Exodus 16–18

The People Demand Food

16The whole Israelite community left Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which was between Elim and Sinai; they arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt. ²Then the whole Israelite community grumbled to Moses and Aaron in the desert. ³They said to them, “It would have been better if the Lord had killed us in the land of Egypt. There we had meat to eat and all the food we wanted. But you have brought us into this desert to starve us to death.”

⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will cause food to fall like rain from the sky for all of you. Every day the people must go out and gather what they need for that day. I want to see if the people will do what I teach them. ⁵On the sixth day of each week, they are to gather twice as much as they gather on other days. Then they are to prepare it.”

⁶So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites: “This evening you will know that the Lord is the one who brought you out of Egypt. ⁷Tomorrow morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard you grumble against him. We are nothing, so you are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.” ⁸And Moses said, “Each evening the Lord will give you meat to eat, and every morning he will give you all the bread you want, because he has heard you grumble against him. You are not grumbling against Aaron and me, because we are nothing; you are grumbling against the Lord.”

⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, “Speak to the whole community of the Israelites, and say to them, ‘Meet together in the presence of the Lord, because he has heard your grumblings.’ ”

¹⁰While Aaron was speaking to the whole community of the Israelites, they looked toward the desert. There the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.

¹¹The Lord said to Moses, ¹²“I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel. So tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and every morning you will eat all the bread you want. Then you will know I am the Lord your God.’ ”

¹³That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. ¹⁴When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost were on the desert ground. ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they asked each other, “What is it?” because they did not know what it was.

So Moses told them, “This is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶The Lord has commanded, ‘Each one of you must gather what he needs, about two quarts for every person in your family.’ ”

¹⁷So the people of Israel did this; some people gathered much, and some gathered little. ¹⁸Then they measured it. The person who gathered more did not have too much, nor did the person who gathered less have too little. Each person gathered just as much as he needed.

¹⁹Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it to eat the next day.” ²⁰But some of the people did not listen to Moses and kept part of it to eat the next morning. It became full of worms and began to stink, so Moses was angry with those people.

²¹Every morning each person gathered as much food as he needed, but when the sun became hot, it melted away.

²²On the sixth day the people gathered twice as much food—four quarts for every person. When all the leaders of the community came and told this to Moses, ²³he said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded, because tomorrow is the Sabbath, the Lord’s holy day of rest. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil today. Save the rest of the food until tomorrow morning.”

²⁴So the people saved it until the next morning, as Moses had commanded, and none of it began to stink or have worms in it. ²⁵Moses told the people, “Eat the food you gathered yesterday. Today is a Sabbath, the Lord’s day of rest; you will not find any out in the field today. ²⁶You should gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day. On that day there will not be any food on the ground.”

²⁷On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather food, but they couldn’t find any. ²⁸Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you people refuse to obey my commands and teachings? ²⁹Look, the Lord has made the Sabbath a day of rest for you. So on the sixth day he will give you enough food for two days, but on the seventh day each of you must stay where you are. Do not go anywhere.” ³⁰So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹The people of Israel called the food manna. It was like small white seeds and tasted like wafers made with honey.

³²Then Moses said, “The Lord said, ‘Save two quarts of this food for your descendants. Then they can see the food I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’ ”

³³Moses told Aaron, “Take a jar and fill it with two quarts of manna. Then place it before the Lord, and save it for your descendants.” ³⁴So Aaron did what the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the jar of manna in front of the Agreement to keep it safe. ³⁵The Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to the land where they settled—the edge of the land of Canaan. ³⁶The measure they used for the manna was two quarts, or one-tenth of an ephah. ⁿ

Water from a Rock

17The whole Israelite community left the Desert of Sin and traveled from place to place, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. ²So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why are you testing the Lord?”

³But the people were very thirsty for water, so they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Was it to kill us, our children, and our farm animals with thirst?”

⁴So Moses cried to the Lord, “What can I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me to death.”

⁵The Lord said to Moses, “Go ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Carry with you the walking stick that you used to strike the Nile River. Now go! ⁶I will stand in front of you on a rock at Mount Sinai. Hit that rock with the stick, and water will come out of it so that the people can drink.” Moses did these things as the elders of Israel watched. ⁷He named that place Massah, ⁿ because the Israelites tested the Lord when they asked, “Is the Lord with us or not?” He also named it Meribah, ⁿ because they quarreled.

The Amalekites Fight Israel

⁸At Rephidim the Amalekites came and fought the Israelites. ⁹So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some men and go and fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill, holding the walking stick of God in my hands.”

¹⁰Joshua obeyed Moses and went to fight the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. ¹¹As long as Moses held his hands up, the Israelites would win the fight, but when Moses put his hands down, the Amalekites would win. ¹²Later, when Moses’ arms became tired, the men put a large rock under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands—Aaron on one side and Hur on the other. They kept his hands steady until the sun went down. ¹³So Joshua defeated the Amalekites in this battle.

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write about this battle in a book so people will remember. And be sure to tell Joshua, because I will completely destroy the Amalekites from the earth.”

¹⁵Then Moses built an altar and named it The Lord Is My Banner. ¹⁶Moses said, “I lifted my hands toward the Lord’s throne. The Lord will fight against the Amalekites forever.”

Jethro Visits Moses

18Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, was the priest of Midian. He heard about everything that God had done for Moses and his people, the Israelites, and how the Lord had led the Israelites out of Egypt. ²Now Moses had sent his wife Zipporah to Jethro, his father-in-law, ³along with his two sons. The first son was named Gershom, ⁿ because when he was born, Moses said, “I am a stranger in a foreign country.” ⁴The other son was named Eliezer, ⁿ because when he was born, Moses said, “The God of my father is my help. He saved me from the king of Egypt.”

⁵So Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Moses’ wife and his two sons and went to Moses. He was camped in the desert near the mountain of God. ⁶Jethro had sent a message ahead to Moses that said, “I, Jethro, your father-in-law, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

⁷So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. After the two men asked about each other’s health, they went into Moses’ tent. ⁸Moses told his father-in-law everything the Lord had done to the king and the Egyptians to help Israel. He told about all the problems they had faced along the way and how the Lord had saved them.

⁹Jethro was very happy to hear all the good things the Lord had done for Israel when he had saved them from the Egyptians. ¹⁰He said, “Praise the Lord. He has saved you from the Egyptians and their king, and he has saved the people from the power of the Egyptians. ¹¹Now I know the Lord is greater than all gods, because he did this to those who looked down on Israel.” ¹²Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, gave a whole burnt offering and other sacrifices to God. Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to Moses’ father-in-law to eat the holy meal together before God.

¹³The next day Moses solved disagreements among the people, and the people stood around him from morning until night. ¹⁴When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What is all this you are doing for the people? Why are you the only one to solve disagreements? All the people are standing around you from morning until night!”

¹⁵Then Moses said to his father-in-law, “It is because the people come to me for God’s help in solving their disagreements. ¹⁶When people have a disagreement, they come to me, and I decide who is right. I tell them God’s laws and teachings.”

¹⁷Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “You are not doing this right. ¹⁸You and the people who come to you will get too tired. This is too much work for you; you…