to be noted in the census of the wilderness as one but as a whole nation.
So far the children of Israel were right: they complained against the right man if it were proper to complain against him at all. What we need is the complete view, the all-including view, the Apostolic view, lifted up to which the greatest man born of woman has said, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” We sometimes miss the sublime boldness of that speech by omitting to reflect that the man who spoke it had a mind that could stretch itself by sacred imagination and tender sympathy over all the things of which the Divine economy is compounded. God is the real object of murmuring. Moses put this point very clearly: “Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.” The people did not mean that, perhaps; but we cannot be measured by our own reckoning when we come into the sphere religious and moral. We are always doing things we do not mean to do, and sometimes we do things of which we are wholly ignorant; and when we are sharply reminded of what the real meaning of our action is, we stand back in affront and express the language of surprise, and assume an attitude of unbelief. But we need the great teachers of the Bible, the men of penetration of every age, to show us what an action is. The man of science tells us that when we lift a hand we send a motion to the stars. Having heard that statement we account it grand, because it is the statement of one of the exact sciences. When another man of science says that every breath you draw affects the general level of the Atlantic, we say, “How amazing are the discoveries of science!” When the moral seer tells us that our whining is not against man but against God, we call him a “fanatic”! The ways of man are not equal. He who is amazed, because he is given to understand that the lifting of his hand sends a shudder to the stars, listens with unbelief to the statement that a lie grieves the Spirit of God, a sin of any name wounds the peace of Heaven.
God knows how far he himself is responsible for our circumstances, and up to that degree he is faithful. He will find a solution of all difficulties how tangled and obstinate soever. This is a case in point: The people had not taken themselves into the wilderness: God had taken them there, and he will see them out of it. So we say about honourable men when they undertake to lead us, and certain circumstances transpire which are of the nature of difficulty and hindrance. They say, in the spirit of honour, “We are accountable for this; our strength is yours until this battle is fought; you did not bring yourselves in here, and out of it we will see you, health permitting, life being spared.” So the Lord will not leave us in wildernesses into which he himself has brought us. If we ourselves have gone into the desert without his permission or consent, we may be allowed to die there, and to remain without a grave in the sand in which we vainly thought to find a heaven: but if we have obeyed the Divine voice, and gone in the providential way, whatever there is on the road Marah, or place of sand, or great river, or greater sea God will find a way through all. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
See how wonderfully God asserts law in the very midst of the most compassionate mercy: I will give you bread in the wilderness, but on the sixth day you shall gather a double quantity; the Sabbath must be kept. How marvellous are the compassions of God! and how marvellous the law of God! We are not given over to wantonness and licence, gathering just as much as we please and every day of the week. God will have his time respected. If you gather more than he wants you to gather, it will rot, it will offend your nostrils by its pestilent odour, and you will be glad to get rid of it. If you go out on the Sunday to see if you cannot do something that you did on Saturday, God will attend to the penal side of the act; you are building a house of smoke, and you can never live to enjoy it. Life is law mercy; work-day rest-day; labour prayer; on the earth in heaven. Blessed is the man whose life is thus balanced.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth lite unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.” A noble prayer! Made for every age, capable of being uttered by every tongue. “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” So there is an evangelical use of the ancient incident. Thus old history is turned into new uses, and all the days of the past are regarded as parables which have been teaching some higher truth than was at first observed within the corners of the narrow facts.
God is repeating this manna miracle every day. All food comes from above. You mistake, if you think you find your food otherwhere than from heaven. No sky, then no wheat; no cloud overhead, then no garden round about; no firmament, then no earth; no rain, no beauty; no fragrance of flowers, no summer feast. What are we eating? On what is our life being supported? We ought to ascertain this, and be very clear and distinct about it. At what table are we sitting? a table of our own spreading, or of God’s? “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” These are the invitations that make the Bible the most hospitable of all books. The Bible will have us eat and drink abundantly at God’s banquet board. What is our reply? Shall we eat bread for the body and have no sustenance for the mind? Shall we feed the flesh and starve the soul? Are we men of boasted wisdom and education the men to strengthen the bones and make as iron the sinews, and attend to all the wants of the flesh, and to let the soul, the spirit, the inner guest die for want of light and air, and nutriment? Count him a murderer who kills his soul.
Moses In the Wilderness of Sin

Exo 16:3
People may be strong and hopeful at the beginning of a project, and most effusively and devoutly thankful at its close, but the difficulty is to go manfully through the process. Israel was in the desert, and never were spoiled children more peevish, suspicious, and altogether ill-behaved. If they could have stepped out of Egypt into Canaan at once, probably they would have been as pious as most of us; but there was the weary interval, the inhospitable wilderness! It is so in our life. Accept it as a solemn and instructive fact that life is a process. It is more than a beginning and an ending: more than a cradle and a grave. The child may be good, and the old man may be tranquil, but what of the petulant, self-willed, and prayerless being between these extremes?
The history leads us to dwell on Processes. See how far the historical teaching represents our own experience.
First. Processes try men’s temper. See how the temper of Israel was tried in the wilderness! No bread, no water, no rest! How do processes try men’s temper? (1) They are often tedious ; (2) they are often uncontrollable ; (3) they often seem to be made worse by the incompetency of others.

We must not drive life. Nature is not to be whipped and spurred by impatient riders. God’s administration is calm. The wheels of his chariot are not bespattered by the mud of blustering and reckless haste. On the other hand, we are not to find in this reflection an excuse for the indolence and incapacity of men. There are stones which we can roll away. There are turbid little streams which we can bridge. There are gates which weaker men than Samson can carry away. There is the profoundest difference between the indolence of men and the eternal calm of God. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” “I must work while it is called day.”
Second. The trials of processes are to be met not all at once, but a day at a time. “I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” See the law by which the manna was given. There was not a large store sent down. Daily hunger was met by daily bread. We are not allowed to live two days at once. In the parable the pendulum was told that it had to give but one tick at a time. The heart beats in the same way. Upon how little sleep it lives!
This daily display of Divine care teaches (1) that physical as well as spiritual gifts are God’s; (2) that one of God’s gifts is the pledge of another. “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” Why am I to be easy about tomorrow? Because God is good to-day! “He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.
Third. Processes show the different dispositions of men. Not their tempers only, but the deeper realities and aspects of their character. They were told not to leave any of the manna until the morning of the following day, but some of them did leave it. You cannot convince some men, nor can you bind them by authority, nor can you bring them under a common discipline. No. Provision must be made for madmen. Every society out of heaven is probably disturbed by some kind of eccentricity. Though the people were told in the distinctest manner that there would be no manna on the seventh day, yet they went out to gather it just as if they had never been warned! Such men are the vexation of the world. They plague every community of which they are a portion. You tell them that tickets cannot be had after a certain day, but they give you the lie, as far as they can, by coming for them two days after. There are such wise men everywhere, but happily they are now and then effectually checked and humbled. What a humiliation awaits them in the long run!
The history, at this point, urges the most direct application of its truths upon our spiritual nature, (1) We have the means of life at our disposal: the manna lies at our tent-door! (2) We are distinctly assured that such means are given under law: there is a set time for the duration of the opportunity: the night cometh!
Some men will set themselves against God in these matters. They will persistently work contrariwise. They will defy the law: they will challenge the sword: they will tell you that the night has no darkness for them, and that when God has shut the door the key of their importunity will open it! Beware of such men. They will fail you at last; and when you smite them with your reproaches, you can add no pain to the torment of their damnation.
Fourth. All the processes of life should be hallowed by religious exercises. There was a Sabbath even in the wilderness. The Sabbath is amongst the very oldest institutions. God rested on the seventh day, and blessed it. Before the law was given from Sinai God gave the Sabbath to Israel. Man must have rest, and all true rest is associated with religious ideas and aspirations. The animal rest is but typical: the soul must have its hours of quietness; the spirit must pause in the presence of God to recover its strength.
(1) The Sabbath is more than a mere law; it is an expression of mercy. (2) No man ever loses anything by keeping the Sabbath: “The Lord giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.” (3) He is the loser who has no day of rest.
Fifth. Processes should leave some tender and hope-inspiring memories behind them. “Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.” The way to enrich life is to keep a retentive memory in the heart. Look over a period of twenty years, and see the all-covering and ever-shining mercy of God! How many special providences have you observed? How many narrow escapes have you experienced? How many difficulties have you surmounted? How often have you found a pool in unexpected places? We should lay up some memory of the Divine triumphs which have gladdened our lives, and fall back upon it for inspiration and courage in the dark and cloudy day. Go into your yesterdays to find God! Search for him in the paths along which you have come, and if you dare, under the teaching of your own memories, deny his goodness, then betake yourselves to the infamous luxury of distrust and reproach!
