16:16 “This is what43 the Lord has commanded:44 ‘Each person is to gather45 from it what he can eat, an omer46 per person47 according to the number48 of your people;49 each one will pick it up50 for whoever lives51 in his tent.’ ”
tn The perfect tense could be taken as a definite past with Moses now reporting it. In this case a very recent past. But in declaring the word from Yahweh it could be instantaneous, and receive a present tense translation—“here and now he commands you.”
45
tn The form is the plural imperative: “Gather [you] each man according to his eating.”
46
sn The omer is an amount mentioned only in this chapter, and its size is unknown, except by comparison with the ephah (v. 36). A number of recent English versions approximate the omer as “two quarts” (cf. NCV, CEV, NLT); TEV “two litres.”