Bible Strands
Exodus 16:4
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Moses in the wilderness immediately following the assembly’s complaint of starvation. This statement initiates a daily provision of bread from heaven to meet their physical need.
The words — The verb מַמְטִיר (mam.Tir) literally means "[am] about to rain down," directly modifying לֶ֖חֶם (Le.chem) for "bread." This pairing establishes the provision as a deliberate, descending act rather than an agricultural yield.
The thread — The rain-from-heaven imagery reappears in Psalm 78:24 and is cited in 1 Corinthians 10:3 as the spiritual food eaten by the assembly. The testing motif aligns with Deuteronomy 8:2, where wilderness wandering functions to humble the people and reveal their obedience.
Why it lands — The text commands the people to gather only what is needed each day, making survival contingent on daily compliance. It requires readers to abandon future anxiety and submit to immediate, specific instruction.
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
Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 10:3 They all ate the same spiritual food
- Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
- 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 15:25 And Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log. And when he cast it into the waters, they were sweetened. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them,
- Deuteronomy 8:16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
- 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.
- John 6:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
- Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
- Joshua 24:15 But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”