indicated in Exo 16:5 : “And it will come to pass on the sixth day (of the week), that they will prepare what they have brought, and it will be double what they gather daily.” The meaning is, that what they gathered and brought into their tents on the sixth day of the week, and made ready for eating, would be twice as much as what they gathered on every other day; not that Jehovah would miraculously double what was brought home on the sixth day, as Knobel interprets the words in order to make out a discrepancy between Exo 16:5 and Exo 16:22. הכין, to prepare, is to be understood as applying partly to the measuring of what had been gathered (Exo 16:18), and partly to the pounding and grinding of the grains of manna into meal (Num 11:8). In what respect this was a test for the people, is pointed out in Exo 16:16. Here, in Exo 16:4 and Exo 16:5, the promise of God is only briefly noticed, and its leading points referred to; it is described in detail afterwards, in the communications which Moses and Aaron make to the people. In Exo 16:6, Exo 16:7, they first tell the people, “At even, then shall ye know that Jehovah hath brought you out of Egypt; and in the morning, then shall ye see the glory of the Lord.” Bearing in mind the parallelism of the clauses, we obtain this meaning, that in the evening and in the morning the Israelites would perceive the glory of the Lord, who had brought them out of Egypt. “Seeing” is synonymous with “knowing.” Seeing the glory of Jehovah did not consist in the sight of the glory of the Lord which appeared in the cloud, as mentioned in Exo 16:10, but in their perception or experience of that glory in the miraculous gift of flesh and bread (Exo 16:8, cf. Num 14:22). “By His hearing” (בּשׁמעו), i.e., because He has heard, “your murmuring against Jehovah (“Against Him” in Exo 16:8, as in Gen 19:24); for what are we, that ye murmur against us?” The murmuring of the people against Moses and Aaron as their leaders really affected Jehovah as the actual guide, and not Moses and Aaron, who had only executed His will. Jehovah would therefore manifest His glory to the people, to prove to them that He had heard their murmuring. The announcement of this manifestation of God is more fully explained to the people by Moses in Exo 16:8, and the explanation is linked on to the leading clause in Exo 16:7 by the words, “when He giveth,” etc. Ye shall see the glory of Jehovah, when Jehovah shall give you, etc.
verses 9-12
But before Jehovah
