Exodus 16:16

16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.'"

Exodus 16:16 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 16:16

This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded
Respecting the gathering of it, the rule or rules he would have observed concerning that, as follows: gather of it every man according to his eating;
according to his appetite, and according to the appetites of those that were in his family, as much as they can all eat; and that they may have enough, the particular quantity is fixed for each of them. This act of gathering, in the mystical sense, may respect the exercise of faith on Christ, laying hold of him as he is held forth in the word, receiving him, and feeding upon him with a spiritual appetite, and that freely, largely, plentifully, and encouraging others to do the same: an omer for every man;
or head, or by poll F16; they were to take the poll of their families, the number of them, and reckon to every head, or assign to every man, such a measure of the manna, and which was sufficient for a man of the keenest appetite; what this measure was, (See Gill on Exodus 16:36) This must be understood not of sucking infants, and such that were sick and infirm, and of poor appetites, that could not feed upon and digest such sort of food, only of those that could: [according] to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them
which are in his tent:
this was to be done after it was gathered and brought in, either by certain overseers of this affair, or heads of families, who, according to the number of those that were in their tents, who were eaters of such sort of food, was to take an omer of it for everyone of them.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 (tl gl gl) "ad caput", Montanus; "pro capite", Fagius, Drusius, Cartwright; so Ainsworth.

Exodus 16:16 In-Context

14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the desert surface were thin flakes, as thin as frost on the ground.
15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" They didn't know what it was. Moses said to them, "This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.
16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.'"
17 The Israelites did as Moses said, some collecting more, some less.
18 But when they measured it out by the omer, the ones who had collected more had nothing left over, and the ones who had collected less had no shortage. Everyone collected just as much as they could eat.

Footnotes 1

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