Bible Strands
Exodus 16:14
When the layer of dew had evaporated, there were thin flakes on the desert floor, as fine as frost on the ground.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the morning after the evening quail arrival, as the dew recedes over the wilderness camp where the Israelites are encamped.
The words — שִׁכְבַּת הַטָּל (shikhvat ha-tal) = layer of dew; דַּק (dak) = thin or fine, describing the physical texture of the flakes.
The thread — Numbers 11:7 later clarifies its visual appearance as resembling coriander seed and gum resin, while Nehemiah 9:15 recalls this event as God providing bread from heaven in the wilderness.
Why it lands — The text records a natural condition that clears the way for divine provision, requiring the reader to observe the ground and recognize sustenance that arrives without human preparation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
Cross-references
- Numbers 11:7 Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.
- Deuteronomy 8:3 He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
- Nehemiah 9:15 In their hunger You gave them bread from heaven; in their thirst You brought them water from the rock. You told them to go in and possess the land that You had sworn to give them.
- Psalms 78:24 He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.
- Psalms 105:40 They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
- Exodus 16:31 Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.
- Psalms 147:16 He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;