The Lord Sends Food from Heaven

16 On the fifteenth day of the second month after the Israelites had escaped from Egypt, they left Elim and started through the western edge of the Sinai Desert^[a] in the direction of Mount Sinai. ² There in the desert they started complaining to Moses and Aaron, ³ “We wish the Lord had killed us in Egypt. When we lived there, we could at least sit down and eat all the bread and meat we wanted. But you have brought us out here into this desert, where we are going to starve.”

^4 (A) The Lord said to Moses, “I will send bread^[b] down from heaven like rain. Tell the people to go out each day and gather only enough for that day. That's how I will see if they obey me.

⁹ Moses turned to Aaron and said, “Bring the people together, because the Lord has heard their complaints.”

¹⁰ Aaron was speaking to them, when everyone looked out toward the desert and saw the bright glory of the Lord in a cloud.

¹³ That evening a lot of quails came and landed everywhere in the camp, and the next morning dew covered the ground. ¹⁴ After the dew had gone, the desert was covered with thin flakes that looked like frost. ^15 (A) The people had never seen anything like this, and they started asking each other, “What is it?”^[a]

Moses answered, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.