Numbers 11:8

8 The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.

Numbers 11:8 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 11:8

[And] the people went about and gathered [it]
Went about the camp on all sides, where it fell in plenty; this they did every morning, and this was all the trouble they were at; they had it for gathering, without any expense to them:

and ground [it] in mills:
in hand mills, as Aben Ezra; for though it melted through the heat of the sun, and became a liquid, yet, when gathered in the morning, it was hard like grains of corn, or other seeds, and required to be ground in mills:

or beat [it] in a mortar;
with a pestle, as spices are beaten and bruised:

and baked [it] in pans;
or rather boiled it in a pot, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, since it follows:

and made cakes of it;
which were baked on the hearth; all which may denote the sufferings of Christ, who was beaten, and bruised, and broken, that he might become fit food for faith, ( Isaiah 53:4 Isaiah 53:5 Isaiah 53:10 ) ;

and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil;
which is very grateful and pleasant, as well as very fattening and nourishing; so that the Israelites had no reason to complain of their being dried away by continual eating of it; (See Gill on Exodus 16:31).

Numbers 11:8 In-Context

6 But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”

7 Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.

8 The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.

9 When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

10 Then Moses heard the people of family after family weeping at the entrances to their tents, and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was also displeased.