¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”^[a] because they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given to you as food to eat. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord has commanded: All of them are to gather as much of it as they need to eat. You are to take an omer^[b] per person based on the number of people each of you has in your tents.”

¹⁷ The Israelites did this, and some gathered more, some less. ¹⁸ When they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered more did not have too much, and the one who gathered less did not have too little. All of them gathered as much as they needed to eat. ¹⁹ Moses said to them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning.” ²⁰ However, they did not listen to Moses. Some of them left part of it until morning, and it became full of worms and stank. So Moses was angry with them.

²¹ They gathered it each morning. All of them gathered as much as they needed to eat. 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 to Moses. ²³ He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: Tomorrow is a complete rest, a holy sabbath^[c] to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil, but set aside for yourselves all the rest of it to be kept until morning.”

²⁴ So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. ²⁵ Moses said, “Today eat whatever is left over, for today is a sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find any around the camp.^{[d] 26} Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”

²⁷ On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they did not find any. ²⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will you people refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions? ²⁹ Look, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore on the sixth day he will give you two days’ worth of bread. All of you are to stay where you are. None of you are to leave your places on the seventh day.” ³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹ The house of Israel called it manna.^[e] It looked like white coriander seed, and it tasted like wafers made with honey.

²⁴ When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. ²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶ Jesus answered them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. ²⁷ Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

²⁸ So they said to him, “What should we do to carry out the works of God?”

²⁹ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.”

³⁰ Then they asked him, “So what miraculous sign are you going to do, that we may see it and believe you? What miraculous sign are you going to perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”^[a]

³² Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the real bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said to him, “give us this bread all the time!”

³⁵ “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Living Changed Lives

¹⁷ So I tell you this and testify to it in the Lord: Do not walk any longer as the Gentiles walk, in their futile way of thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of their hearts. ¹⁹ Because they have no sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality, with an ever-increasing desire to practice every kind of impurity.

²⁰ But you did not learn Christ in that way, ²¹ if indeed you have heard of him and were taught in him (since the truth is in Jesus). ²² As far as your former way of life is concerned, you were taught to take off the old self, which is corrupted by its deceitful desires, ²³ and to be renewed continually in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, which has been created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness.