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20 In contrast, you nourished your people with the food of angels,[a]
    and with no labor on their part, you supplied them with bread from heaven that was ready to eat,
    filled with every delight and pleasing to every taste.
21 The sustenance you offered manifested your kindly mercy to your children,
    for the bread that conformed to the desire of those who ate it
    was transformed to appeal to each one’s preference.
22 Snow and ice[b] withstood the fire and did not melt,
    so that they would realize that the harvesters of their enemies
were destroyed by a fire that blazed in the hail
    and flashed through the falling rain;

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Footnotes

  1. Wisdom 16:20 Food of angels: i.e., the manna (Ps 78:23-25), which tasted like a honey cake (Ex 16:31) and was a sign of God’s mercy (v. 21; Pss 34:8; 119:103). As the text shows, Jewish tradition had embellished the more sober text of Exodus (Ex 16:13-21). The Liturgy uses these texts with regard to the Eucharist.
  2. Wisdom 16:22 Snow and ice: i.e., the manna (v. 27; Wis 19:21). It is compared to dew (Ex 16:14) and to ice (Num 11:7 LXX).