Sixth. The process will end. Though the wheels move slowly, yet will they reach the goal! You are not the men you were twenty years ago! The most of the desert-road is now behind some of you. Your future on earth is narrowing itself to a point. How is it with your souls? Your feet are sore with the long journey; are your wings ready for flight into the kingdom of the crystal river and the unsetting sun?
Note on Manna

“It may have been derived from the manna rams known in various countries. There is an edible lichen which sometimes falls in showers several inches deep, the wind having blown it from the spots where it grew, and carried it onwards. In 1824 and in 1828, it fell in Persia and Asiatic Turkey in great quantities. In 1829, during the war between Persia and Russia, there was a great famine at Oroomiah, south-west of the Caspian Sea. One day, during a violent wind, the surface of the country was covered with what the people called ‘bread from heaven,’ which fell in thick showers. Sheep fed on it greedily, and the people who had never seen it before, induced by this, gathered it, and having reduced it to flour, made bread of it, which they found palatable and nourishing. In some places it lay on the ground five or six inches deep. In the spring of 1841, an amazing quantity of this substance fell in the same region, covering the ground, here and there, to the depth of from three to four inches. Many of the particles were as large as hail-stones. It was grey, and sweet to the taste, and made excellent bread. In 1846, a great manna rain, which occurred at Jenischehr, during a famine, attracted great notice. It lasted several days, and pieces as large as a hazel-nut fell in quantities. When ground and baked it made as good bread, in the opinion of the people, as that from grain. In 1846 another rain of manna occurred in the government of Wilna, and formed a layer upon the ground, three or four inches deep. It was of a greyish-white colour, rather hard, irregular in form, without smell, and insipid. Pallas, the Russian naturalist, observed it on the arid mountains and limestone tracts of the Great Desert of Tartary. In 1828, Parroth brought some from Mount Ararat, and it proved to be a lichen known as Parmelia Esculenta , which grows on chalky and stony soil, like that of the Kirghese Steppes of Central Asia. Eversmann described several kinds of it, last century, as found east of the Caspian, and widely spread over Persia and Middle Asia. It is round, and at times as large as a walnut, varying from that to the size of a pin’s head, and does not fix itself in the soil in which it grows, but lies free and loose, drinking in nourishment from the surface, and easily carried off by the wind, which sweeps it away in vast quantities in the storms of spring, and thus causes the ‘manna rains’ in the districts over which the wind travels.” Geikie’s “Hours with the Bible.”

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

X
FROM THE RED SEA TO SINAI
Exo 15:22-16:36

1. What notes of time and how long the period?
Ans. Exo 12:6-51 , shows that they started from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month. Exo 15:22 , the beginning of our lesson, shows that they go three days in the wilderness. Exo 16:1 , shows that they enter into the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month, and Exo 19:1 , shows that they arrived at Sinai on the same day of the third month. So that the period covered by this lesson was about two months.
2. What scripture gives all the camping stations?
Ans. Num 33:8-15 .
3. Explain methods of travel and stops, giving average distance per day including stops.
Ans. – (a) As the multitude was very great and included women and children, and as they were accompanied by flocks and herds that must be grazed, they necessarily moved slowly. Even large armies, however well disciplined, move slowly. How much more such a multitude of untrained women and children as were here. (b) They did not travel every day, sometimes remaining quite a while at a convenient stopping place. While the cloud stood still they stayed, (c) They averaged on this part of the journey about a mile a day including stops.
4. What was the starting point, what wildernesses are mentioned and what are the stopping places?
Ans. The starting point was the Red Sea; the wildernesses mentioned are the Wilderness of Etham, the Wilderness of Sin and the Wilderness of Sinai; and the stopping places are Marah, Elim, etc. (See Num 33:8-15 .)
5. What are the great events of this journey?
Ans. (1) The healing of the bitter water at Marah; (2) The good times at the many waters of Elim; (3) The coming of the manna and quail; (4) The sabbath marked and observed; (5) Water from the smitten rock at Rephidim; (6) The deliverance in battle at Rephidim.
6. What are the great lessons of these events?
Ans. (1) The checkered vicissitudes of an earthly pilgrimage; (2) God’s safe guidance of his people “Where he leads we will follow”; (3) God’s provision of competent human leaders; (4) God’s provision against sickness, thirst, hunger, nakedness, heat, and darkness; (5) God’s provision for regular worship; (6) The Lord is the banner of his people in battle; (7) The sin of murmuring when under God’s leadership; (8) All together his marvelous methods of training a nation by proving and discipline and healing and delivering.
7. What three instances of provision against thirst?
Ans. When the water was bad, when it was good and abundant, and when there was no water.
8. State the lesson of Marah?
Ans. (1) They were brought to this bad water to prove them, to afford them an opportunity of trusting God under difficult conditions. (2) It is distinctly a lesson of healing. Whatever the way, the water was diseased, poisoned by some unwholesome ingredient. It is quite possible that this poison came from stagnation. A flowing stream disposes of its poison. In Eze 47 , where we have an account of the marvelous water of life flowing from the sanctuary, it is stated in the paragraph, Eze 47:7-11 , that where the water flowed into a depression whence there was no outlet it became a salt marsh. As water must flow to be healthful, so a Christian must move forward or backslide. (3) The purpose of the miracle of healing the water was to suggest that God is able to prevent or to cure all the diseases of his people. (4) Therefore this healing was made the occasion of a statute requiring obedience as a condition of the divine blessing upon the pilgrims, followed by a glorious promise that he would put upon them none of the diseases to which the Egyptians were subject. (5) It is quite probable that the spiritualizing interpreters are right in seeing in the tree used as an instrument of healing a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ. It is certain that the way of life necessarily finds some hard places, leads to some painful experiences and afflictions. Indeed this is necessary to discipline, and this whole lesson teaches that when we come to these afflictions or other trials that may be bitter, the cross will sweeten them so as to make them bearable, converting the bitter into sweet. A splendid commentary on the lesson is J. G. Holland’s great poem, “Bittersweet.” If you have not read it) read it, and there learn the lesson of Marah.
9. What is the lesson of Elim?
Ans. As Marah shows that life’s pilgrimage must come to some hard places, Elim shows that there are alternations of most pleasant places. Here were twelve flowing springs and abundant pasturage, and the palm tree for shade. The providence of God does not lead us always to climbing hills and to sufferings from sickness. It brings us now and then to Beulah lands. It is quite probable that they remained at Elim several days until man and beast were refreshed. Compare Job in his reflections.
10. What are the great lessons of the manna?
Ans. (1) From pleasant Elim they go into the horrible desert of Sin and now, their supplies brought from Egypt having been consumed, the people are suffering from the keenest pangs of hunger. The bread and meat question in all human history has been one to try the souls of the people. What shall we eat and what shall we drink? is the fruitful source of needless anxiety, as we learn from the Sermon on the Mount. If the high cost of living at the present time oppresses the poor and puts them on the danger line of desperate deeds, how sore must have been this trial to these people in this dreadful wilderness when there was no food at all! It was a time for great faith in God. They were not equal, however, to the occasion. (2) They not only murmured against the earthly leaders whom God had appointed, but they looked back longingly to the flesh-pots of Egypt. They preferred abundant food in Egypt with slavery to hunger in the wilderness with liberty. How Patrick Henry’s voice would have sounded there: “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” (3) Jehovah now announces that he will rain bread from heaven but in such a way as that their dependence on him shall be day by day, and that he is able to set a table before them in the wilderness, not only by supplying bread in the morning but causing quail by the thousands to light in the camp in the evenings.
11. Describe the coming of the manna, its appearance and taste.
Ans. (1) It came as dew. (2) It looked like coriander seed. (3) It tasted like honey and wafers.
12. What was the occasion of its name?
Ans. When the people looked upon something like hoarfrost on the ground and were informed that this was their bread from heaven, all over the camps the question spontaneously came: “What is it?” What a fine text for a sermon. “What is it?” That is the meaning of manna. They saw the bread thus spread on the ground, and said, “Manual” meaning, “What is it?”
13. What was the law of its coming so as to mark the sabbath?
Ans. On the sabbath day no manna fell; it was God’s calendar. If the people in the monotony of their life should forget, once every week when they looked out and found the ground bare, that said, “Today is the holy sabbath of the Lord.” For many long years the absence of manna on the seventh day served the purpose of a church bell.
14. What of the Law of when and how much to gather?
Ans. It was to be gathered every morning that it appeared. A definite quantity must be gathered for each one, just a sufficiency. On every Friday they must gather twice as much as on the other secular days of the week, because none would come on the sabbath day. This remarkable supply and its method taught the lesson later inculcated in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” or “Give us our bread day by day.” It also calls up that remarkable prayer of Agur: Two things have I asked of Thee; Deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lies; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is needful for me; Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is Jehovah? Or lest I be poor, and steal, And use profanely the name of my God.
