Fill an omer of it, &c.— We have here another peculiarity of this manna, which sufficiently distinguishes it from the common sort, and abundantly testifies its extraordinary nature; for though it stank when preserved to the next morning, except on the sabbath-day, yet here, by the Divine Power, it was preserved from putrefaction through successive generations. Had it been ordinary manna, or that kind of liquid honey which is gathered in those deserts, why need an omer of it have been laid up, that future generations might see the bread, WHEREWITH, says GOD, I have fed you in the wilderness? Nothing can more strongly demonstrate that this food was divine and peculiar; and the appellation of bread is alone sufficient to overthrow the hypothesis of those who fancy it to have been either ordinary manna, or a species of honey; which could neither have been wrought up into cakes, nor have proved nutritive to such a great multitude of people. This also is a clear proof of its miraculous nature, namely, its falling daily in quantities sufficient to sustain so many thousands for so many years; to sustain them in such health, and to agree with them so well: add to which, the double portion that fell on the sixth day, and its ceasing to fall at all on the seventh day; that though it melted with the heat of the sun, it was of so hard a consistence as to be beaten in mortars, ground in mills, to endure the fire, and to be baked in cakes; that it continued with the Israelites during their abode in the wilderness, (see Exodus 16:35.) and then wholly ceased.
Lay all these particulars together, and you will have no doubt that this manna was peculiar and supernatural.