It was like coriander-seed— This expression must refer to the size of the manna, not to its colour, for, in Numbers 11:7 these are plainly distinguished: there it is said, the manna was as coriander-seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium; so that the coriander-seed plainly refers to the size, as the bdellium or pearl does to its colour. In this verse, therefore, three things are predicated of the manna: that its size was like coriander-seed; its colour, white; its taste, like wafers, or little cakes, with honey. The word גד gad, which we translate coriander, is of a very doubtful interpretation. It is generally agreed, that it signifies some small seed; but whether the coriander, or not, is very much questioned.
REFLECTIONS.—1. Before the law was given, the sabbath was observed. This was an institution from the beginning, not peculiar to the Jewish economy, but universally binding.
Note; (1.) No man was ever a loser by a conscientious observance of the Lord's day, while the abuse of it has brought a curse upon many. (2.) The less we have to do on sabbath-days, to divert us from the immediate work and service of God, the better.
2. Some of the people go out on the sabbath, notwithstanding the express direction to the contrary; and God justly resents their perverseness. They are rebuked, and enjoined strict obedience: God will have his day hallowed; they who dishonour it, do it at their peril. Let those who spend these sacred hours in idle company, parties of pleasure, or works of wickedness, remember that God will visit them for these things.