Commentaria in Exodum
Chapter 16. Synopsis of the Chapter
The bread failing, the hungry Hebrews murmur; God sends them quails, and, verse 14, rains or hails manna, and with it feeds them daily for forty years.
1. And they set forward from Elim, and all the multitude of the children of Israel came into the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, the fifteenth day of the second month after they came out of the land of Egypt. 2. And all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3. And the children of Israel said to them: Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the flesh pots, and ate bread to the full! Why have you brought us into this desert, that you might destroy all the multitude with famine? 4. And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you: let the people go out, and gather what is sufficient for every day: that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law, or no. 5. But the sixth day let them provide for to bring in: and let it be double to that they were wont to gather every day. 6. And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel: In the evening you shall know that the Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt: 7. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord: for he hath heard your murmuring against the Lord: but as for us, what are we, that you mutter against us? 8. And Moses said: In the evening the Lord will give you flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full: for he hath heard your murmurings, with which you have murmured against him, for what are we? Your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord. 9. And Moses said to Aaron: Say to the whole congregation of the children of Israel: Come before the Lord: for he hath heard your murmuring. 10. And when Aaron spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, they looked towards the desert: and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud. 11. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 12. I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel: say to them: In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread: and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. 13. So it came to pass in the evening, that quails coming up covered the camp: and in the morning, a dew lay round about the camp. 14. And when it had covered the face of the earth, it appeared in the wilderness small, and as it were beaten with a pestle, like unto the hoar frost on the ground. 15. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another: Manhu! which signifieth: What is this! for they knew not what it was. And Moses said to them: This is the bread, which the Lord hath given you to eat. 16. This is the word, that the Lord hath commanded: Let every one of you gather of it as much as is sufficient to eat: a gomor for every man, according to the number of your souls that dwell in a tent, so shall you take of it. 17. And the children of Israel did so: and they gathered, one more, another less. 18. And they measured by the measure of a gomor: neither he that had gathered more, had more: nor he that had provided less, found less: but every one had gathered according to what they were able to eat. 19. And Moses said to them: Let no man leave thereof till the morning. 20. And they hearkened not to him, but some of them left until the morning, and it began to be full of worms, and it putrefied, and Moses was angry with them. 21. Now every one of them gathered in the morning, as much as might suffice to eat: and after the sun grew hot, it melted. 22. But on the sixth day they gathered twice as much, that is, two gomors for every man: and all the rulers of the multitude came, and told Moses. 23. And he said to them: This is what the Lord hath spoken: Tomorrow is the rest of the sabbath sanctified to the Lord. Whatsoever work is to be done, do it: and the meats that are to be dressed, dress them: and whatsoever shall remain, lay it up until the morning. 24. And they did so as Moses had commanded, and it did not putrefy, neither was there a worm found in it. 25. And Moses said: Eat it today, because it is the sabbath of the Lord: today it shall not be found in the field. 26. Six days gather it, but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, therefore it shall not be found. 27. And the seventh day came: and some of the people going out to gather, found none. 28. And the Lord said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep my commandments, and my law? 29. See that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, and on this account on the sixth day he giveth you a double provision: let every man stay at home, and let none go out of his place on the seventh day. 30. And the people kept the sabbath on the seventh day. 31. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed white, and the taste thereof like to flour with honey. 32. And Moses said: This is the word which the Lord hath commanded: Fill a gomor of it, and let it be kept unto generations to come hereafter, that they may know the bread, wherewith I fed you in the wilderness, when you were brought forth out of the land of Egypt. 33. And Moses said to Aaron: Take a vessel, and put manna into it, as much as a gomor can hold: and let it be laid up before the Lord to keep unto your generations, 34. As the Lord commanded Moses. And Aaron put it in the tabernacle to be kept. 35. And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land: with this meat were they fed, until they reached the borders of the land of Chanaan. 36. Now a gomor is the tenth part of an ephi.
1. AND ALL THE MULTITUDE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CAME INTO THE DESERT OF SIN.—This is the eighth station of the Hebrews in the desert; for the seventh, which was at the Red Sea, the journey being turned back toward it, as appears Num. 33:10, is omitted here because nothing peculiar happened there.
This desert of Sin lies between the Red Sea and mount Sinai, and is different from the desert of Sin (which is also called Cades), of which Num. 20:4, and chap. 34, verse 3, where Mary died, and the rock struck by Moses gave waters: for ours here is written Sin with samech, but that in Numbers with tsade; in that was the thirty-third station, in this the eighth.
Sin in Hebrew means hatred, and symbolically signifies that when we follow God calling us into the desert, going out from the world, we stir up the great hatred of the enemy against us, namely of the devil and of worldly men. So St. Jerome to Fabiola.
ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH,—namely the thirtieth day from the going out of Egypt; for they went out on the fifteenth day of the first month: but on the fifteenth day of the second month (which is called Iar, and answers partly to our April, partly to May) they came into Sin. On which note that the Hebrews had lunar months; but a lunar month has 29 days and a half: whence the Hebrews gave to the first month 29 days; but to the second month they gave 30 days, because the two half days, which had accrued in each of these months, made one day, namely the thirtieth. Now if the first month had 29 days, then from the 15th day to the 29th and last are 15 days: add to these the 14 days of the second month, and you will arrive exactly at the thirtieth day, on which the Hebrews came into Sin: and on the morrow, namely the thirty-first day, it began to rain manna, as is plain from verses 8 and 12. So Tornielli and Josephus, as will appear at verse 22.
2. AND ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MURMURED,—when now the kneaded flour, or dough, which they had brought out of Egypt, was failing; for that lasted thirty days, says Josephus.
3. WOULD TO GOD WE HAD DIED BY THE HAND OF THE LORD,—namely by a death inflicted by the Lord, whether natural or violent.
WHEN WE SAT OVER THE FLESH POTS.—Others render it, beside the flesh pots; our Interpreter better renders, over the pots. Scripture here marks the voracious gluttony of the gross people, who, as cattle upon herbs, so these hung over their pots. Behold here the example and pattern of apostates: for first, when temptation strikes, they forget even grace received by miracle, as here the Hebrews forget all the plagues and prodigies of Egypt; secondly, they repent of having followed God calling them out of the allurements of Egypt, that is, of the world; thirdly, they despair of the free power of God, and at last, if they can, return to their pots.