Chronological Plan

¹Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.

²But the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

³The sons of Israel said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread until we were full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this entire assembly with hunger!”

⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.

⁵On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

⁶So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt;

⁷and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, for He hears your grumblings against the LORD; and what are we, that you grumble against us?”

⁸And Moses said, “This will happen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the LORD hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the LORD.”

⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, ‘Come forward before the LORD, for He has heard your grumblings.’ ”

¹⁰And it came about, as Aaron spoke to the entire congregation of the sons of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

¹¹And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

¹²“I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’ ”

¹³So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

¹⁴When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground.

¹⁵When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.

¹⁶This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Everyone gather as much as he will eat; you shall take an omer apiece according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’ ”

¹⁷The sons of Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little.

¹⁸When they measured it by the omer, the one who had gathered much did not have too much, and the one who had gathered little did not have too little; everyone gathered as much as he would eat.

¹⁹Moses said to them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning.”

²⁰But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank; and Moses was angry with them.

²¹They gathered it morning by morning, everyone as much as he would eat; but when the sun became hot, it would melt.

²²Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses,

²³then he said to them, “This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.”

²⁴So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not stink nor was there a maggot in it.

²⁵Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.

²⁶Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”

²⁷Yet it came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.

²⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions?

²⁹See, the LORD has given you the Sabbath; for that reason He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain, everyone, in his place; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.”

³⁰So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹And the house of Israel named the bread manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey.

³²Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘A full omer of it is to be kept safe throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ”

³³And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put a full omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept safe throughout your generations.”

³⁴As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony, to be kept.

³⁵And the sons of Israel ate the manna for forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

³⁶(Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)

¹Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.

²So the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water so that we may drink!” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”

³But the people were thirsty for water there; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why is it that you have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

⁴So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What am I to do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!”

⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

⁶Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

⁷Then he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”

⁸Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.

⁹So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”

¹⁰Joshua did just as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹So it came about, when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed; but when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.

¹²And Moses’ hands were heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. So his hands were steady until the sun set.

¹³And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly wipe out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

¹⁵And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD is My Banner;

¹⁶and he said, “Because the LORD has sworn, the LORD will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”

¹Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

²And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took in Moses’ wife Zipporah, after he had sent her away,

³and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

⁴And the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

⁵Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was camped, at the mountain of God.

⁶And he sent word to Moses: “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.”

⁷Then Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other about their welfare, and went into the tent.

⁸Moses told his father-in-law everything that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had confronted them on the journey, and how the LORD had rescued them.

⁹And Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness which the LORD had done for Israel, in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰So Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they acted insolently against the people.”

¹²Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

¹³And it came about the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood before Moses from the morning until the evening.

¹⁴Now when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”

¹⁵Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

¹⁶When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between someone and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

¹⁷Moses’ father-in-law then said to him, “The thing that you are doing is not good.

¹⁸You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.

¹⁹Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people’s representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God,

²⁰then admonish them about the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do.

²¹Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²²Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that they will bring to you every major matter, but they will judge every minor matter themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will carry the burden with you.

²³If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their places in peace.”

²⁴So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything that he had said.

²⁵Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²⁶Then they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult matter to Moses, but they would judge every minor matter themselves.

²⁷Then Moses said goodbye to his father-in-law, and Jethro went his way to his own land.