EXODUS 16

When reading the narrative portions of Scriptures it is necessary to follow the flow of the action, which often appears to be repetitive in places. To that end, the first step is to look for overall themes and changes of speaker and location. For example, in following the exploits of the Israelites in the wilderness, one can see that it consists of a number of trials that the people face along the journey. Thus, Fokkelman offers a detailed breakdown of the crises in this section comprising Exodus 15:22-18:25:

            a. Crisis of water (15:22-27)

b. Crisis of food (ch. 16)

            c. Crisis of water (17:1-7)

            d. Crisis of war (17:8-16)

            e. Crisis of leadership (ch. 18)

Since we will be zeroing in on the giving of manna in Chapter 16, we can make a first assumption that 16:1-36 constitutes a discrete literary section. But the chapter divisions in our present Bibles are not necessarily inspired, and can actually be quite misleading on occasion. So it is best to stop and see what biblical scholars say about this assumption. Although many commentators and translations agree that Exodus 16 constitutes one unit, that feeling is not universally shared.

    Propp treats Exodus 15:27-16:36 as one section, followed by the NIV.

    R.P. Gordon begins the unit with Exodus 15:22 instead.

    H.R. Jones feels that 15:22-17:16 should be considered together.

We now come to one of the greatest aids in determining divisions in the Bible – the ubiquitous presence of repeated words and phrases. In this case, I will start with a consideration of the ways the Divine Name is expressed in the passage, since there are several options from which the author can choose: Yahweh (also appearing as LORD in many translations, not to be confused with another designation “Lord”), God, LORD of hosts, LORD your God, LORD my God, etc.

There are two such designations in Exodus 16: “LORD” and “LORD your God,” for a total of 21 occurrences. Almost all scholars of the Bible agree that certain numbers have symbolic meanings attached to them: 7 and its multiples, or factors of 10 = completion or perfection; 6 = imperfection; and 12 = the people of God.

With those numbers in mind, we see that there are exactly 12 appearances of the verb “gather” in the chapter. In addition, there are not only 7x3 appearances of “LORD” in Exodus 16, but “LORD your God” appears at Exodus 16:12b to divide the other “LORD” appearances into 10 on either side. So there is a good possibility that the whole of Exodus 16 is intended to be treated as a single story, with perhaps some part of verse 12 dividing it into two equal parts.

This brings us to important question of how the chapter can be best divided into different paragraphs. Here is a summary of some of diverse opinions found in the literature:

        JB:                         1-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-16, 17-18, 19-21, 22-30, 31, 32-34, 35-36

        RSV:                     1-3, 4-8,         9-12,       13-21,       22-30, 31-36

        NIV:                      1-3, 4-12,                      13-21,       22-30, 31-36

        Childs:                  1-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12,        13-21,       22-30, 31-36

        Durham, Knight   1-12,                              13-36

From this sampling, we can see that there is at least a reasonable consensus for new paragraphs beginning at verses 1, 4, 13, 22 and 31. Since one of those points of agreement is at verse 13, that serves as confirmation that a major change point appears right before that verse. This idea is not unique to me since Durham states that the pronouncement in verse 12 “is a pointed assertion of the movement of the entire provision-in-the-wilderness sequence.” Thus, we should seriously consider treating the divine statement in this verse as its own small but vital unit: “then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.”

With all this in mind, the overall structure of the chapter can be constructed as shown in Figure 1. Note that this figure (a) adopts the majority opinion of major sections beginning at verses 1,4, and 13 but departs in two other places and (b) has the five sections arranged to indicate parallel thoughts present between I and I' and between II and II'.

                                                     Figure 1: Organization of Exodus 16

                I. Israel forgets God's provision (1-3)

                                II. God's provision of food described (4-12a)

                                                III. “You shall know that I am the LORD your God” (12b)

                                II'. Israelites gather the provision (13-31)

                I'. Israel is given a remembrance of God's provision (32-36)

There are additional indications that the chapter is divided into two parts by verse 12b. This division results in three occurrences of “Israelites” in each half. All seven appearances of “complain” are found in the first half. From this last symbolic statistic, we could well say that the people were “perfect” complainers. As Propp says, “The Israelites are inveterate doubters and whiners.”

In addition, the complete phrase “the whole congregation of the Israelites” appears only in the first half, twice each in units I and II. In regard to the first half of the chapter as defined above, Durham adds “that Exod 16:1-12 functions as an introduction to the account of Yahweh's provision for his people of need food...It does this...by a didactic multiplication of two preparatory themes: Israel's grumbling and Yahweh's authoritative statement of his response to their complaint. Into the combination of these themes have been worked the themes of Israel's obedience or disobedience under pressure (v 4), the keeping of the sabbath (v 5), and the authority of Moses (and Aaron) (vv 7-8)...”

By contrast, the second half of the chapter is characterized by containing all five mentions of “manna” and four uses of “Sabbath.” Knight says regarding the second half, “Here then is grace answering unfaith.”

We are now faced with the need to justify both the proposed sub-divisions in Figure 1 and the relationship between them:

    I and I': The short unit beginning this chapter is unified both by subject (the complaining of the people) and by the three-fold mention of “the wilderness.” Unit I' contains the only use of the word “generations” (vv. 32, 33) and the phrase “to this day” (vv. 35, 36). As to the parallel relationship between the two, that is confirmed by the presence of all appearances of “wilderness” in the chapter (vv. 1, 2,3,32); by “land of Egypt/Canaan” at verses 1,32,35; and the phrase “came to” in vv. 1 and 35.” We could say that in I' the people forget God's rescuing them from bondage so that God provides them with a remembrance of his grace in I'.

The internal structures of I and I' are also seen to be in a roughly chiastic (mirror-image) relationship to one another:

                                            Figure 2: Organization of Sections I and I'

                I. Introduction (Exodus 16:1-3)

                                A. Arriving at the Wilderness (1)

                                                B. People forget God's past blessings (2)

                                                                C. They want their fill of bread (3)

                                                                    ------------------

                I'. Conclusion (Exodus 16:32-36)

                                                B'. People are given a remembrance (32-35a)

                                                                C'. People have their fill of manna (4)

                                A'. Arriving at the border of Canaan (35b-36)

    II and II': The stipulations governing the gathering of manna are given in Section II. Ramm perceptively states, “The manna was to be gathered according to rules...That God is a moral God had to be stipulated in such materialistic terms for man was learning his ABC's.” Section II' is characterized by ten mentions of gathering (10x) and seven of “day.”. It is also the only place where the phrase “according to” (vv. 16,17,21) and the word “manna” appear in the chapter (5x). All 12 occurrences of “gather” are found in II and II' as well as the only times “people” appear (vv. 4,27,30).

But the real justification for pairing of II and II' is that the former section outlines God's “test” for the people while the latter describes their failure to pass that test. There is also a “family resemblance” in the internal structures of these sections, as you can see in figures 3 and 4 below. Note especially the unusual symmetry in the central units of both organization, achieved only by breaking up the natural associations of ideas present in both.

                                                Figure 3: Organization of Exodus 16:4-11

                A. “God said to Moses”: Promise of bread (4-5)

                                B. Moses and Aaron said to the people (6a)

                                                You shall see God's “glory” (6b-7a)

                                                                He has heard your complaining (7b)

                                                                                “What are we?” (7c)

                                                                                                    C. He has heard your complaining (8a)

                                                                                “What are we?” (8b)

                                B'. Moses instructs Aaron to tell the people (9a)

                                                                He has heard your complaining (9b)

                                                God's “glory” appears (10)

                A'. “God spoke to Moses”: Promise of bread (11-12)

                                               Figure 4: Organization of Exodus 16:13-31

                A. Manna description (13-15)

                                B. Moses' command (16)

                                                People's obedience (17-18)

                                                                C. Moses' command (19)

                                                                                People's Disobedience (20a)

                                                                                                Moses' anger (20b)

                                                People's obedience (21)

                                                                        D. Moses' command (22-23)

                                                People's obedience (24)

                                                                C'. Moses' command (25-26)

                                                                                People's Disobedience (27)

                                                                                                God's anger (28)

                                B'. Moses' command (29)

                                                People's obedience (30)

                A. Manna description (31)

It is always useful to see what more liberal scholars say concerning any particular portion of Scripture since often such literary analyses as above can answer questions they have in regard to the unity of the passage. Thus, the perfect symmetry seen in figures 1,2, and 3 above stands in contrast to the usual piecework assemblage cobbled together from various places proposed by source critics.

In addition, these organizations help to deal with possible textual problems. For example, the two places in Exodus 16 where there are expressed problems are verses 8 and 36.

Verses 7 and 8 are almost exact duplicates of one another. Thus, Childs states, “Most commentators tend to eliminate v. 8 either as a textual conflation or as a literary gloss.” He agrees with such an assessment. A look at Figure 3 reveals that verse 8 can be removed without greatly disturbing the overall symmetry of the unit. However, such a move would also weaken the structural similarities between units II and II' (see Figure 4).

Then concerning the last verse in the chapter, the explanatory note as to the volume of an omer (a rare Hebrew word certainly needing such definition since Exodus 16 is the only place in the Bible where it appears), Childs says, “Verse 36 is a gloss and can hardly be assigned to a source with certainty.” Durham elaborates with overkill by labeling it as “intrusive...a probably addition of a later hand...an unconnected 'footnote' or gloss...an afterthought the redactor considered important.”

One must admit that its appearance at the end of the chapter has all the superficial appearance of a P.S. to the passage. But before rushing to judgment and excising the verse, we should keep in mind that including this final appearance of omer in the chapter results in exactly six occurrences of the word, now evenly divided between the two units in the second half of the passage (II' and I'), at verses 16, 18, 22, 32, 34, and 36. This is similar to the situation noted for the first half of the chapter in which there are two appearances each of the phrase “the whole congregation of the Israelites” in units I and II.