Sustenance in the Desert

(Exodus 15:22 - 17:7)

Moses then led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea and into the desert lands of Shur, but they traveled for three days there without locating any water.  When they arrived at Marah, they found they could not drink its waters because they were bitter.  (That was why the place was called Marah [meaning bitter].)  The people began speaking out against Moses, complaining, "What are we supposed to drink?"  Moses prayed to Jehovah, who pointed out to him a piece of wood that, when cast into the water, turned it sweet and drinkable. 

It was at Marah that Jehovah set up rules and regulations for the Israelites, in order to put their loyalty to the test.  He told them, "If you will faithfully heed the voice of Jehovah your god, do what is right in his eyes, keep his commandments, and follow his laws, then I will bring upon you none of the afflictions that befell the Egyptians -- for I am Jehovah, a god who will heal you."

They arrived at Elim, where there were 12 wells and 70 palm trees, and they camped there by the waters of the oasis.  Leaving Elim, the people of Israel entered the desert of Sin, which lies between Elim and the Sinai, this on the 15th day of the 2nd month, a month after their departure from Egypt.  While in the desert, the people began again to make complaints against Moses and Aaron.  They said, "Would that we had been killed by Jehovah back in Egypt where we sat among pots stuffed with meat and were able to fill our stomachs with all the food we wanted.  Now, you’ve led us into this wasteland where we’ll all die of starvation!”

And so Jehovah told Moses, "I will scatter food down to you from the sky and the people will go out to gather what they need every day.  By this means I can test them to see if they are following my rules or not.  Let them be prepared to take in twice as much food on Friday as they do on the other days of the week.”

Moses and Aaron addressed the people of Israel, "In the evening you will realize that it was Jehovah who brought you out of the land of Egypt.  By morning you will behold the glory of Jehovah.  He is aware of your complaints -- which are against him, not against us.  Who are we that you blame us for your grievances?”

Moses added, "In the evening Jehovah will give you meat and in the morning all the bread you want, for he has heard the complaints you have made against him.  But what have we done: your grievance is not with us, but with Jehovah."  Moses also said to Aaron, "Say to the whole community of Israel, ‘Present yourself to Jehovah, for he has heard your complaints.’” 

And when Aaron addressed the assembly of Israelites, they all gazed out upon the desert and witnessed the awesome glory of Jehovah when he appeared among the clouds in his aerial vehicle. 

Jehovah spoke to Moses, "I have heard the complaints of the people of Israel.  You will say to them, 'In the evening you will eat meat and in the morning, your fill of bread, and then you will know that Jehovah is your god.’”

And so it happened that evening many flocks of quails flew in and swarmed over the camp.  In the morning the ground was carpeted by a kind of dew.  When it evaporated, the surface of the desert was covered with thin flakes resembling crystals of frost.

When the Israelites saw it, they were puzzled, saying to one another, "Let's call it manna, for we don't know what it is."  Moses informed them, "This is the food that Jehovah has given you to eat.  This is what he was speaking of when he told you, ‘Let each of you collect as much as you need to eat, an omer for each person that lives in your tent.’”

The people of Israel did as they were instructed, some gathering more, some less, but when it was measured it turned out that he who had gathered more, had no surplus, and he who had gathered less, had no deficiency, each man having enough food for his needs.  But Moses warned them, "Let no one keep any of it till morning."  Some, though, did not follow his instructions, but they found that by the next morning the manna they had saved was rotten; it stunk and was covered with maggots.  (Moses was furious with them for disobeying him.)

Thereafter, they gathered the manna in the morning, every man's ration, for in the heat of the sun the ungathered manna would melt.  On Fridays they collected twice as much manna, two omers per person.  All the leaders of the people came to question Moses about this, and he explained to them, "Jehovah has commanded us that tomorrow should be a day of rest, the Sabbath dedicated to Jehovah.  Therefore, bake today what you will need to bake and boil what you need to boil, but you can save the left-overs for tomorrow."  They did what Moses had ordered and, lo, the manna did not spoil, nor did it become wormy.

Moses instructed, "Eat this food today, for this is the Sabbath and on this day there will be no manna on the ground.  Gather manna six days a week, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, it will not be there.”  Nevertheless, on Saturday some of the people went out in the fields to gather manna; they found none.

Jehovah rebuked Moses, "How long will your people refuse to follow my orders and commandments?  Jehovah has given you the Sabbath as a gift.  For that reason he has given you a double ration on Friday, so that there will be enough for two days and every person can stay at home and not have to venture forth on Saturday."

Thereafter, the people of Israel observed the Sabbath as a day of rest.

The people of Israel called the food given to them by Jehovah, "manna."  (It resembled a coriander seed, it was white and tasted like biscuits made with honey.)

Moses proclaimed, "Jehovah has commanded this of us, ‘Keep an omer of manna so that future generations may see what kind of food I fed you in the desert after I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'"

Moses instructed Aaron, "Take a jar and fill it with an omer's worth of manna and store it in a sacred place so that it can be preserved for the sake of future generations."  Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded Moses; (for safe keeping, he would stow it in the holy chest that contained the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.)

