Add parallel Print Page Options

Chapter 16[a]

Manna and Quail. The entire community of the children of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is found between Elim and the Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second month after they left the land of Egypt. In the desert the entire community of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Exodus 16:1 Despite all that God has already done for them, the Hebrews would rather grumble than hope. When one is lost in the desert, slavery seems less harsh than adventure, and the remembrance of the food of Egypt, even though little, makes one forget the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. God meets the needs of his people, but in requiring them to be satisfied with daily “bread,” he seeks to test the degree of their trust in him and bring them to the realization that everything in their lives depends on him (Deut 8:2-3). Jesus, too, will deliberately experience hunger in the wilderness (Mt 4:2) and will say that his body is the true bread come down from heaven (Jn 6:31-33).