Pro 30:7-9
15. How was disobedience of this law discoverable in three particulars?
Ans. (1) If on Friday, they forgot that the morrow was the sabbath, or if remembering, they trusted to find enough on the sabbath to satisfy for that day, then they must starve that day. Others could not supply them, for each one had just enough for himself. (2) If when they gathered it in the morning they provided more than the allowance, it shrank to the measure of the omer. (3) If doubting that it might come the next day they preserved a part of one day’s supply for the next day, it stank and bred worms. And some of the people were caught on all these points.
16. What, then, was the purpose of this marvelous miracle?
Ans. Its purpose was threefold: (1) To make the people see and feel their dependence upon God; (2) to make them feel this dependence day by day; (3) to mark in the most marvelous way the necessity of setting apart one-seventh of their time, not merely to freedom from work but to worship God and thus keep them from straying too far from the Lord.
17. What scriptures show how long this miracle lasted?
Ans. Jos 5:10-12 , and Exo 16:35 , show that at Gilgal after the Passover following the circumcision, they did eat of the old corn of the land and the manna ceased. Just forty years from the time that they had left Egypt.
18. What was the memorial of the manna?
Ans. A pot of the manna, a day’s allowance, was laid up before the Lord, like Aaron’s rod that budded, and kept for a memorial unto all generations.
19. Where do we find an elaborate discussion of the antitype of the manna?
Ans. The whole of Joh 6 , is devoted to a discussion of this subject, and we cannot understand the fulness of the lesson on the manna until we have mastered that chapter.
20. What further New Testament scripture refers to this antitypical lesson?
Ans. Rev 2:17 , to the church at Pergamos, Jesus says, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.” The hidden manna may refer to the preserved pot of manna kept later in the ark, or it may refer to its spiritual signification, that is, faith daily feeding on the Lord.
21. What name does Paul give to the manna?
Ans. 1Co 10:3 : “And did all eat the same spiritual meat.”
22. In what later scripture does Moses show that God provided at this time against nakedness as well as against hunger and thirst?
Ans. In Deu 29:5-6 : “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxed old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxed old upon thy foot. Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink’ that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God.”
23. In what way during this part of the pilgrimage, and all the rest of it, did Jehovah provide against heat by day and darkness by night?
Ans. The pillar of cloud spread over them as a shade by day, and illuminated their camps at night.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Exo 16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which [is] between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
Ver. 1. Unto the wilderness of Sin. ] So called because it bordered upon the city of Sin, whereof see Eze 30:15-16 ; Eze 20:35-36 . Or, of the many brambles that grew therein.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

journey. The Egyptian kings of twelfth dynasty worked copper and turquoise mines in peninsula of Sinai. Afterward disused until eighteenth dynasty. Old roads left. See App-50. on the forty years’ wandering; and note on Num 33:1.
children = sons.
Sin. Hebrew a bush.
Sinai = Bush of Jehovah. Sinai mentioned thirty-one times in Pentateuch, only four times in rest of Old Testament (Jdg 5:5. Neh 9:13. Psa 68:8, Psa 68:17); in New Testament four times (Act 7:30, Act 7:38. Gal 1:4, Gal 1:24, Gal 1:26).
fifteenth day. See App-50.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

The children of Israel are moving now through the wilderness.
And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. [So they have been actually journeying now for about forty-five days.] And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for you have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill the whole assembly with hunger ( Exo 16:1-3 ).
Now this is really a very unfortunate accusation; it’s an untrue accusation, but people can sometimes be so cruel. Now they’re hungry, and when people are hungry sometimes they’ll say-when a man gets hungry sometimes they can become like a bear. You just want to feed them before you talk to them, really. These people were hungry, and so they said, “It would have been better off for us to have died back in Egypt by those flesh pots with a full stomach, full of bread, than out here in this wilderness to starve do death. Why did we ever listen to you guys?”
You know they so quickly forgot the misery and the bondage, the cruel bondage of Egypt. It is oftentimes like this when a person, after coming out of the bondage of sin, and out of its experiences in the world, many times as we look back at them they seem to be more glamorous than they were when we were in them. We forget the emptiness. We forget the cruel bondage that we experienced. We forget what it was as far as the pain and the hurt, and the suffering. All we remember is the full stomach.
So as they are remembering their experience in Egypt, all they’re remembering was the plus side of it, “the full stomach as we sat by the flesh pots”. They were saying, “Hey, we would be better off if we were back there, and we died there by the plague of God, by the plagues that God were bringing. If the Lord had slain us with the Egyptians, we’d have been better off than being here, and dying of hunger.”
Then said the LORD to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not ( Exo 16:4 ).
So God says, “All right, I’ll give them bread from heaven, but we’ll prove to see if they’re gonna walk in my law or not.”
And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Moses and Aaron said unto the children of Israel, At evening, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning, then shall ye see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: what are we, that ye murmur against us? ( Exo 16:5-7 )
Now they were murmuring to Moses and Aaron. But Moses and Aaron said, “Hey man, you’re not really murmuring against us, you’re murmuring against God. It’s God that has brought you to this place, not we. And your murmurings are against God.”
I think that this is something that we need to take into account when we’re prone to complain about our lot in life. Who is it that has brought me here? Any complaining that I do is in reality complaining against God. For God is the one who has brought me to these circumstances. God is the one who has placed me here, unless I’ve been disobedient to Him. But my complaints are really against the Lord, and that’s a very serious thing, to be complaining against God.
So Moses said, “I refuse to accept your complaints. You’re not murmuring against me, you’re murmuring against the Lord.”
And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD hears your murmurings which you murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD( Exo 16:8 ).
So he’s emphasizing that point to them. “Your murmuring against your situation is actually when you get down to the bottom line, you’re murmuring against God.”
So Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings. So it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud ( Exo 16:9-10 ).
Now this must have been quite an awesome sight. The cloud had been leading them, and suddenly in this cloud, the glory of the Lord appeared. Now it doesn’t declare how and in what manner the glory of the Lord appeared, but it was no doubt an awesome kind of a display, or demonstration where God just demonstrated His glory there in the cloud. Now one of these days very soon God’s gonna demonstrate His glory in the clouds again, as Jesus comes with clouds and great glory, demonstrating His glory in the clouds. But there, God demonstrated His glory unto the children of Israel.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. And it came to pass, that at evening quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. [That would be the host of Israel.] And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they knew not what it was ( Exo 16:11-15 ).
Manna actually means “what is it?” So they saw this little round seed-like thing on the ground, and they said, “What is it?” because they didn’t know what it was.
And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. Now this is the thing which the LORD has commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer [And we don’t know how much that was.] for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did measure it out with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it until the morning ( Exo 16:15-19 ).
In other words, “Eat it all up, don’t leave any overnight, don’t try to keep it overnight.
Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was angry with them ( Exo 16:20 ).
People just don’t listen. Moses said, “Now look, don’t leave any over till the morning. Just, you know, get rid of it, whatever is left at night, get rid of it.” Some of them tried to save some so they wouldn’t have to go out early in the morning and gather it, and it got wormy and stunk. So Moses naturally-God said, “Hey I’ll prove them to see if the heart can gather manna”. They’re failing the test miserably.
They gathered it every morning, and every man according to his eating: and when the sun was waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD has said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remain over lay up for you to be kept until the morning ( Exo 16:21-23 ).
So on the sixth day they could keep it overnight and it wouldn’t breed worms and stink because the next day was to be the Sabbath.
Now it is interesting that here the Sabbath was established and practiced before the law was given. So already the idea of six and one, six days of labor, a day of rest, had been established in their national life. This is before God established the law with Israel in which He said, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Now, we’ll get into that when we get into the twentieth chapter. I want to talk to you a little bit about the Sabbath day.
Now they would bake this. They would-they would grind it like a grain into a flour and they would bake it into bread. Or they would boil it sometimes, and eat it like a cereal. I would imagine just like in Central America where they’ve learned to make so many different dishes with the rice that these inventive women, no doubt, learned to spice the stuff up different ways, and make a lot of interesting kind of dishes out of this manna. This little seed kind of a thing that God put on the ground for them every morning.
And they laid up till the morning, as Moses had commanded: and they did not stink, neither was there any worms in it. And Moses said, Eat that today; for today is a sabbath unto the LORD: today you shall not find it in the field. For six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, there will be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather it, and they found none. The LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide every man of his place, on the sabbath or on the seventh day ( Exo 16:24-29 ).
