Exodus 16:16

16 This the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is that which the Lord has appointed: gather of it each man for his family, a homer for each person, according to the number of your souls, gather each of you with his fellow-lodgers.

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 in the morning it came to pass as the dew ceased round about the camp, that, behold, on the face of the wilderness a small thing like white coriander seed, as frost upon the earth.
15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, What is this? for they knew not what it was; and Moses said to them,
16 This the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is that which the Lord has appointed: gather of it each man for his family, a homer for each person, according to the number of your souls, gather each of you with his fellow-lodgers.
17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some much and some less.
18 And having measured the homer , he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered less had no lack; each gathered according to the need of those who belonged to him.

Footnotes 1

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.