And so the people of Israel subsisted on manna for 40 years until they came to the land where they would eventually settle; that is, they continued to eat manna until they reached the borders of Canaan.

(Incidentially, an omer is the tenth part of a ephah.)

According to the instructions of Jehovah, the whole community of Israelite people left the desert of Sin and continued their journey from place to place.  They eventually arrived at Rephidim.  However, here there was no water for them to drink, and the people argued with Moses, demanding of him, "Give us water to drink!"

Moses responded, "Why are you quarreling with me?  Why are you testing Jehovah?"

But they were perishing from lack of water and blamed Moses. "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, so that we, our children, and our livestock will die of thirst?" they grumbled.

Moses appealed to Jehovah, "What shall I say to the people?  They are on the brink of stoning me to death!"

Jehovah told Moses, "Go ahead of the people, take along the elders of Israel and carry in your hand the staff that you had used to strike the River Nile.  On a rock in Horeb, I will stand in front of you, and when you strike the rock with your staff, water will gush forth from it and the people will be able to drink."  Moses did this in the presence of the Israelite elders.  The place where this was done was thenceforth called Massah, because it was here the Israelites had tested Jehovah, asking, "Is Jehovah on our side, or not?"  It would also be called Meribah, because they had quarreled there.

Notes
1.  Jehovah must perform several miracles to spare the Israelites from starving and dying of thirst.  The first is to purify the undrinkable water of Marah, this by submerging a certain piece of wood into the water.  Jehovah could, with advanced technology, easily render the water potable.  Is the piece of wood (or tree, as most translations say) just a bit of hocus pocus or was it a device (or contained a device) that did the work of purifying the water?  If Jehovah could create an actual miracle, why bother with the piece of wood at all, why not just make the polluted water pure?

2.  Jehovah, at this point, speaks of his laws and commandments and the necessity of his people following them.  What are they?  So far we have only learned he demands circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, and a sacrifice to him of all the first-born.  Is there more?  A deal is made that Jehovah will support the Israelites if they do his bidding.

3.  The Israelites, who consistently show a lack of gratitude and faith, not only gripe and grumble to Moses, but wish they were back in Egypt -- dead.  This is a recurring theme.  One wonders why Jehovah would bother being a god to a people so unworthy, so unappreciative.

4.  The whole nation of Israel witnesses the appearance of Jehovah's airship, which is obviously the glory in the clouds.  Jehovah speaks.  Does he come down to earth and speak to Moses man-to-man, or is his voice projected from the sky.  --- It is never made clear how Moses communicated with Jehovah.  Was Jehovah a disembodied voice?  Did he materialize before Moses or visit him in a normal way.  Was their communion telepathic?  There is no reference to Jehovah appearing in the manner of a spirit or apparition.  At this point, he is only described as appearing in what is likely an aerial vehicle and speaking from it.  Later, when he produces the water from the rock of Horeb, it seems that Jehovah is literally there, standing with Moses.  (This is at Horeb, presumably his home base.)  There is no indication that his presence is anything but the physical appearance of a human being.

5.  The Israelites are starving, but why is that?  Obviously, it would have been difficult to find food in the desert (especially for a purported 2 million people!).  However, the Israelites did have livestock, spared from the plagues.  Why would they have not used them for food, if they were really starving?

6.  The Israelites are fed by Jehovah a strange substance they call manna (from the Hebrew words meaning "what is it?")  There have been many suggestions as to what manna might have been, all them preposterous, if not ludicrous.  Several things must be born in mind.  The Israelites were unfamiliar with it.  It fell from the sky daily, except on the Sabbath.  (Dropped from Jehovah's airship?)  And it had enough nourishment to sustain the Israelites, who ate it exclusively for a period of 40 years.  (The 40 years wandering in the desert is surely as unlikely as the Israelite population numbering 2 million!)  The only logical explanation is that the manna was a synthetic food manufactured by Jehovah's race, probably for consumption during interstellar voyages and extraterrestrial sojourns.  It would have contained all the nutritional requirements for a human.  Curiously, though, it would melt in the sun and rot in a day, though it would not spoil during the Sabbath.  Perhaps Jehovah was able to treat the manna in some way to control its preservation. (One would think such a product would have to have a “best used by” date pretty far in the future.)  It is interesting to recall that the Greek gods also had a special diet, consisting of nectar and ambrosia.  It is possible that ambrosia and manna were the same thing, food of the gods -- or synthetic space food. 

7.  Omer is a unit of dry measure equal to about two quarts. 

8.  Elim, where there were exactly 12 wells and 70 palm trees, not 69 mind you, was probably an oasis on a wadi  about 60 miles southeast of Suez.  Horeb in Rephidim may (or may not) be the same location where Moses encountered the burning bush.   Massah means “test,” and Meridah means “quarrel.”