Exodus 16:14

And when the dew that lay was gone up,.... Exhaled by the sun upon the rising of it: behold, upon the face of the wilderness; upon the surface of it, all around the camp of Israel: there lay a small

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. No JFB commentary on this verse.

When the dew was gone up, to wit, into the air; or, was vanished, as the word ascend is used .

Exodus 16:14 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.Ver. 14. The dew that lay.] And covered the manna: whence that promise of hidden manna in Revelation 2:17.

(14) Was gone up—i.e., was drawn up by the heat of the sun.A small round thing, as small as the hoar frost.—What the manna was has been much disputed. There are two natural substances, quite distinct, with which it has been compared, and by some persons identified. One is a deposit from the air, which falls indifferently on trees, stones, grass, &c, and is generally thick and sticky, like honey, but under certain circumstances is “concreted into small granular masses.” This bas been described by Aristotle (Hist. An., v. 22), Pliny (H. N., xi. 12), Avicenna(p. 212), Ǽ ?lian (Hist. An., xv. 7), Shaw, Forskal, and others. It has been called ὰερόμελι or “air-honey” (Athen. Deipn, xi., p. 500). It is collected by the Arabs, and eaten with their unleavened cakes as a condiment. It so far resembles the manna that it comes with the dew, is spread upon the ground generally, and melts when the sun’s rays attain a certain power (�dmann: Misc. Collect., vol. iv., p. 7). But it is never found in large quantities; it does not fall for more than two months in the year; and it is wholly unfit to serve as man’s principal food, being more like honey than anything else. The other substance is a gum which exudes from certain trees at certain seasons of the year, in consequence of the punctures made in their leaves by a small insect, the Coccus manniparus. It has been described at length by C. Niebuhr in his Description de l’ Arabie (pp. 128, 129); by Rauwolf (Travels, vol. I., p. 94); Gmelin (Travels through Russia to Persia, Part III., p. 28), and others. It is comparatively a dry substance, is readily shaken from the leaves, and consists of small yellowish – white grains, which are hard, and have been compared to coriander seed by moderns (Rauwolf, 50s.100). The name “manna” attaches in the East to this latter substance, which is employed both as a condiment, like the “air-honey,” and also as a laxative. The special points in which it differs from the manna of Scripture are its confinement to certain trees or bushes, its comparative permanency, for it “accumulates on the leaves” (Niebuhr, p. 129), and its unfitness for food. It has also, like the “air-honey,” only a short season—the months of July and August. The manna of Scripture in certain respects resembles the one, and in certain other respects the other of these substances, but in its most important characteristics resembles neither, and is altogether sui generis.

Verse 14. Behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing] It appears that this small round thing fell with the dew, or rather the dew fell first, and this substance fell on it. The dew might have been intended to cool the ground, that the manna on its fall might not be dissolved; for we find from Exodus 16:21, that the heat of the sun melted it. The ground therefore being sufficiently cooled by the dew, the manna lay unmelted long enough for the Israelites to collect a sufficient quantity for their dally use.

14. The Hebrews conceived dew to fall from heaven (Deuteronomy 33:13; Deuteronomy 33:28, Proverbs 3:20 al.); and the manna falls with it (so Numbers 11:9): cf. v. 4, where it is said to be rained ‘from heaven.’ a thin flake (RVm.)] properly, it seems, from the Arabic, ‘a thin scab or scale-like thing’ (see Di., and Lex.). The word is a peculiar one, and occurs only here: but ‘round’ (Saad., Kimchi, EVV.) has no philological support.

14. A small round thing, as small as the hoar frost — Rather, A thing fine, and in fine scales, fine as the hoar frost. It was in small and white grains. The tamarisk manna is white when it drops upon the clean rocks.