Bible Strands
Numbers 11:8
The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the Israelites' routine response after God introduced manna in the wilderness. This description follows the account of the manna's coriander-like appearance and precedes the note on its descent with the night dew.
The words — The text highlights שָטוּ (sha.Tu) for "they went about" and רֵחַיִם (re.Cha.yim) for "hand-mill." These terms specify the physical labor of gathering and processing the food.
The thread — The processing methods and taste recall Exodus 16:31, where Israel names the bread manna and compares its flavor to honey wafers. The gathering instructions also echo the omer measurement commanded in Exodus 16:16.
Why it lands — The passage requires acknowledgment that daily provision demands routine labor and preparation. It frames obedience as a practical response to sustained divine supply.
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 the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Exodus 16:16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. You may take an omer for each person in your tent.’”
- Exodus 16:23 He told them, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Then set aside whatever remains and keep it until morning.’”
- John 6:27 Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”
- John 6:33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”