Exodus 16:31

Hebrew Bible

29 See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, that is why he is giving you food for two days on the sixth day. Each of you stay where you are; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. 31 The house of Israel called its name “manna.” It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted like wafers with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept for generations to come, so that they may see the food I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.’”

Numbers 21:5

Hebrew Bible

4 Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the road to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, but the people became impatient along the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we detest this worthless food. 6 So the Lord sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died.

Psalm 78:24

Hebrew Bible

23 He gave a command to the clouds above and opened the doors in the sky. 24 He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them the grain of heaven. 25 Man ate the food of the mighty ones. He sent them more than enough to eat. 26 He brought the east wind through the sky and by his strength led forth the south wind.

 Notes and References

"... As for its taste, here too, the biblical evidence was mixed ... Understandably, some interpreters came to the conclusion that the Bible was describing not so much the taste of manna itself as the people's reaction to it; its taste thus must have changed depending on who was eating it ... but the Bible did not answer unequivocally even the most basic question about this substance - was it good to eat or wasn't it? 'Bread of angels' sounded pretty good, as did 'wafers made with honey.' ... On the other hand, the Israelites seem to have gotten tired of manna; they say 'Our throats are dry and there is nothing to eat, the only thing that we see is manna' (Numbers 11:5), and again, 'There is no bread and there is no water, and our throats are tired of this low-grade food'' (Numbers 21:5) ... Then it would seem that the manna really wasn't very tasty after all. How could these contradictions be resolved? Perhaps the most satisfactory explanation was that manna was really some kind of spiritual sustenance and not a food at all ..."

Kugel, James L. The Bible as it Was (pp. 360-361) Harvard University Press, 1998

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