Exodus 16:12-35

International Children’s Bible

¹² “I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel. So tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat. And every morning you will eat all the bread you want. Then you will know I am the Lord, your God.’”

¹³ That evening, quail came and covered the camp. And in the morning dew lay around the camp. ¹⁴ When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost were on the desert ground. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they asked each other, “What is that?” They asked this question because they did not know what it was.

So Moses told them, “This is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶ The Lord has commanded, ‘Each one of you must gather what he needs. Gather about two quarts for every person in your family.’”

¹⁷ So the people of Israel did this. Some people gathered much, and some gathered little. ¹⁸ Then they measured it. The person who gathered more did not have too much. The person who gathered less did not have too little. Each person gathered just as much as he needed.

¹⁹ Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it to eat the next day.” ²⁰ But some of the people did not listen to Moses. They kept part of it to eat the next morning. But it became full of worms and began to stink. So Moses was angry with these people.

²¹ Every morning each person gathered as much food as he needed. But when the sun became hot, it melted away.

²² On the sixth day the people gathered twice as much food. They gathered four quarts for every person. So all the leaders of the community came and told this to Moses. ²³ Moses said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow is the Sabbath, the Lord’s holy day of rest. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil today. But save the rest of the food until tomorrow morning.”

²⁴ So the people saved it until the next morning, as Moses had commanded. And none of it began to stink or have worms in it. ²⁵ Moses told the people, “Eat the food you gathered yesterday. Today is a Sabbath, the Lord’s day of rest. So you will not find any out in the field today. ²⁶ You should gather the food for six days. But the seventh day is a Sabbath day. On that day there will not be any food on the ground.”

²⁷ On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather food, but they couldn’t find any. ²⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will all you people refuse to obey my commands and teachings? ²⁹ Look, the Lord has made the Sabbath a day of rest for all of you. So on the sixth day he will give you enough food for two days. But on the Sabbath each of you must stay where you are. Do not leave your house.” ³⁰ So the people rested on the Sabbath.

³¹ The people of Israel called the food manna. The manna was like small white seeds. It tasted like wafers made with honey.

³² Then Moses said, “The Lord said, ‘Save two quarts of this food for your descendants. Then they can see the food that I gave you to eat. I did this in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’”

³³ Moses told Aaron, “Take a jar and fill it with two quarts of manna. And save this manna for your descendants.” ³⁴ So Aaron did what the Lord had commanded Moses. Aaron put the jar of manna in front of the Ark of the Covenant. He did this so it could be kept. ³⁵ The Israelites ate manna for 40 years. They ate it until they came to the land where they settled. They ate manna until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan.