Out of Egypt · c. 1446 BC
Chapter 7
Bread from Heaven
When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They each gathered according to his eating.
For parents
Amalek attacks Israel, and Joshua defeats Amalek’s people with the sword (Exodus 17:8–13). The Lord then vows to wipe out the memory of Amalek and to be at war with Amalek in every generation (17:14–16). It is told plainly, without detail.
From the Israelites moved on. The whole community of came into the , which lies between Elim and , on the fifteenth day of the second month since they had left .
There in the wilderness the whole community complained against and . “We wish we had died at the ’s hand in Egypt,” the Israelites said to them, “back when we sat by the meat pots and had as much bread as we could eat! Instead you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole crowd.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I am going to make bread rain down from the sky for you. Every day the people are to go out and gather a share for that day. That way I will test them, to find out whether they will live by my law or not. On the sixth day they will get ready what they bring home, and it will come to twice what they gather on other days.”
Moses and Aaron told all the Israelites, “When evening comes, you will know that the Lord is the one who brought you out of Egypt. Tomorrow morning you will see the Lord’s , because he hears you grumbling against him. As for us, who are we? Why grumble at us?”
Moses said, “In the evening the Lord will give you meat to eat. In the morning he will give you bread to fill you up, because he hears how you grumble against him. Who are we? It isn’t us you’re grumbling against. It’s the Lord.”
Moses told Aaron, “Say to the whole community of Israel, ‘Come close to the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling.’” As Aaron spoke to them all, they looked out toward the wilderness, and the Lord’s glory appeared in the .
The Lord spoke to Moses. “I have heard the Israelites grumbling,” he said. “Tell them, ‘This evening you will eat meat. In the morning you will have bread to fill you. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
That evening, came up and covered the camp. In the morning, dew lay all around the camp. When the dew had gone, there on the ground of the wilderness was something small and round, tiny as frost.
When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was.
Moses told them, “This is bread. The Lord has given it to you to eat. And this is his command: ‘Each of you, gather as much as you will eat. Take an , a little over two quarts, for every person, counting everyone who lives in your tent.’”
The Israelites did so. Some gathered more and some less. Then they measured it with an omer. Whoever had gathered a lot had none left over, and whoever had gathered a little had all he needed. Each had gathered as much as he would eat.
“Don’t leave any of it until morning,” Moses told them. But they didn’t listen to Moses. Some of them left part of it until morning. Worms grew in it, and it began to stink. Moses was angry with them.
Morning after morning they gathered it, each one as much as he would eat. When the sun grew hot, it melted.
On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers apiece, and all the community’s leaders came and told Moses.
He said to them, “The Lord has said this: ‘Tomorrow is a day for resting, a holy to the Lord. Bake whatever you want to bake, and boil whatever you want to boil. Then put away all that is left over, and keep it until morning.’”
So they put it away until morning, as Moses had told them, and it didn’t go bad. There were no worms in it.
Moses said, “Eat that today, because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today there will be none out in the field. You will gather it for six days. The seventh day is the Sabbath. On that day there will be none.”
On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they found nothing.
The Lord said to Moses, “How long are you Israelites going to refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? Look: the Lord has given you the Sabbath. So on the sixth day he gives you enough bread for two days. On the seventh day everyone is to stay where he is. No one is to go out.”
So the people rested on the seventh day.
The Israelites named it , which means “What is it?” It was like seed, but white, and it tasted like wafers with honey.
Moses said, “The Lord has given this command: ‘Keep a full omer of it for every generation after you. Then they can see the bread I fed you with in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
Moses said to Aaron, “Get a jar and put a full omer of manna in it. Set it in the Lord’s presence, to be kept for every generation after you.” So Aaron set it in front of the to be kept, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Israelites ate the manna for forty years, until they came to a land where people lived. They ate it until they came to the edge of the land of .
An omer is one tenth of an , a measure of about six gallons.
The whole community of Israel traveled on from the wilderness of Sin, setting out at the Lord’s command. They made camp in , but there was no water for the people to drink.
So the people quarreled with Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they said.
“Why are you quarreling with me?” Moses asked them. “Why are you testing the Lord?”
The people were thirsty there, so they grumbled against Moses. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt?” they said. “Was it to kill us with thirst, and our children and our animals too?”
“What am I going to do with these people?” Moses cried out to the Lord. “They’re almost ready to stone me to death.”
The Lord said to Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people, and take the of Israel along. Bring the staff you used to strike the , and go. Look: I will stand in front of you there, on the rock at . You are to strike the rock, and water will come out of it. Then the people can drink.”
Moses did so, while the elders of Israel watched.
He named the place , which means “testing”, and , which means “quarreling”. That was because the Israelites had quarreled, and because they had tested the Lord by asking, “Is the Lord among us, or not?”
Then the people of came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.
Moses said to , “Choose men for us, and go out and fight Amalek. Tomorrow I’ll stand on the top of the hill with God’s staff in my hand.”
Joshua did what Moses told him and fought Amalek. Moses, Aaron and went up to the top of the hill.
Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel was winning. Whenever he let it down, Amalek was winning.
But Moses’ hands were heavy. So they put a stone under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, Aaron on one side and Hur on the other. His hands were steady until sunset.
With the sword, Joshua defeated Amalek and his people.
The Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a record, and repeat it to Joshua: I will completely wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the sky.”
Moses built an . He named it “.” And he said, “The Lord has sworn it: ‘The Lord will fight Amalek in every generation.’”
, the of , was Moses’ father-in-law. He heard about all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people: how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.
Moses’ wife had been sent away, and Jethro had taken her in, with her two sons. One son was called , a name that sounds like the Hebrew for “a foreigner there”, because Moses had said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.” The other was called , which means “God is my helper”, because Moses had said, “My father’s God was my help. He saved me from ’s sword.”
Jethro came to Moses in the wilderness with Moses’ sons and his wife, to the place where Moses was camped at the mountain of God. “It’s me, Jethro, your father-in-law,” he said to Moses. “I have come to you with your wife and her two sons.”
Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed and kissed him. Each asked how the other was, and they went into the tent.
Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the troubles that had come their way on the journey, and how the Lord rescued them.
Jethro was glad about all the good the Lord had done for Israel by saving them from the Egyptians.
“Praise the Lord!” said Jethro. “He rescued you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh. He set the people free from the Egyptians’ grip. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because of the proud way they treated people.”
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought God a and . Aaron came with all the elders of Israel, and they ate together with Moses’ father-in-law in God’s presence.
The next day Moses sat judging the people’s cases, and they stood around him from morning to evening.
Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people. “What is all this you’re doing?” he asked. “Why do you sit here alone, while the whole crowd stands around you from morning to evening?”
“Because the people come to me to find out what God says,” Moses told his father-in-law. “When they have a case, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor. I teach them God’s rules and his laws.”
“What you’re doing isn’t good,” Moses’ father-in-law told him. “You’ll wear yourself out, you and these people with you. It’s too heavy for you. You aren’t able to do it all by yourself.
“Now listen to me. Here is my advice, and God be with you. You are to speak to God for the people and bring their cases to him. Teach them the rules and the laws. Show them the way they must live, and the work they must do.
“Also, from all the people, choose able men who , men who tell the truth and hate getting money by cheating. Put them over the people as leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties and leaders of tens. Let them be the people’s everyday judges. They are to bring every big case to you, but they can judge every small case themselves. Then it will be easier for you: they will share the load with you.
“If you do this, and God tells you to, you will be able to keep going, and all these people will also go home in peace.”
Moses took his father-in-law’s advice and did all that he had said.
He chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people: leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties and leaders of tens. They judged the people all the time. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.
Moses saw his father-in-law off, and Jethro went home to his own land.