Numbers 11:8

8 The people went about and gathered [it], and they ground [it] with mills or crushed [it] with mortar. Then they boiled [it] in a pot and made it [into] bread-cakes; and it tasted like olive oil cakes.

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 strength is dried up}; there is nothing whatsoever except {for the manna before us}."

7 Now the manna [was] like coriander seed, and its outward appearance was like that of bdellium-gum.

8 The people went about and gathered [it], and they ground [it] with mills or crushed [it] with mortar. Then they boiled [it] in a pot and made it [into] bread-cakes; and it tasted like olive oil cakes.

9 When the dew came down on the camp [at] night, the manna came down [with] it.

10 Moses heard the people weeping according to their clans, each at the doorway of their tents. Then {Yahweh became very angry}, and in the eyes of Moses it was bad.