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4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them to see whether they will follow My instructions. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “This evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because He has heard your complaints about Him. Who are we that you complain about us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when He gives you meat to eat this evening and more than enough bread in the morning, because He has heard the complaints you have raised against Him. Who are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the whole Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints’.”
10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God’.”
13 That evening quails came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there was a fine flaky substance of the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Each person is to gather as much of it as he needs. Collect one omer for each person, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent’.”
17 So the Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, and some little. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, those who had gathered much had nothing left over, and those who had gathered little had no shortage. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
19 Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
20 But they didn’t listen to Moses; some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
21 Every morning they gathered it, each as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much food, two omers for each person, and all the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and set aside whatever is left until morning’.”
24 So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t smell or get maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27 Yet on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they found none. 28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commands and My instructions? 29 Keep in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Each of you is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 The house of Israel called the substance manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so that they may see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt’.”
33 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place in it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.”
34 As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron placed it in front of the Testimony so that it would be kept. 35 The Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they reached the border of the land of Canaan.
36 (An omer is a tenth of an ephah.)