Exodus 16

In which Moses and the Hebrews get lost in the desert, but eventually make it to Canaan.

Skeptic's Annotated Bible

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.
16:2  And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
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 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.

"I'd rather be dead than hungry!" 

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.

Manna from heaven.  Because, yeah, it rains bread.

Can someone name me one instance in recorded history where someone has prayed to God because of hunger, and bread has rained from the sky as a result?  Just recently Texas governor Rick Perry had everyone in Texas pray for rain.  This is slash and burn, Texas-style.  Slash the firefighting budget, then watch Texas burn.  Just a recent example that it doesn't even rain, you know, water when you pray for it, much less bread.

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.
16:6  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:
16:7  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?
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.
16:9  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.

All it takes to goad God into action is to grouse a bit.  Interesting that God didn't know that the people would need to eat in the desert, or have the grace to provide for them before they started to starve.

16:10  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.
16:11  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
16:12  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.

I also find it interesting that the events in this story are backwards.  First Moses says that God will bring flesh and bread for the Hebrews to eat.  And then, later, God speaks to Moses and tells him that he'll do these things.  If Moses was speaking for God, there'd be no reason for God to say this to Moses after Moses had already said it to the Hebrews.  If Moses wasn't speaking for God, then why'd he say it?  

16:13  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.
16:14  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.
16:15  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.
16:16  This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

An omer is a unit of volume, about 3.64 liters.   Seems strange to measure bread by volume and not weight, but whatever.

16:17  And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
16:18  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.

Because when bread is divinely conjured out of the sky, it's important not to waste it or take more than you need.

What's the point of this whole lesson here?  Don't be selfish?  What a strange time and circumstance to try to be teaching such a, well, obvious moral lesson.  You're all starving to death and angry about leaving your comfortable homes (even if you were slaves) to enter this wilderness.  God creates a food supply -- and even tells you that he will make it twice as abundant on the sixth day (back up there in verse 5) -- and yet the moral lesson is "don't take more than you need." 

There are so many more important things to be learned here (like "don't enter the desert without supplies," or "don't leave your survival in someone else's hands," or "band together and work constructively for your survival," and so on).  And yet, in the face of unlimited food that appears miraculously out of thin air, the message is "don't take more than you need"?  Just doesn't make any sense.
 

16:19  And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
16:20  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.

Lazy, ungrateful bastards.   They clearly cannot follow instructions.

16:21  And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
16:22  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.
16:23  And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: 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.
16:24  And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

It's a miracle!  There were no worms in the bread!

16:25  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.

Even God needs a day off.  Creating bread for a small band of desert nomads is tiring work, even for God.

16:26  Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
16:27  And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

Still not following directions.

16:28  And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
16:29  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.
16:30  So the people rested on the seventh day.

I wonder what the punishment might be for breaking this "commandment"?  That is, not to look for food on the sabbath?  In this case Moses just got a gentle rebuke from God.  How dare those hungry, starving people go looking for food on a Sunday!

16:31  And 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 with honey.
16:32  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.
16:33  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.
16:34  As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
16:35  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.

But not flesh?  I guess that part of the promise was forgotten?

And, 40 years?  40 YEARS?  It's about 380 miles (in a straight line), which, walking 1 mile a day and resting on Sundays would take about 435 days, or 14.5 months.  But really, this distance shouldn't have taken more than a few weeks, right?  If they traveled 10 miles / day, it would have taken 38 days, or about 5 weeks.  At 40 years, they proceeded at a rate of about about 0.026 miles per day, or roughly 100 feet / day.  Not exactly a group that was moving with any conviction towards a destination.

Sounds more like they got lost.

Also, if the only thing they ate for 40 years was this manna, you'd think they'd have all died of malnutrition.  Or extreme culinary boredom.   ("Look!  More lembas bread!")

I also wonder how old Moses was when this adventure started, and how old he must be now.  Let's see, he was 40 years old when he first killed the Egyptian, and he stayed in Midian for 40 years, so he was roughly 80 when he led the Hebrews out of Egypt and into the desert.  This trek was 40 years, so now he's about 120 years old.  Pretty old to be wandering around a desert.

16:36  Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

What a strange way to end a chapter.   An ephah is about 34.6 liters.