And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread. The people did so of their own accord, judging from the unusual quantity that had fallen that it was a provision for the Sabbath; and their conduct can be accounted for on no other hypothesis than that of its being a human existing institution. The announcement (Exodus 16:5) had been privately made to Moses; and there is no reason to believe that it had been communicated either to the people or to the rulers before the sixth day.
And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Since the gathering of a double quantity had been so general, the attention of the elders or princes in the various tribes was directed to the circumstance; and whether they regarded this accumulation of manna as a violation of the divine injunction, or from having contracted Egyptian habits, they had become so indifferent to Sabbath desecration as to have been anticipating a gathering of food as usual on the seventh, they resolved in a body to lay the matter before the leader.