Exodus 16:21-27
New English Translation
21 So they gathered it each morning,[a] each person according to what he could eat, and when the sun got hot, it would melt.[b] 22 And[c] on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers[d] per person;[e] and all the leaders[f] of the community[g] came and told[h] Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work,[i] a holy Sabbath[j] to the Lord. Whatever you want to[k] bake, bake today;[l] whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.’”
24 So they put it aside until the morning, just as Moses had commanded, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the area.[m] 26 Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they found nothing.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 16:21 tn Heb “morning by morning.” This is an example of the repetition of words to express the distributive sense; here the meaning is “every morning” (see GKC 388 §121.c).
- Exodus 16:21 tn The perfect tenses here with vav (ו) consecutives have the frequentative sense; they function in a protasis-apodosis relationship (GKC 494 §159.g).
- Exodus 16:22 tn Heb “and it happened/was.”
- Exodus 16:22 tn This construction is an exception to the normal rule for the numbers 2 through 10 taking the object numbered in the plural. Here it is “two of the omer” or “the double of the omer” (see GKC 433 §134.e).
- Exodus 16:22 tn Heb “for one.”
- Exodus 16:22 tn The word suggests “the ones lifted up” above others, and therefore the rulers or the chiefs of the people.
- Exodus 16:22 tn Or “congregation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).
- Exodus 16:22 sn The meaning here is probably that these leaders, the natural heads of the families in the clans, saw that people were gathering twice as much and they reported this to Moses, perhaps afraid it would stink again (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 197).
- Exodus 16:23 tn The noun שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbaton) has the abstract ending on it: “resting, ceasing.” The root word means “cease” from something, more than “to rest.” The Law would make it clear that they were to cease from their normal occupations and do no common work.
- Exodus 16:23 tn The technical expression is now used: שַׁבַּת־קֹדֶשׁ (shabbat qodesh, “a holy Sabbath”) meaning a “cessation of/for holiness” for Yahweh. The rest was to be characterized by holiness.
- Exodus 16:23 tn The two verbs in these objective noun clauses are desiderative imperfects—“bake whatever you want to bake.”
- Exodus 16:23 tn The word “today” is implied from the context.
- Exodus 16:25 tn Heb “in the field” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); NAB, NIV, NLT “on the ground.”
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