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Scripture reveals several important reasons for the dietary laws. In Exodus, we learn that God chose the nation of Israel and set them apart for a special purpose (Exodus 19:5–6), and the dietary laws contributed to that divine purpose: “I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Jan 4, 2022 · Yet as they wander in the wilderness, they complain and moan about not having enough to eat, and God deals with them with tremendous grace by providing manna (Exodus 16:1–5). Why, though, did they describe themselves as “starving” when they had flocks and herds of animals?
Oct 19, 2023 · Did the Israelites have more on their menu than just manna and quail during their wilderness journey? Dive into an exhaustive biblical study that uncovers the complete diet of the Israelites, revealing God’s multifaceted provisions during the Exodus.
Question: When the Israelites complained to Moses about being in the desert without food and God sent manna and quail, why didn’t they eat the meat of the herds that went with them? Answer: When Israel left Egypt, they had provisions. They had dough and kneading troughs. They had much riches which the Egyptians gave them.
- Priestly and Non-Priestly Manna in Exodus 16
- Manna in The Quail Story: Anticlimactic Ending of Complaint
- Buying Food from Edomites and Moabites
- From Suffering to Manna
- Adding Manna and Water from The Rock
- The Manna and Miriam’s Well
- The Stages of The Quail Story and The Added Punishment
Exodus 16 is a long account that is actually two accounts woven together, a Priestly and a non-Priestly text (generally assumed to be J). The description of manna in Numbers 11, a non-Priestly text, is actually quite different than what we find in the ostensibly corresponding non-Priestly account in Exod 16.The story there merely tells us that the ...
The manna references in our account are problematic for another reason. Syntactically speaking, the phrase in Num 11:6, “only to the manna are our eyes” (בִּלְתִּי אֶל הַמָּן עֵינֵינוּ), continues the sentence “but now our throats are dried away, there is nothing at all” (וְעַתָּה נַפְשֵׁנוּ יְבֵשָׁה אֵין כֹּל) most awkwardly. If the problem of the...
Deuteronomy 2:6-7, 28-29 suggests that the manna tradition was not universally known. Here we read that God provided Israel with food and water towards the end of their journey in the wilderness by arranging that food and water be sold to them by the Edomites and Moabites as Israel traversed their territories (contra Deut. 23:5!). Verse 7 assumes t...
Finally, a similar process to what I have suggested for Numbers 11, where manna is introduced secondarily, seems to lie behind Deuteronomy 8:2-3 and 15-16. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 reads: This passage tells us that God led the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years in order to “humble” them or, perhaps more accurately, in order to cause them to suff...
The same updating occurred later in this chapter as well (Deut 8:15-16): Here too, the text reads well once the supplement is removed. Unlike the previous case, the text is updated by supplementing both the provision of the manna and water from the rock. The purpose of these additions is not merely to bring the texts into harmony with other traditi...
This early tradition that Israel suffered during their wilderness wanderings, and did not have manna as daily automatic food is found elsewhere in the Torah. One version of this tradition, implied in my reconstruction Deuteronomy 8, was that God literally didn’t feed them but kept them alive miraculously as he did for Moses. Another version, perhap...
As described above, in the earlier form of this story the people have nothing at all to eat when they ask for meat and God responds by miraculously supplying them with 30 days’ worth of quail. Once the element of manna was added into the story, however, the nature of the complaint had to change. After all, if the Israelites were being provided with...
A question we often receive when reading Numbers 11 is, “If the Israelites were hungry for meat, why didn’t they eat some of their livestock?”. We have a clue as to why in Numbers 11:21-23. But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a ...
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Why did the Israelites not eat manna and quail?
Did Pharaoh tell the Israelites to eat manna?
Why did the Israelites not eat their flocks and herds?
Why did God allow Israel to eat clean animals?
Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for the Israelites?
What evidence is relevant to examining the ancient Israelite diet?
Jun 10, 2021 · MacDonald identifies five main sorts of evidence relevant to examining the ancient Israelite diet. They include: Scientific knowledge on food production and consumption. This category includes considering geography, meteorology, soil science and archaeobotanical work.
