Hebrew word · H4478

מָן

man

manna

In this verse: an interrogative, "what?". The same three letters are the name of the food, "manna" (Exod 16:31, 33, 35; Num 11:6-9; Deut 8:3, 16; Josh 5:12; Neh 9:20; Ps 78:24). In standard Biblical Hebrew "what?" is מָה (mah).

Appears 14 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) manna

1a) the bread from Heaven that fed the Israelites for 40 years of wilderness wanderings

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Exodus 16:15

Range of meaning

In this verse: an interrogative, "what?". The same three letters are the name of the food, "manna" (Exod 16:31, 33, 35; Num 11:6-9; Deut 8:3, 16; Josh 5:12; Neh 9:20; Ps 78:24). In standard Biblical Hebrew "what?" is מָה (mah). Lexicons such as BDB and HALOT treat man here as an older or regional form of "what?", related to similar forms in Aramaic and other nearby Semitic languages.

Against the English

Most modern versions (BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV, NASB, NLT) translate it as a question: "What is it?". The KJV reads it as the name: "It is manna." That leaves the KJV's next clause, "for they wist not what it was," sounding odd, since they seem to name something they say they don't know.

How it drifted

In English, "manna" came to mean heavenly food in general, and then, in the idiom "manna from heaven," any unexpected windfall. The pun on a bewildered question disappears.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint (LXX) translates the question: Τί ἐστιν τοῦτο; ("What is this?"). It then uses μαν as the name in v.31. The Latin Vulgate keeps the sound and explains it: "Manhu? quod significat: Quid est hoc?" ("Manhu, which means: What is this?"). Medieval Jewish interpretation, notably Rashi, took man as a noun meaning "appointed portion of food," from the root m-n-h ("allot"; compare Dan 1:5). Arabic mann is the Bedouin word for a sweet tamarisk exudate in Sinai, which suggests the word may also have been an existing name for a desert food.

From the study of Exodus 16:35

Range of meaning

The name of the wilderness food. Exodus 16:15 explains it through the people's question man hu?, 'What is it?'. Man as 'what?' is a form found in Aramaic and other related languages; standard Hebrew says mah. So the name may preserve an old or dialect form of the question. The text describes it as fine flakes like frost, white like coriander seed, tasting like wafers made with honey (16:14, 31). Num 11:7–8 adds that it was ground, boiled and baked into cakes.

Against the English

English versions simply carry the word over as 'manna'. That is accurate, but the English word has gathered its own idiom ('manna from heaven' = any unexpected windfall). The Hebrew name was not a word of wonder. It was a puzzled question that stuck as a name.

How it drifted

The English idiom grew out of the biblical story. It keeps the sense of 'provided from above', but loses the daily, rationed, Sabbath-shaped routine the text stresses.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint uses to man (also manna in Numbers). Later texts look back on it as 'bread from heaven' or 'grain of heaven' (Ps 78:24; 105:40; Neh 9:15, 20), and Deut 8:3, 16 says it was given to humble and test Israel. Wisdom 16:20–21 and John 6:31, 49 continue the theme. Modern Arabic mann names a sweet secretion that insects leave on tamarisk trees in Sinai. Many scholars compare it to the biblical manna (see debates).

From the study of Deuteronomy 8:16

Range of meaning

The name of the wilderness food. Exodus 16:15, 31 ties it to the question man hu, "What is it?"

Against the English

English "manna" has become a general word for any unexpected blessing ("manna from heaven"). In the text it is a specific, strange daily food that could not be stored (except on the day before the Sabbath) and that came with rules.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 16; Num 11:6–9 (where the people complain of it); Deut 8:3; Josh 5:12 (it stops when Israel eats the produce of Canaan); Ps 78:24 ("grain of heaven"); John 6:31–58.

Where it appears

Exodus · 5

  1. Exodus 16:15 מָ֣ן what?

    When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. So Moses told them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.

    Here: An unusual word for "what?" The normal Hebrew word is מָה (mah), which appears a moment later. This form is chosen so that the people's puzzled question becomes the food's name, "man" (manna, v.31).

  2. Exodus 16:31 מָ֑ן manna

    Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

    Here: The name itself. The story connects it with the people's question in v. 15, 'man hu?', 'What is it?' So the food is named after their own confusion. The major pause in the verse falls on this word.

  3. Exodus 16:33 מָ֑ן manna

    So Moses told Aaron, “Take a jar and fill it with an omer of manna. Then place it before the LORD to be preserved for the generations to come.”

  4. Exodus 16:35 הַמָּן֙ הַמָּן֙ the manna

    The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

    Here: With the article it is 'the manna', the particular food already described in this chapter. Its name comes from the people's question 'What is it?' (16:15).

Numbers · 3

  1. Numbers 11:6 הַמָּ֥ן the manna

    But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”

  2. Numbers 11:7 וְהַמָּ֕ן and the manna

    Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.

  3. Numbers 11:9 הַמָּ֖ן the manna

    When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

Deuteronomy · 2

  1. Deuteronomy 8:3 הַמָּן֙ the manna

    He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

    Here: "The manna." The wilderness food of Exodus 16. Its name was explained as Israel's own question, 'man hu?', 'What is it?' (Exod 16:15). It was real, physical food, but it had no human source.

  2. Deuteronomy 8:16 מָן֙ manna

    He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.

    Here: The wilderness food of Exodus 16, whose name is linked there to the people's question "man hu?", "What is it?" (Exod 16:15). Even the name marks it as something unfamiliar and unexplained.

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 5:12 הַמָּ֜ן מָ֑ן the manna, manna

    And the day after they had eaten from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. There was no more manna for the Israelites, so that year they began to eat the crops of the land of Canaan.

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 9:20 וּמַנְךָ֙ and manna your

    You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.

    Here: 'Your manna': the wilderness food is God's own provision. Like the spirit, it is put first for emphasis.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 78:24 מָ֣ן manna

    He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.

    Here: The wilderness food described in Exodus 16 and Numbers 11. Exodus 16:15 explains the name with the people's puzzled question "man hu?", meaning "What is it?". The name itself remembers how strange the food was.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.