Now actually the Sabbath day was a day of rest, and really God is saying here, “Let every man just stay in his bed.” Now we, you know, somehow got the concept, “Well you know the day that is holy unto the Lord is the day we all go to church. We gather and worship God in church.” In reality the Sabbath day wasn’t so much a worship day as it was a rest day. It was a day for just total rest and relaxation. Just a change of pace giving the body a chance to more or less recover.
Now the Lord said, “Six days shalt thou labour and do thy work, but the seventh day is a day of rest.” God said, “I have given you the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was made for man. God made it for man to give the body a chance to just sort of recuperate. The idea was just stay in bed, rest, do nothing. It wasn’t really get up and go to Sabbath school, or go to synagogue, or whatever. It was just stay in bed and rest on the Sabbath day. I don’t know, but what that wouldn’t be a good idea.
So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like a coriander seed, white; the taste of it was like wafers that were made with honey. [So a little honey biscuit kind of a thing.] And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of the manna in it, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations ( Exo 16:30-33 ).
So this pot of manna was preserved, so that in years to come the people could see the manna, the food that God provided in the wilderness for their fathers. When the tabernacle was built, the mercy seat, this pot of manna was inside of this little box, the mercy seat, along with Aaron’s rod that budded.
The LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid up before the Testimony, to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna for forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came to the borders of Canaan. Now an omer is a tenth part of an ephah ( Exo 16:34-36 ).
Whatever that is, we don’t know, but that’s what it is. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Exo 16:1-2. And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
They have been only about six weeks in the wilderness, and already they are up in arms against their leaders. Remember that we have the same kind of people to deal with as Moses and Aaron had. The children of Israel were no better than any other nation; and I do not think they were any worse. We may take them as a fair average of human nature, which is a discontented, rebellious thing in the best of circumstances.
Exo 16:3. And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
They forgot all about the brick-making, and the whips, and the iron bondage, and they recollected nothing but the fleshpots of Egypt. Ah, me! how soon, when we escape from a great trial, we forget it! The present much smaller one seems far heavier than that which is past.
Exo 16:4. Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
See Gods answer to mans murmuring. They send up their complaint, and he promises to rain bread down from above. It is a blessed story on Gods part all along; a rain of mercy for a smoke of complaining.
Exo 16:5. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
Now let us read at the eleventh verse.
Exo 16:11-12. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel:
I have heard them. God always does hear. Oh, his wonderful patience! If he took no notice of the murmurers, or punished them for their wickedness, we should have no cause for wonder; but he is longsuffering, even to those who do not deserve his pity.
Exo 16:12. Speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
There shall be no mistake about who I am. I will work this miracle in such a Godlike style, and on such a divine scale, that ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God.
Exo 16:13-16. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man,
About two pints and a half, I think; according to some calculations, two quarts, or thereabouts. There would be more sustenance in it than in a half-quarter loaf of bread per diem: An omer for every man.
Exo 16:16-18. According to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
God meant it to be so; not every man according to his avarice, that he might save any of it; but every man according to his eating. God took care that neither should feebleness be stinted, nor should greed have any excess.
Exo 16:19-22. And Moses said, Let no man leave, of it till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
He had told them that it would be so, but they evidently did not accept the message that he had delivered to them as the very Word of Jehovah their God; so that, when it was fulfilled, it struck them with wonder, and they came and told Moses.
Exo 16:23. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said. How often could that answer be made to us!
God hears our prayer, and we run and say, What a wonderful thing! God has heard my prayer. This is that which the Lord hath said. Is it a strange thing that what Jehovah has said is proved to be true, and is it a subject for surprise that he should keep his promise? You dishonour God when you talk after this fashion.
Exo 16:23. To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD:
And yet the Sabbath had not been instituted according to law, which proves that its foundation lay deeper and earlier than the promulgation of the Ten Commandments; it is bound up with the essential arrangement of time since the creation: This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord.
Exo 16:23-27. Bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that today; for today is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
They might have expected it to be so; but they would not believe, and as they would not believe, they must needs put the Word of God to the test. But it endures the trial; it is always true. Oh, that men would, in a believing spirit, test the Word of God, instead of doing it after this skeptical fashion!
Exo 16:28-31. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna:
Or, What is it? It was something too wonderful to be understood and they kept the expression of their wonderment as the name of their bread from heaven. When they first saw it, they exclaimed, Man-hu? Man-hu? What is it? What is it? Thus it received its Hebrew name, Manna; but God called it, Bread from heaven.
Exo 16:31-33. And it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread where with I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.
This production, which would not keep a single day under ordinary circumstances, would keep for two days to supply the needs of the Sabbath, and it would keep for generations as a memorial of Gods goodness to his chosen people during their forty years wanderings through the wilderness. We may be quite sure that Aaron would not have kept a stinking thing laid up before the Lord.
Exo 16:34-36. As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
Now I want you to read in the Book of Numbers. Further on in the history of the children of Israel, when the people had been long in the wilderness, the same kind of thing happened again.
This exposition consisted of readings from Exo 16:1-5; Exo 16:11-36; and Num 11:1-10.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

From Elim the people moved into the dreariness of the great wilderness and began to be conscious of the scarcity of some of the things which they had had, even in the midst of Egyptian slavery. There manifested itself a craving for the material which for the moment rendered them unconscious of the value of the spiritual. They plainly declared that bondage with flesh was preferable to liberty with hunger. Very arresting is the attitude and activity of Jehovah toward them. Without rebuke He gave them both bread and flesh. In the method of the gift of the manna one great lesson is apparent. The people were to understand that their life was to be daily dependence on God. They were to gather each day for five days and on the sixth enough for that day and the Sabbath.
Probably there are today some people who may smile at this story of days far distant. The great facts, however, abide to this hour. In the path of obedience every man will find manifestations of the divine Presence and overruling, and that things impossible to him are possible to him with God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Murmuring for Food Rebuked
Exo 16:1-12
Moses made a double promise to the Israelites in Gods name. In the evening they were to have flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full. But before these gifts could be received, notice must be taken of their conduct toward the two brothers, whose authority had been impugned by the events of the morning. Hence the appearance of the divine glory in the cloud, Exo 16:10. After this a vast flight of quails, a migratory bird which often crosses the Red Sea at this very spot, fell to the ground in the near neighborhood of the Hebrew camp, and lay there in an exhausted condition, which allowed of their being captured by the hand. How striking are those words: The Lord heareth your murmurings! We should remember them, when next we are tempted to doubt Gods love and to complain of His dealings with us. Let Gods faithful servants take courage; He will vindicate them.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Exo 16:4
There can be nothing more sobering than the truth that this life is a state of trial and preparation for another. There is at the same time something wonderfully satisfying in the idea. It puts life before us in a point of view which satisfactorily explains it.
I. This account of the end of life simplifies matters in our journey through life. The principle of trial as the end of life shoves aside a multiplicity of irrelevant ends to make way for the true one; it reduces the purpose of life to the greatest possible simplicity, reduces it, as we may say, to a unit-to the effect upon the individual himself, what he does and how he turns out under these circumstances. The idea of probation thus gives a singular unity to the whole design and plan of life. It throws the individual upon himself as the rationale of the whole.
II. The principle of the end of life being probative applies mainly to all the ordinary external advantages of life and our pursuit of them; but it also affects another and less ordinary class of human objects-the objects connected with the good of others, those useful and benevolent works and those public religious works which good men propose to themselves. There is one defect to which good men are liable: they become too much absorbed in the success of their own plans. The important truth for such men to realize is this very principle, viz., that of the end of life being trial. If they brought this truth home to themselves, they would see that the only important thing to them was, not that a useful undertaking should answer, but that they should have done faithfully their best for that purpose.
III. God makes use of us as His instruments, but the work that we do as instruments is a far inferior work to that which we do to fulfil our own personal trial. The general end of life, as trial, is superior to all special ends; it is the end which concerns the individual being, his spiritual condition, his ultimate prospects.
J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 287.
References: Exo 16:6-8.-J.Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 191. Exo 16:7,-G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 75; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. i., p. 58. Exo 16:21.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 198. Exo 16:29.-T. J. Crawford, The Preaching of the Cross, p. 319. 16-Parker, vol. ii., p. 119; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 134. Exo 17:1-16.-W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 149. Exo 17:8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 712. Exo 17:8-13.-W. Harris, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 320; J. S. Bartlett, Sermons, p. 236. Exo 17:9.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 112. Exo 17:10-13.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 330. Exo 17:11.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Holy Week, p. 472. Exo 17:12.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 107.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible

second month
i.e. May.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

am 2513, bc 1491, An, Ex, Is 1, Ijar
took: Exo 15:27, Num 33:10-12
Sin: This desert was traversed by Dr. Shaw in nine hours. He was all the day diverted by varieties of lizards and vipers, which abound there. Exo 17:1, Num 33:12, Eze 30:15, Eze 30:16
Reciprocal: Exo 19:1 – came Num 13:21 – from the wilderness of Zin Num 33:15 – General Deu 1:31 – in the wilderness Act 7:36 – and in the wilderness
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Exo 16:1. Came into the wilderness of Sin Not immediately, for there is another stage of their journey by the Red sea, mentioned Num 33:10, (in which chapter, it appears, Moses designedly set down all their stations,) but omitted here, because nothing remarkable happened in it.
