morning bread to the full: for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.

9. And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings.

10. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation

of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

11. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

12. I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel; speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

346. The Hebrews came to the wilderness of Sin, on the 15th day of the second month, after coming out of Egypt. The reason for mentioning this, seems to be, that now they had been on their way just one month; for it appears from Usher, as before shown, that they left Egypt on the 15th of the month Abib, or first month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year. See Num. xxxiii. 3. They had not yet come to Mt. Sinai, which was said to be only "three days journey " from Egypt. Obviously the latter reckoning can have reference only to the rate of travel, by a single individual, or a very few persons, with no hindrances. The Hebrews, on the contrary, had to move comparatively slow; and, no doubt, they spread themselves over an extensive tract of country, to procure food and drink, for themselves and cattle, and were not confined to the direct route.

347. The people murmur now for the want of food. Aaron is instructed to say to them, "Come near, before the Lord; for He hath heard your murmurings. The inference is, that they came near, that is, they came near to the tent, over which this divine symbol was placed. They saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud. They saw a brilliancy that indicated the divine presence. "And the Lord spake unto Moses;" but whether this was in the hearing of the people, we are nót informed. It seems not to have been, for the Lord commands Moses to speak unto the children of Israel

thus: "At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning, ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God."

EXODUS XVI.

13. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

14. 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.

15. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna; for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.

16. This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating: an omer for every man accord ing to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

17. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.

18. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

19. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

20. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank; and Moses was wroth with them.

21. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

348. At even, we are told, the quails came up and covered the camp. That the Lord produced the quails, at that particular time, and for that particular purpose, we are not to suppose. He brought them there by natural agencies, under his divine providence. "The word which we render quail, according to the confession of the Jews themselves, is of uncertain signification, and may denote a locust, as well as a quail. But what should rather incline us to the latter acceptation, is, that passage of the Psalmist, where he tells us that God rained flesh upon them, as thick as dust, and feathered flowls like as the sand of the sea, which cannot with any tolerable propriety be applied to insects. But here we must remember that this was done in the middle of April, when these birds are known to fly out of Egypt, and cross the Red Sea in vast quantities. So that the sum of this miracle, will consist, not so

much in the prodigious number of them that fell in the Israelites' camp, as in God's directing them thither, and in that very evening, too, according to his promise, and his servant Moses' prediction."*

That these birds were supplied every evening, as the manna was to be every morning, we are not to suppose. They could be dried and kept in that climate a long time. Besides, the Hebrews had the milk and flesh of their animals, and would not often need such a special dispensation in their behalf.

349. The manna. In our country, at the present day, there is no natural production like that by which the children of Israel were sustained in the wilderness. But are we authorized, from this fact, to infer that no such thing has ever been in any country, in the past ? Was the king of Siam right in his conclusion, that, because the surface of the water in his country, never became hard, therefore it did not become so in England? There are many parts of the world, where the fall of snow, would be as great a wonder, as was the fall of manna to the Hebrews in the wilderness. What this manna was,—what its ingredients were we know not. The description given of it is quite indefinite. The coriander seed, with which it is compared, may be the same as modern coriander seed, and it may be very different. Besides, the comparison may have in view the size, the shape, or the color, and we know not which, or whether it be all these things. It was white, and the taste was that of wafers made with honey; but I conclude that something would depend on the material of which the wafers were made. From the description we have here of the manna, I do not think we are authorized to say, that it was a production wholly unlike what we know is produced, in that country, at the present day, and bearing the same name. Indeed, manna is not confined to Arabia. It is a production of

* Universal History, B. I., c. 7. See Stockhouse, Vol II. page 374. Edinburgh, 1767.

several different countries. And though the quantity, now produced in Arabia, is very small, compared to what it was in the days of Moses, that is no good reason for saying that the supply was never more abundant.

350. But the quantity produced at that time remains an unsettled question. It was plainly not the entire dependence of the people. They had quails just alluded to. They certainly had many wild fowls, and fishes, (for they were not far from the sea) and other animals, that could be taken in nets, and obtained in various ways. They had, too, large flocks and herds, as we learn from other passages. So it seems that the supply of manna, was rather intended to make up what they might lack from other sources, than to constitute their only or even principal support. Manna in the New Testament is called "bread from heaven;" but this means that it came down from above, just as the record says. It means nothing more.

351. That the Hebrews did not know what it was, need not surprise us. They had lived in a country where this production was unknown. Our translators have introduced a striking contradiction in xvi. 15, making the people to call it "manna ;" and then saying that they did not know what it was. The word manna means, "What is it?" Hence the passage should read, "they said one to another, 'What is it?' for they wist not what it was." They afterwards named it manna, probably, from that being the first thing said when they saw it.

352. It would seem that Moses knew what manna was; and that, too, without any divine communication. He knew it was something to be eaten he knew about how much a man would need - he knew it should not be kept till the next day, in its natural state — but he knew how to prepare it, so that it would keep for a day or more. Moses had been in this country before, and had no doubt become acquainted with manna, and

the best use to be made of it. And on its first announcement by God thus: "in the morning ye shall be filled with bread," he knew what was referred to; and when it appeared, he told the people what it was and how to use it.

353. "There was twice as much produced on the sixth day, as on any other day." That is taking liberties with the record. It does not say that twice as much manna fell on the sixth day, as on the other days. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as on any other day; but that there was twice as much then, as on any other day, is not stated. They evi