🔢WEB · Numbers 11:8
What does Numbers 11:8 mean?
"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."
— Numbers 11:8 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
Explanation
Numbers 11:8 gives a simple, almost domestic description of daily life in the wilderness: the Israelites would go out, collect the manna that God provided each morning, and then process it in various ways—grinding it into flour with hand mills, pounding it with mortars and pestles, boiling it in pots, or baking it into cakes. The verse notes that once prepared, it tasted like something made with fresh oil, giving a sense of its richness and satisfying quality despite its humble, flake-like appearance.
The context is crucial for understanding why this verse appears where it does. The book of Numbers records Israel's journey from Sinai toward the Promised Land, and chapter 11 opens with the people complaining bitterly about their hardships, followed immediately by a specific complaint about food. They had grown tired of manna and were long
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