Add parallel Print Page Options

Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”

The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin. The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night.

Read full chapter

Complaints about Food

The riffraff[a] among them(A) had a strong craving(B) for other food. The Israelites wept again and said, “Who will feed us meat? We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt,(C) along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite is gone;[b] there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”

The manna(D) resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium.[c] The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.(E)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 11:4 Or The mixed multitude; Hb obscure
  2. 11:6 Or our lives are wasting away, or our throat is dry
  3. 11:7 A yellowish, transparent gum resin