This was a great wilderness between the Red sea and mount Sinai, different and far distant from that Zin mentioned Num 20:1, which was near the land of Edom.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exo 16:1. The fifteenth day of the second month; that is, Jiar, or the 30th of April. See the table, chap. 12.
Exo 16:2. Israel murmured. They wantonly said as in Psa 78:20, Can the Lord give us bread also; can he provide flesh for his people?
Exo 16:13. The quailscovered the camp. It was the time when the corn of Egypt began to ripen, and the quails flocked in great abundance. They fell for a days journey round the camp, and in some places two cubits thick.
Exo 16:15. Manna. Josephus affirms that the Israelites seeing it on the grass said, What is it? which he says is the import of the word. This food was the immediate gift of God to his people; and those are mistaken who have thought it a honey-dew. What has been called a honey-dew falling on certain trees, and on the grass, is nothing more than the bursting of the sweet sap from the leaves of those trees by the excessive heat of the sun; and in such abundance, that sometimes a leaf will suffer a drop to descend on the grass.
Exo 16:31. It was like coriander seed. Not exactly in colour, but in size and form. The colour is here said to be white; and Num 11:7, it is said to be like that of bdellium, a gem or gum. Gen 2:12.
Exo 16:33. Take a pot. The LXX, cited by St. Paul, Heb 9:4, reads, a golden pot.An omer, about three pints. See Cumberland on the Hebrew Measures.
REFLECTIONS.
The most high God, to purify his people, and to make their history instructive to future ages, led them by the hand in the desert. The people who had praised him in the triumphant language of faith, the moment their Egyptian provisions were exhausted murmured for bread. No man will patiently bear trials for religion, or seek deliverance by prayer till he has experienced a work of regeneration on his heart. When hunger assails the appetite, Egypt is preferred to Canaan; and men have no confidence in God beyond present appearances. It must also be allowed that even to the best of men, hunger and want is a trying situation. The poor man is sick, or he has no work, and the resources of charity, like the summer streams, begin to dry up. He is surrounded with the piercing looks of a wife, and the cries of children for bread: but this, however hard, should not excite a murmuring thought. It is for the trial of our faith; we should therefore pray most earnestly to God for deliverance, and at the same time avail ourselves of whatever means providence may put in our power, for by these means God will surely send us help.
We may farther observe, that Gods indulgence to sinful men is very great; he gave manna in the morning, and occasionally quails in the evening to a murmuring people. There is however a difference, a very wide difference, between temporal and spiritual prosperity. He often gives the wicked flesh and abundance in his wrath, but to the righteous he gives special marks of his favour, while their outward condition is distinguished by affliction and want.
We are also instructed by Jesus Christ to regard this manna as a figure of the true bread, which our heavenly Father gives to his children. The Israelites ate manna, and died in the desert. But we have in Christ the bread of heaven, that we may eat and never die. How pure, how incorruptible and reviving is that food with which the Lord sustains his church in the wilderness. It is milk and honey, marrow and fatness. The sacraments and all the ordinances abound with grace, to nourish the soul with the health of eternal life.
The Lord so gave this manna as to connect it with industry; they were every morning employed in collecting the food that fell from heaven during the night. Thus should we also be diligently employed in collecting food and strength from God, by meditation and prayer, and especially in the early part of the day. Devotion in a morning, when so performed as to acquire its genuine spirit, is a pledge of health and strength to the soul throughout the day; and that man who is not diligent in the means of grace is weak and languid. His soul cannot taste the heaven which those enjoy who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. This is the hidden manna, reserved in Christ the Ark, for the faithful and victorious soul.
From this passage our Saviour demonstrated his Godhead and glory, because he declared himself to be the bread of God which came from heaven, and gave life to the world. And being in his own person, the Lord and giver of life, he is able to sustain the soul with heavenly food, that man may eat and never die.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exodus 16
“And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure out of the land of Egypt.” (Chap. 16: 1) Here we find Israel in a very marked and interesting position. It is still the wilderness, no doubt, but it is a most important and significant stage thereof, namely, “between Elim and Sinai.” The former was the place where they had so recently experienced the refreshing springs of divine ministry; the latter was the place where they entirely got off the ground of free and sovereign grace, and placed themselves under a covenant of works. These facts render “the wilderness of Sin” a singularly interesting portion of Israel’s journey. Its features and influences are as strongly marked as those of any point in their whole career. They are here seen as the subjects of the same grace which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and, therefore, all their murmurings are instantly met by divine supplies. When God acts in the display of His grace, there is no hindrance. The streams of blessing which emanate from Him, flow onward without interruption. It is only when man puts himself under law that he forfeits everything; for then God must allow him to prove how much he can claim on the ground of his own works.
When God visited and redeemed His people, and brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, it assuredly was not for the purpose of suffering them to die of hunger and thirst in the wilderness. They should have known this. They ought to have trusted Him, and walked in the confidence of that love which had so gloriously delivered them from the horrors of Egyptian bondage. They should have remembered that it was infinitely better to be in the desert with God, than in the brick-kilns with Pharaoh. But no; the human heart finds it immensely difficult to give God credit for pure and perfect love. It has far more confidence in Satan than God. Look, for a moment, at all the sorrow and suffering, the misery and degradation which man has endured by reason of his having hearkened to the voice of Satan, and yet he never gives utterance to a word of complaint of his service, or of desire to escape from under his hand. He is not discontented with Satan, or weary of serving him. Again and again, he reaps bitter fruits in those fields which Satan has thrown open to him; and yet, again and again, he may be seen sowing the self-same seed, and undergoing the self-same labours.
How different it is in reference to God! When we have set out to walk in His ways, we are ready, at the earliest appearance of pressure or trial, to murmur and rebel. Indeed, there is nothing in which we so signally fail as in the cultivation of a confiding and thankful spirit. Ten thousand mercies are forgotten in the presence of one single trying privation. We have been frankly forgiven all our sins, “accepted in the Beloved,” made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, the expectants of eternal glory; and, in addition to all, our path through the desert is strewed with countless mercies; and yet let but a cloud, the size of a man’s hand, appear on the horizon, and we at once forget the rich mercies of the past in view of this single cloud, which, after all, may only “break in blessings on our head.” The thought of this should humble us deeply in the presence of God. How unlike we are in this, as in every other respect, to our blessed Exemplar! Look at Him – the true Israel in the wilderness – surrounded by wild beasts, and fasting for forty days. How did He carry Himself? Did He murmur? Did He complain of His lot? Did He wish Himself in other circumstances? Ah! no. God was the portion of His cup and the lot of His inheritance. (Ps. 16) And, therefore, when the tempter approached and offered Him the necessaries, the glories, the distinctions, and the honours of this life, He refused them all, and tenaciously held fast the position of absolute dependence upon God and implicit obedience to His word. He would only take bread from God and glory from Him likewise.
Very different was it with Israel after the flesh ! No sooner did they feel the pressure of hunger than “they murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” They seemed to have actually lost the sense of having been delivered by the hand of Jehovah, for they said, “Ye have brought us forth into this wilderness.” And, again, in Ex. 17, “the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us, and our children, and our cattle with thirst?” Thus did they, on every occasion, evince a fretful, murmuring spirit, and prove how little they realised the presence and the hand of their Almighty and infinitely gracious Deliverer.
Now, nothing is more dishonouring to God than the manifestation of a complaining spirit on the part of those that belong to Him. The apostle gives it as a special mark of Gentile corruption that, “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.” Then follows the practical result of this unthankful spirit. “They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Rom. 1: 2) The heart that ceases to retain a thankful sense of God’s goodness will speedily become “dark.” Thus Israel lost the sense of being in God a hands; and this led, as might be expected, to still thicker darkness, for we find them, further on in their history, saying, “Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children shall be a prey?” (Num. 14: 3) Such is the line along which a soul out of communion will travel. It first loses the sense of being in God’s hands for good, and, finally, begins to deem itself in His hands for evil.
Melancholy progress this! However, the people being so far the subjects of grace, are provided for; and our chapter furnishes the marvellous account of this provision. “Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.” They, when enveloped in the chilling cloud of their unbelief, had said, “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full.” But now the word is, “bread from heaven.” Blessed contrast! How amazing the difference between the Flesh-pots, the leeks, onions, and garlic of Egypt, and this heavenly manna – “angels’ food!” The former belonged to earth, the latter to heaven.
But, then, this heavenly food was, of necessity, a test of Israel’s condition, as we read, “That I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no.” It needed a heart weaned from Egypt’s influences, to be satisfied with, or enjoy “bread from heaven.” In point of fact, we know that the people were not satisfied with it, but despised it, pronounced it “light food,” and lusted for flesh. Thus they proved how little their hearts were delivered from Egypt, or disposed to walk in God’s law. “In their hearts they turned back again into Egypt.” (Acts 7: 39) But, instead of getting back thither, they were, ultimately, carried away beyond Babylon. (Acts 7: 43) This is a solemn and salutary lesson for Christians. If those who are redeemed from this present world, do not walk with God in thankfulness of heart, satisfied with His provision for the redeemed in the wilderness, they are in danger of falling into the snare of Babylonish influence. This is a serious consideration. It demands a heavenly taste to feed on bread from heaven. Nature cannot relish such food. It will ever yearn after Egypt, and, therefore, it must be kept down. It is our privilege, as those who have been baptised into Christ’s death, and “risen again through the faith of the operation of God,” to feed upon Christ as “the bread of life which came down from heaven.” This is our wilderness food – Christ as ministered by the Holy Ghost, through the written word; while, for our spiritual refreshment, the Holy Ghost has come down, as the precious fruit of the smitten Rock – Christ, as smitten for us. Such is our rare portion, in this desert world.
Now, it is obvious that, in order to enjoy such a portion as this, our hearts must be weaned from everything in this present evil world – from all that would address itself to us as natural men – as men alive in the flesh. A worldly heart – a carnal mind, would neither find Christ in the Word, nor enjoy Elim if found. The manna was so pure and delicate that it could not bear contact with earth. It fell upon the dew, (see Num. 11: 9) and had to be gathered ere the sun was up. Each one, therefore, had to rise early and seek his daily portion. So it is with the people of God now. The heavenly manna must be gathered fresh every morning. Yesterdays manna will not do for today, nor today’s for tomorrow. We must feed upon Christ every day, with fresh energy of the Spirit, else we shall cease to grow. Moreover, we must make Christ our primary object. We must seek Him “early,” before “other things” have had time to take possession of our poor susceptible hearts. Many of us, alas! fail in this. We give Christ a secondary place, and the consequence is, we are left feeble and barren. The enemy, ever watchful, takes advantage of our excessive spiritual indolence to rob us of the blessedness and strength which flow from feeding upon Christ. The new life in the believer can only be nourished and sustained by Christ. “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” (John 6: 57)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the One who came down from heaven, to be His people’s food is ineffably precious to the renewed soul; but, in order to enjoy Him thus, we need to realise ourselves, as in the wilderness, separated to God, in the power of accomplished redemption. If I am walking with God through the desert, I shall be satisfied with the food which He provides, and that is, Christ as come down from heaven. “The old corn of the land of Canaan” has its antitype in Christ ascended up on high, and seated in the glory. As such, He is the proper food of those who by faith, know themselves as raised up together and seated together with Him in the heavenlies. But the manna, that is, Christ as come down from heaven, is for the people of God, in their wilderness life and experience. As a people journeying down here, we need a Christ who also journeyed down here; as a people seated in spirit up there, we have a Christ who is seated up there. This may help to explain the difference between the manna and the old corn of the land. It is not a question of redemption; that we have in the blood of the cross, and there alone. It is simply the provision which God has made for His people, according to their varied attitudes, whether as actually toiling in the desert, or in spirit taking possession of the heavenly inheritance.
What a striking picture is presented by Israel in the wilderness! Egypt was behind them, Canaan before them, and the sand of the desert around them; while they themselves were called to look up to heaven for their daily supply. The wilderness afforded not one blade of grass nor one drop of water for the Israel of God. In Jehovah alone was their portion. Most touching illustration of God’s pilgrim people in this wilderness world! They have nothing here. Their life, being heavenly, can only be sustained by heavenly things. Though in the world, they are not of it, for Christ has chosen them out of it. As a heaven-born people, they are on their way to their birth-place, and sustained by food sent from thence. Theirs is an upward and an onward course. The glory leads only thus. It is utterly vain to cast the eye backward in the direction of Egypt; not a ray of the glory can there be discerned. “They looked toward the wilderness, and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the clouds.” Jehovah’s chariot was in the wilderness, and all who desired companionship with Him should be there likewise; and, if there, the heavenly manna should be their food, and that alone.
True, this manna was strange sustenance, such as an Egyptian could never understand, appreciate, or live upon; but those who had been “baptised in the cloud and in the sea,” could, if walking in consistency with that significant baptism, enjoy and be nourished by it. Thus is it now in the case of the true believer. The worldling cannot understand how he lives. Both his life and that which sustains it lie entirely beyond the range of nature’s keenest vision. Christ is his life, and on Christ he lives. He feeds, by faith, upon the powerful attractions of one who, though being “God over all, blessed for ever,” “took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2: 7) He traces Him from the bosom of the Father to the cross, and from the cross to the throne, and finds Him, in every stage of His journey, and in every attitude of His life, to be most precious food for his new man. All around, though, in fact, Egypt, is morally a waste howling wilderness, affording nothing for the renewed mind; and, just in proportion as the Christian finds any material to feed upon, must his spiritual man be hindered in his progress. The only provision which God has made is the heavenly manna, and on this the true believer should ever feed.
It is truly deplorable to find Christians seeking after the things of this world. It proves, very distinctly, that they are “loathing” the heavenly manna, and esteeming it “light food.” They are ministering to that which they ought to mortify. The activities of the new life will ever show themselves in connection with the subjugation of “the old man with his deeds;” and the more that is accomplished, the more will we desire to feed upon the “bread which strengthens man’s heart.” As in nature, the more we exercise, the better the appetite, so in grace, the more our renewed faculties are called into play, the more we feel the need of feeding, each day, upon Christ. It is one thing to know that we have life in Christ, together with full forgiveness and acceptance before God, and it is quite another to be in habitual communion with Him – feeding upon Him by faith – making Him the exclusive food of our souls. Very many profess to have found pardon and peace in Jesus, who, in reality, are feeding upon a variety of things which have no connection with Him. They feed their minds with the newspapers and the varied frivolous and vapid literature of the day. Will they find Christ there? Is it by such instrumentality that the Holy Ghost ministers Christ to the soul? Are these the pure dew-drops on which the heavenly manna descends for the sustenance of God’s redeemed in the desert? Alas! no; they are the gross materials in which the carnal mind delights. How then can a true Christian live upon such? We know, by the teaching of God’s word, that he carries about with him two natures; and it may be asked, Which of the two is it that feeds upon the world’s news and the world’s literature? Is it the old or the new? There can be but the one reply. Well, then, which of the two am I desirous of cherishing? Assuredly my conduct will afford the truest answer to this enquiry. If I sincerely desire to grow in the divine Life – if my one grand object is to be assimilated and devoted to Christ – if I am earnestly breathing after an extension of God’s kingdom within, I shall, without doubt, seek continually that character of nourishment which is designed of God to promote my spiritual growth. This is plain. A man’s acts are always the truest index of his desires and purposes. Hence, if I find a professing Christian neglecting his Bible, yet finding abundance of time – yea, some of his choicest hours – for the newspaper, I can be at no loss to decide as to the true condition of his soul. I am sure he cannot be spiritual – cannot be feeding upon, living for, or witnessing to, Christ.
If an Israelite neglected to gather, in the freshness of the morning hour, his daily portion of the divinely appointed food, he would speedily have become lacking in strength for his journey. Thus is it with us. We must make Christ the paramount object of our souls’ pursuit, else our spiritual life will inevitably decline. We cannot even feed upon feelings and experiences connected with Christ, for they, inasmuch as they are fluctuating, cannot form our spiritual nourishment. It was Christ yesterday, and it must be Christ today, and Christ for ever. Moreover, it will not do to feed partly on Christ and partly on other things. As, in the matter of life, it is Christ alone; so, in the matter of living, it must be Christ alone. As we cannot mingle anything with that which imparts life; so neither can we mingle anything with that which sustains it.
It is quite true that, in spirit, and by faith, we can, even now, feed upon a risen and gloried Christ, ascended up to heaven in virtue of accomplished redemption, as prefigured by “the old corn of the land.” (See Joshua 5) And not only so, but we know that when God’s redeemed shall have entered upon those fields of glory, rest, and immortality, which lie beyond the Jordan, they shall, in actual fact, be done with wilderness food; but they will not be done with Christ. nor with the remembrance of that which constitutes the specific nourishment of their desert life.
Israel were never to forget, amid the milk and honey of the land of Canaan, that which had sustained them during their forty years’ sojourn in the wilderness. “This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, Fill an omer of is to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt….. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be kept.” (Ver. 32) Most precious memorial of the faithfulness of God! He did not suffer them to die of hunger, as their foolish hearts had unbelievingly anticipated. He rained bread from heaven for them, fed them with angels’ food, watched over them with all the tenderness of a nurse, bore with them, carried them on eagles’ wings; and, had they only continued on the proper ground of grace, He would have put them in eternal possession of all the promises made to their fathers. The pot of manna, therefore, containing, as it did, a man’s daily portion, and laid up before the Lord, furnishes a volume of truth. There was no worm therein nor ought of taint. It was the record of Jehovah’s faithfulness, in providing for those whom He had redeemed out of the hand of the enemy.
Not so, however, when man hoarded it up for himself. Then the symptoms of corruptibility soon made their appearance. We cannot, if entering into the truth and reality of our position, hoard up. It is our privilege, day by day, to enter into the preciousness of Christ, as the One who came down from heaven to give life unto the world. But if any, in forgetfulness of this, should be found hoarding up for tomorrow, that is, laying up truth beyond his present need, instead of turning it to profit in the way of renewing strength it will surely become corrupt. This is a salutary lesson for us. It is a deeply solemn thing to learn truth; for there is not a principle which we profess to have learnt which we shall not have to prove practically. God will not have us theorists. One often trembles to hear persons make high professions and use expressions of intense devotedness, whether, in prayer or otherwise, lest. when the hour of trial comes, there may not be the needed spiritual power to carry out what the lips have uttered.
There is a great danger of the intellect’s outstripping the conscience and the affections. Hence it is that so many seem, at first, to make such rapid progress up to a certain point; but there they stop short and appear to retrograde. Like an Israelite gathering up more manna than he required for one day’s food. He might appear to be accumulating the heavenly food far more diligently than others; yet every particle beyond the day’s supply was not only useless, but far worse than useless, inasmuch as it “bred worms.” Thus is it with the Christian. He must use what he gets. He must feed upon Christ as a matter of actual need, and the need is brought out in actual service. The character and ways of God, the preciousness and beauty of Christ, and the living depths of the Word are only unfolded to faith and need. It is as we use what we receive that more will be given. The path of the believer is to be a practical one; and here it is that so many of us come short. It will often be found that those who get on most rapidly in theory are the slowest in the practical and experimental elements, because it is word a work of intellect than of heart and conscience. We should ever remember that Christianity is not a set of opinions, a system of dogmas, or a number of views. It is pre-eminently a living reality – a personal, practical, powerful thing, telling itself out in all the scenes and circumstances of daily life, shedding its hallowed influence over the entire character and course, and imparting its heavenly tone to every relationship which one may be called of God to fill. In a word, it is that which flows from being associated and occupied with Christ. This is Christianity. There may be clear views, correct notions. sound principles, without any fellowship with Jesus; but an orthodox creed without Christ will prove a cold, barren, dead thing.
Christian reader, see carefully to it that you are not only saved by Christ, but also living on Him. Make Him the daily portion of your soul. Seek Him “early,” seek Him “only.” When anything solicits your attention, ask the question, “Will this bring Christ to my heart! Will it unfold Him to my affections or draw me near to His Person?” If not, reject it at once: yes, reject it, though it present itself under the most specious appearance and with the most commanding authority. If your honest purpose be to get on in the divine life, to progress in spirituality, to cultivate personal acquaintance with Christ, then challenge your heart solemnly and faithfully as to this. Make Christ your habitual food. Go, gather the manna that falls on the dew-drops, and feed upon it with an appetite sharpened by a diligent walk with God through the desert. May the rich grace of God the Holy Ghost abundantly Strengthen you in all this!* {*My reader will find it profitable to turn to John 6, and prayerfully meditate upon it, in connection with the subject of the manna. The Passover being near, Jesus feeds the multitude, and then takes His departure to a mountain, there to be alone. From thence He comes to the relief of His distressed people, tossed upon the troubled waters. After this He unfolds the doctrine of His Person and work, God declares how He was to give His flesh for the life of the world, and that none could have life save by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Finally, He speaks of Himself as ascending up where He was before and of the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. It is, indeed, a rich and copious chapter, in which the spiritual reader will find a vast fund of truth for the comfort and edification of his soul.}
There is one point more in our chapter which we shall notice, namely the instigation of the Sabbath, in its connection with the manna and Israel’s position, as here set forth. From Genesis 2 down to the chapter now before us, we find no mention made of this institution. This is remarkable. Abel’s sacrifice, Enochs walk with God, Noah’s preaching, Abraham’s call, together with the detailed history of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, are all presented; but there is no allusion to the Sabbath until we find Israel recognised as a people in relationship and consequent responsibility to Jehovah. The Sabbath was interrupted in Eden; and here we find it again instituted for Israel in the wilderness. But alas! man has no heart for Gods rest. And it came to pass that ” There went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” (Ver. 27-29) God would have His people enjoying sweet repose with Himself. He would give them rest, food, and refreshment, even in the wilderness. But man’s heart is not disposed to rest with God. The people could remember and speak of the time when they “sat by the flesh pots” in Egypt; but they could not appreciate the blessedness of sitting in their tents, enjoying with God “the rest of the holy Sabbath,” feeding upon the heavenly manna.
And, be it remarked, that the Sabbath is here presented as a matter of gift. “The Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” Further on, in this book, we shall find it put in the form of a law, with a curse and a judgement attached to it, in the case of disobedience; but whether fallen man gets a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it is all alike. His nature is bad. He can neither rest with, nor work for, God, If God works and makes a rest for him, he will not keep it; and if God tells him to work, he will not do it. Such is man. He has no heart for God. He can make use of the name of the Sabbath as a something to exalt himself, or as the badge of his own religiousness; but when we turn to Exodus 16 we find that he cannot prize God’s Sabbath as a gift; and when we turn to Numbers 15: 32-38, we find he cannot keep it as a Law.
Now, we know that the Sabbath, as well as the manna, was a type. In itself, it was a real blessing-a sweet mercy from the hand of a loving and gracious God, who would relieve the toil and travail of a sin stricken earth by the refreshment of one day of rest out of the seven. Whatever way we look at the institution of the Sabbath, we must see it to be pregnant with richest mercy, whether we view it in reference to man or to the animal creation. And, albeit, that Christians observe the first day of the week – the Lord’s day, and attach to it its proper principles, yet is the gracious providence equally observable, nor would any mind at all governed by right feelings, seek, for a moment, to interfere with such a signal mercy. “The Sabbath was made for man;” and although man never has kept it, according to the divine thought about it, that does not detract from the grace which shines in the appointment of it, nor divest it of its deep significancy as a type of that eternal rest which remains for the people of God, or as a shadow of that substance which faith now enjoys in the Person and work of a risen Christ.
Let not the reader, therefore, suppose that in anything which has been, or may be, stated, in these pages, the object is to touch, in the slightest degree, the merciful provision of one day’s rest for man and the animal creation, much less to interfere with the distinct place which the Lord’s day occupies in the New Testament. Nothing is further from the writer’s thoughts. As a man he values the former, and as a Christian he rejoices in the latter, far too deeply to admit of his penning or uttering a single syllable which would interfere with either the one or the other. He would only ask the reader to weigh, with a dispassionate mind, in the balance of Holy Scripture, every line and every statement, and not form any harsh judgement beforehand.
This subject will come before us again, in our further meditations, if the Lord will. May we learn to value more the rest which our God has provided for us in Christ, and while enjoying Him as our rest, may we feed upon Him as the “hidden manna,” laid up, in the power of resurrection, in the inner sanctuary – the record of what God has accomplished, on our behalf, by coming down into this world, in His infinite grace, in order that we might be before Him, according to the perfectness of Christ, and feed on His unsearchable riches for ever.
