And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
He said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, ... The conduct of the people met the full approval and sanction of Moses, who now announced the promise which had been made to him (Exodus 16:5).
Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath. This is just the language which would naturally be employed by one who wished to remind his hearers of the morrow being a season of periodical cessation from their ordinary employments. Most certainly it was not spoken in the authoritative style a lawgiver employs in enacting a new law; nor is it marked by any of the circumstantial details which enter into the description of an original institution. But it is quite appropriate, on the idea of his speaking to them respecting an ordinance with which they were familiarly acquainted. In short, the Sabbath is mentioned incidentally in considering the miraculous supply of the manna, and not the slightest hint is given of its being instituted for the first time on that occasion. According to the view here given, the people anticipating the Sabbath, prepared for it by spontaneously gathering a double quantity of manna on the previous day; and the consultation of the rulers implies a doubt as to the propriety of such an increased collection, they being apparently apprehensive of incurring the penalty attached to the sin of reserving any portion of that food until the following morning. Moses' answer (Exodus 16:24-26) was a satisfactory solution of their difficulty; and it was found by experience that not only two days' supply was given on the sixth day, but that the manna kept during the intervening night continued sound and sweet.
According to a second theory, already noticed, the misunderstanding between the people and their rulers on this occasion arose from the novelty of the observance. But it is impossible for an ordinary reader to discover in this narrative any evidences of the Sabbath being newly instituted; and the passage of Ezekiel relied on as confirming this view, in which the prophet mentions that 'God enacted the Sabbath in the wilderness' (Ezekiel 20:12), points evidently not to the time, but to the purposes for which it was given.
A third theory explains the discrepancy that occurred by supposing that the day of Sabbatic observance was at this time changed from the first day of the week, as observed from the days of Adam (see the notes at Genesis 1:1-31, p. 30), to the seventh, suitably to the special circumstances of the Israelites. In support of this view, it is urged that the Israelites left Egypt on the day before the primitive Sabbath, as the following statement proves: They arrived at the wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the second month (Exodus 16:1-36); the sixth day from that day was the day before the Sabbath (Exodus 16:5; Exodus 16:23), and the 20th day of the month; consequently, the 21st day was the Sabbath, and the 22nd day was the day after the Sabbath; if we reckon back, we shall find that the 15th, the 8th, and the first days of this month were also the days after the Sabbath, and so that the 30th and last day of the preceding month Abib, which is called the first month, was the Sabbath; and consequently the 29th, 22nd, and 15th days of this month were the days before the Sabbath; but the 15th day was the day on which the Israelites left Egypt. This is the opinion of Joseph Mede ('Works,'-Sabbath of the Jews), who remarks it as a singular circumstance, that 'in this history the day of the month is never named, unless it be once, for any station; but this when the Jewish Sabbath was ordained (Numbers 10:1-36), otherwise it could not have been known that that day was ordained for a day of rest, which before was none.' This opinion is supported by Kennicott, 'Cain and Abel,' p. 184, 185, note; Jennings ('Jewish Antiquities') mentioned by Dr. Wardlaw ('On the Sabbath'), without note or comment; and by Dr. Horsley, as an ingenious conjecture.
The first of the three theories now adverted to we consider the right one; and an additional argument in favour seems to be afforded in Exodus 16:28, where some of the people who, in violation of the divine injunction, had gone out to gather manna on the seventh are recorded to have had their offence marked by this severe rebuke, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" - language which, while it sufficiently attests the ungrateful and disobedient character of the Israelite people, would not have been used in reference to an institution of recent origin.