Then the LORD said to Moses assumes that Yahweh already heard the complaints of the people, but this is not stated until verse 12. Some scholars suggest that verses 11-12 should come before verse 4, but it is best to follow the text as we have it. (See also the comment at verse 6.) Behold is usually a word to get attention, but most translations combine it with I will rain, which is a participle. Literally it says “Behold me one who causes to rain.” New Jerusalem Bible has “Look,” and Good News Translation has “Now.”

Bread from heaven refers to the manna mentioned in verse 15 but not named until verse 31. Some have interpreted bread to mean “food,” in order to include the quails that will come, but verse 13 says that the “quails came up,” not down from heaven. Since “food” in English is a general term including bread, meat, fruit, and vegetables, translators should try to find a general word for “food” that does not include meat or quails. This will help to distinguish what is later called “manna,” which “came down,” from the quails, which “came up.” Using the word “manna” in this verse is not recommended, since the narrative intends for the reader and hearer to share the surprise of the Israelites in verse 15 at the discovery of a kind of “food” they had not known before. If no suitable term is found, one may say “a new kind of food from heaven.” This is what Yahweh is going to rain from “the sky” (Good News Translation). Some languages cannot use rain as a verb, so one may say “I will send bread down from heaven like rain” (Contemporary English Version) or “I will cause bread to fall from the sky in the same way that rain falls.”

And the people shall go out means to go out from the camp. Good News Translation‘s “must go out” may sound too much like a command, but it should be understood in the sense of “if they want to eat, they will have to go outside the campsite.” Contemporary English Version has “the people can go out,” and Translator’s Old Testament has “When the people go out.” And gather a day’s portion every day is literally “and they will gather the matter of a day in its day.” The same expression is used in 5.13 for “daily task.” Here it means “every day … enough for that day” (Good News Translation; similarly Contemporary English Version).

That I may prove them means “so that I can put them to the test” (Revised English Bible). Good News Translation starts a new sentence: “In that way I can test them” (similarly New Revised Standard Version). Whether they will walk in my law or not is literal. It means, as Good News Translation translates, “to find out if they will follow my instructions.” Or not may not be necessary. The word for law is torah, which Good News Translation translates here as “instructions” (New Revised Standard Version “instruction”). (See also the comment at 13.9.) It is also possible to express this final sentence as “That’s how I will know if they will obey my commands or not.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• The LORD said to Moses, “I will cause a new kind of food to fall from the sky like rain [as rain falls]. The people must go outside the camp every day and gather only enough food for that day. That’s how I will know if they will obey my commands or not.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .