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Exodus 16:31

in Exodus 16

Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

KJV

And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

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This verse in Exodus 16

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
The Word of God becomes all these things to each and every one according as the capacity or the desire of the participant requires. In just the same way the manna also, although it was one food, yielded its flavor to each person after his desire. So he does not offer himself only as bread to those who hunger and as wine to those who thirst, but he presents himself also as fragrant apples to those who crave delights.

This site's exposition

called the name thereof Manna

on Exodus 16:31-32

The house of Israel keeps its own question as the name of the food, which the people had already used of it at verse 15. The description is domestic, like coriander seed, white, with the taste of wafers made with honey, and Numbers 11:7 and 11:8 describe it again as the colour of bdellium tasting of fresh oil, by which point the people are tired of it. An omer of it is to be filled and kept so that a later generation can see the bread rather than be told about it.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

And moreover when they ate it formerly, its taste was changed into that of all kinds of meats in their mouth, and it is well known that it also took the place of flesh unto them, for it is written, "It was like honey comb, …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

manna - It was not indeed the common manna, as they then seem to have believed, but the properties which are noted in this passage are common to it and the natural product: in size, form and color it resembled the seed of the white coriander, a small round grain of a whitish or yellowish grey.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Though it may be exhaled by the heat and afterwards fall with the dew, it is a medicine, not food--it is well known to the natives of the desert, while the Israelites were strangers to theirs; and in taste as well as in the appearance of double quantity on Friday, none on Sabbath, and in not breeding worms, it is essentially different from the manna furnished to the Israelites.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Called the name thereof Manna - See Clarke’s note on Exo 16:15.

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּקְרְא֧וּand they called

    vaiyikreuH7121 →733 times

  • בֵֽית־[the] household of

    veit-H1004 →2046 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • שְׁמ֖וֹname its

    shemoH8034 →864 times

  • מָ֑ןmanna

    manH4478 →14 times

  • וְה֗וּאand it

    vehu'H1931 →1879 times

  • כְּזֶ֤רַע[was] like [the] seed of

    kezera'H2233 →229 times

  • גַּד֙coriander

    gadH1407 →

  • לָבָ֔ןwhite

    lavanH3836 →

  • וְטַעְמ֖וֹand taste its

    veta'moH2940 →

  • כְּצַפִּיחִ֥ת[was] like a wafer

    ketzapichitH6838 →

  • בִּדְבָֽשׁ׃with honey

    bidvashH1706 →54 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

8 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Exodus 16:15When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. So Moses told them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.7 worksNumbers 11:7Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.7 worksNumbers 11:8The 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.5 worksNumbers 11:6–9But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”4 worksSong of Solomon 2:3Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.3 worksLeviticus 2:4Now if you bring an offering of grain baked in an oven, it must consist of fine flour, either unleavened cakes mixed with oil or unleavened wafers coated with oil.3 works
The other 2 cross-references, with their words ▾
Exodus 16:14When the layer of dew had evaporated, there were thin flakes on the desert floor, as fine as frost on the ground.2 worksNumbers 21:5and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 16:15

    When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. So Moses told them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you…

    it leads to

    • Exodus 16:4

      Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I…

    • John 6:58

      This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

    • John 6:31–32

      Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

    • 1 Corinthians 10:3

      They all ate the same spiritual food

    • Deuteronomy 8:3

      He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone,…

  • Through

    Song of Solomon 2:3

    Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

    it leads to

    • Song of Solomon 8:5

      Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? I roused you under the apple tree; there your mother conceived you; there she travailed and brought you forth.

    • Hebrews 1:1–6

      On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

    • Isaiah 25:4

      For You have been a refuge for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like…

Where this verse is studied

About Exodus

The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Exodus: the study guide →Read Exodus 16 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 3:8 and Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence.

Read on in Exodus 16 →