Numbers 11:8

8 The people would roam around and collect it and grind it with millstones or pound it in a mortar. Then they would boil it in pots and make it into cakes. It tasted like cakes baked in olive 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 Now our lives are wasting away. There is nothing but manna in front of us."

7 The manna was like coriander seed and its color was like resin.

8 The people would roam around and collect it and grind it with millstones or pound it in a mortar. Then they would boil it in pots and make it into cakes. It tasted like cakes baked in olive oil.

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

10 Moses heard the people crying throughout their clans, each at his tent's entrance. The LORD was outraged, and Moses was upset.