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch

XVI. Manna and Quails (Exo 16:1-3 P, Exo 16:4 a(b) Exo 16:5 J, (Exo 16:6 f., Exo 16:8) Rp, Exo 16:9-13 a (morning) P, Exo 16:13 b Exo 16:15 J, Exo 16:16-18 P, Exo 16:19 f. Exo 16:1 J, Exo 16:22-26, Exo 16:27-30, Exo 16:31 b J, Exo 16:31 a and Exo 16:32 P, Exo 16:33 f. P, Exo 16:35 ac P, Exo 16:35 b J, Exo 16:36 Rp).Food and drink in the desert reassert their primitive primacy among the objects of human desire. For these travellers pray, and for lack of them will complain. Whatever stories were dropped from the cycles of tradition, those about manna and quails, wells and springs, will be plentiful. So between the water-tales of Marah in Exo 15:23 and Massah and Meribah in Exo 17:7 come memories of evening quails and morning manna in Exodus 16. The chapter is a crux for critics. Here only that analysis can be stated and assumed which rests on the latest surveys of the facts (cf. especially Driver, Baentsch, Gressmann). Dispute turns on the question whether J or E, and how much of either is present, and if more or less of P.
Exo 16:1-12. Murmurs met by Promise.The framework is P, and the murmurs of the people are expressed with a vividness perhaps dependent on J (Exo 16:3). The charms of Egypt have grown brighter since they were forgone. Moses shows no sympathy, and summons the congregation through Aaron before Yahweh, who is lenient to their complaint (the first in P), and promises quails and manna. The terms used imply that the sanctuary is already erected, and wilderness (Exo 16:10) should probably be miqdsh (sanctuary) or mishkn (dwelling, tabernacle). This and other indications suggest that the whole of Exo 16:16-18 has been misplaced, and should follow the departure from Sinai. In J, Moses would appear to have shared in the complaints, the reply only to which (Exo 16:4 f.) we possess. Yahweh promises to rain bread from heaven. Note that Exo 16:6 f. and Exo 16:8 parallel one another, anticipate Exo 16:12, and conflict with Exo 16:10 (glory in varying sense), and so are best taken as variant glosses.
Exo 16:13-21. Quails and Manna.In P both come together here. In J the quails follow much later (Numbers 11), when the people are tired of the manna, which is here described as a thin flake, thin like hoar-frost upon the ground (Exo 16:14), white like coriander seed, and with a taste like honey-wafers (Exo 16:31 b). The revulsion of sentiment in Num 11:4-6 J is natural, according to the French mot, Partridge again! and the Scotch servants request, Salmon not more than once a day! The best things pall with frequency. P describes how the supply of manna fitted the demand. Its corruption after one day (Exo 16:19 f.) is hardly described by the writer who records without comment the perpetual preservation of the pot of manna (Exo 16:33). Possibly it comes from J through Rp. J works up to a play upon the name, What-is-it (Exo 16:15 a), linguistically doubtful, but satisfying for his circle. P merely records that the house of Israel (one of his terms) called the name thereof manna. No doubt a real experience of providential help underlies the accounts. Quails do, in migration, cover the ground, and are easily caught after flying far. And from the tamarisk tree there does fall a sugary whitish substance still called manna, eaten as a relish; it melts in the sun (Num 11:7-9*). And if the scale and details of the mercy were varied in the often telling of it, that must not blunt the edge of the reminder that mans extremity is Gods opportunity, and that human faith fails before the resources of Divine grace are spent (Deu 8:3; Deu 8:16 f., Jdg 6:31 ff.), cf. Drivers note, CB, pp. 153f.
Exo 16:22-30. Manna and the Sabbath.Recent scholarship has found here Js missing reference to the Sabbath. In Exo 16:5 a double portion of the manna is to be prepared on Friday, and in Exo 16:27 some search vainly on Saturday, and the Sabbath rule is explained by Moses in Exo 16:29 f., Exo 16:28 being a gloss by an editor who assumed the Sabbath law as known. Even in P, who told of the Sabbath at Creation (Gen 2:1 ff.), the rule is introduced as a novelty (Exo 16:22 ff.), perhaps by a supplementer after the section was placed here (cf. for the Sabbath Exo 20:11 Rp, Exo 31:12-17 H and Ps). Such writers loved to base rules on incidents.
Exo 16:31-36. The Memorial Pot of Manna.This paragraph implies the Ark and Dwelling, cf. Num 17:4. For Exo 16:31 b J see above. The note (Exo 16:35) on the persistent supply of manna is duplicated: one clause may come from J or Rje. It is odd that though the tenth part of an ephah (Exo 16:36) is often mentioned, the term omer, perhaps obsolete, is preserved only by this chapter.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

BREAD FROM HEAVEN FOR THE WILDERNESS
(vs.1-36)
Just one month following the Passover in Egypt, Israel, leaving the refreshment of Elim’s oasis, came into “the wilderness of sin” (v.1). Sin means “thorn,” and a thorn is an aborted attempt to bear fruit, which issues rather in that which is harmful and painful. In our Christian history too we find that the world through which we pass is a wilderness full of thorns, or in other words, “the sin which so easily ensnares us” (Heb 12:1).
Israel’s reaction to this barrenness and lack of food was to give way to their sinful nature and complain against Moses and Aaron (v.2). How sadly we resemble Israel! Certainly this selfish murmuring would not produce food and any other good result. But the trials of the wilderness bring out such foolish workings of sin in our own hearts. They say they wish they had died in the land of Egypt while they sat by the fleshpots and had plenty to eat. But they forgot the rigorous bondage under which they had suffered with bitter complaints! They accuse Moses and Aaron of bringing them out of Egypt, though only recently they had sung in triumph to the Lord, thanking Him for His great deliverance. How is it possible that their eyes had become so dim, and in so short a time? Just recently too God had told Moses to throw a tree into the bitter waters of Marah and they became sweet. Why did they not simply appeal in faith to God on this fresh occasion of need? Complaining is not trusting God.
Yet immediately God graciously intervenes to tell Moses He will rain bread from heaven for Israel, that they might go out each day and gather what was necessary for them (v.4). This was marvelous grace, yet at the same time it would be a test, for such grace should produce a real response of thankful obedience to the Lord. There was provision made for all, as well as occupation for their hands.
On the sixth day they were to gather twice as much as on other days, in order to provide for the sabbath, when they were not to gather at all (v.5). Typically this teaches there will be no labor of gathering in eternity, but such labor increases as eternity nears.
Moses and Aaron speak to the children of Israel, to subdue them before the Lord, telling them that at evening they will have a fresh reminder that the Lord (not Moses and Aaron) has brought them out of Egypt, then the next morning they would discern the glory of the Lord in a way they had not imagined.
God had heard the murmurings of the children of Israel against Him: they may say they were complaining only against Moses and Aaron, but what were they but mere representatives of God? Therefore Moses insists that their murmurings were not against Moses and Aaron, but against the Lord (v.8).
When the sun became hot, the manna on the ground melted. Therefore, the time to gather was in the morning, as indeed is true for us today spiritually. The Lord Jesus Himself sought the blessing and guidance of the Father “morning by morning” (Isa 50:4). If we are lax at the beginning of the day, this will affect us for the rest of the day, but diligence to begin with will make the whole day brighter.
THE SABBATH SET APART
(vs.22-36)
In obedience to the Lord’s instruction (v.5) the Israelites gathered twice as much on the sixth day as on other days (v.22), and Moses informed the leaders that the Lord intended this because the seventh day (the sabbath) was holy, and they were not to gather on that day, but what was left over from the sixth day was to be used on the sabbath. They did so and found that in this case the manna was not corrupted (v.24).
As God had told them, no manna was given on the sabbath. God’s day of rest was not to be interfered with by the labor of gathering. In spite of this, some of the people went out with the intention of gathering (v.27) and God placed the blame for this on Moses, the representative of the people (v.28), stressing that the people were to strictly observe the sabbath by remaining in their own places.
The manna’s taste was like wafers made with honey (v.31), and a pot of manna was laid up in the tabernacle for the observance of future generations (vs.32-34). Then we are told Israel continued to eat manna forty years, until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of {a} Sin, which [is] between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
(a) This is the eighth place in which they had camped, there is another place called Zin, which was the 33rd place in which they camped, and is also called Kadesh, Num 33:36.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The wilderness of Sin evidently lay in the southwestern part of the Sinai peninsula (Exo 16:1). Its name relates to Sinai, the name of the mountain range located on its eastern edge. Aharoni believed that Paran was the original name of the entire Sinai Peninsula. [Note: Y. Aharoni, "Kadesh-Barnea and Mount Sinai," in God’s Wilderness: Discoveries in Sinai, pp. 165-70.]
This was Israel’s third occasion of grumbling (Exo 16:2; cf. Exo 14:11-12; Exo 15:24). The reason this time was not fear of the Egyptian army or lack of water but lack of food (Exo 16:3).
"A pattern is thus established here that continues throughout the narratives of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness. As the people’s trust in the Lord and in Moses waned in the wilderness, the need grew for stricter lessons." [Note: Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p. 273.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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