Exodus 16:21

21 colligebant autem mane singuli quantum sufficere poterat ad vescendum cumque incaluisset sol liquefiebat

Exodus 16:21 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 16:21

And they gathered it every morning
From the time the morning began, during four hours, or to the fourth hour, as the Targum of Jonathan; that is, till ten o'clock in the morning: this was a very wonderful thing that bread should be provided and rained every morning about the camp of Israel, in such plenty as to be sufficient to feed such a vast body of people; and that for forty years together:

every man according to his eating;
according to the number of persons he had in his family to eat of it, and as much as everyone could eat; there never was any lack or scarcity of it, but every morning there it was for them, and they gathered it, an omer for everyone:

and when the sun waxed hot, it melted;
and so what was left ungathered, being exhaled by the sun and laid up in the clouds, generated and increased, and became a provision to be let down the next morning; it being the will of God that it should not be trampled upon or exposed; and that the Israelites might be diligent, and not neglect the time of gathering it: and the Targum of Jonathan says, from the fourth hour, or ten o'clock and onward, the sun was hot upon it and melted it, which is the time of day when the sun is hottest: and some things, we may observe, are hardened by the sun, and others are softened, as the manna was, even to a liquefaction; though otherwise it was of so hard a nature as to be beaten in a mortar and ground in a mill, ( Numbers 11:8 ) .

Exodus 16:21 In-Context

19 dixitque Moses ad eos nullus relinquat ex eo in mane
20 qui non audierunt eum sed dimiserunt quidam ex eis usque mane et scatere coepit vermibus atque conputruit et iratus est contra eos Moses
21 colligebant autem mane singuli quantum sufficere poterat ad vescendum cumque incaluisset sol liquefiebat
22 in die vero sexta collegerunt cibos duplices id est duo gomor per singulos homines venerunt autem omnes principes multitudinis et narraverunt Mosi
23 qui ait eis hoc est quod locutus est Dominus requies sabbati sanctificata erit Domino cras quodcumque operandum est facite et quae coquenda sunt coquite quicquid autem reliquum fuerit reponite usque in mane
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.