Exodus 16:16-18

‘This is what Yahweh has commanded. You gather of it every man according to his eating. An omer a head, according to the number of your persons you will take it, every man for those who are in his tent. And the children of Israel did so, some more, some less. And when they measured it out with an omer he who gathered much had nothing over and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.’

The people are commanded by Yahweh to gather an omer of manna per head. But the fact that they may take according to their eating may suggest not so much the use of an exact measurement as an indication of the size of vessel to use per person. But ‘according to their eating’ may simply mean according to how many there are who will need to eat. For the overall impression is of an omer a head. And as it turned out that provided sufficiency for all with nothing left over.

“An omer.” This is only found here. It was probably a small bowl which contained the tenth part of an ephah (Exodus 16:36).

“An omer a head.” This exact measurement suggests that ‘every man according to his eating’ means according to the eating requirements of his whole family at an omer a head. That is, that he collected an omer for each family member, and not that every man gathered according to how much he wanted.

“They measured it out with an omer. He who gathered much had nothing over and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.” This probably means that those who had large families and those who were only a small entity, both found that they had sufficiency. Some have suggested that it means that those who had gathered too much gave any excess to those who had not gathered enough.