🔢WEB · Numbers 11:7
What does Numbers 11:7 mean?
"The manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium."
— Numbers 11:7 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?
We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic;
but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.”
The manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium.
The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.
When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.
Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and Yahweh’s anger burned greatly; and Moses was displeased.
Explanation
Numbers 11:7 offers a simple, physical description of the manna God provided to the Israelites in the wilderness: it looked like coriander seed—small, round, and pale—and had an appearance similar to bdellium, a translucent, resin-like substance (some understand it as a pearly or amber-colored gum resin known in the ancient Near East). In plain language, the verse is telling us what this miraculous food actually looked like to the people gathering it each morning. It wasn't shapeless or mysterious in appearance; it had a recognizable form, comparable to things the Israelites and readers of the text would have known from everyday life.
This verse sits within a larger narrative (Numbers 11:4-9) where the "mixed multitude" among the Israelites began craving the meat, fish, and vegetables they remembered eating in Egypt, and complained about being tired of manna. Moses recorded these details—the appearance, taste (verse 8 says it tasted like fresh oil), and the process of gathering and preparing it—partly to underscore the goodness and sufficiency of what God had given them. The Israelites had food that was nutritious, plentiful, and provided daily by God's hand, yet they longed for something else, revealing their discontent and lack of trust despite God's faithful provision.
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