Logistical Nightmares
And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year. Joshua 5:12 NASB
No longer had – As you may know, whenever I have the chance, I study the Torah with the Rabbi of Parma. Our discussions are lively and penetrating since we raise questions according to our various traditions. I thought you might appreciate the result of just one verse from this ongoing study so that you might see how we go about this. Here’s a sample (the number references are to the TWOT):
וַיִּשְׁבֹּת הַמָּן מִמָּחֳרָת בְּאָכְלָם מֵעֲבוּר הָאָרֶץ וְלֹא-הָיָה עוֹד לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מָן וַיֹּאכְלוּ מִתְּבוּאַת אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן בַּשָּׁנָה הַהִיא
וַיִּשְׁבֹּת “ceased” – 2323 שָׁבַת (šābat) cease, desist, rest.[1] Note derivative – 2323b שַׁבָּת (šabbāt) Sabbath[2]
הַמָּן “the manna” 1209 מָן (mān) I, manna
מִמָּחֳרָת “from the next day” “from tomorrow” 1185b מָחֳרָת (moḥŏrāt) the morrow[3]
בְּאָכְלָם “when they had eaten” 85 אַכַל (ʾakal) eat, consume, devour, burn up, feed[4]
מֵעֲבוּר “the produce” 1556f עָבוּר (ʿābûr) I, produce (Josh 5:11–12).[5] From 1556 עָבַר (ʿābar) pass over, by, through, alienate, bring, carry, do away, take, take away, transgress[6]
וַיֹּאכְלוּ “and they ate” 85 אַכַל (ʾakal) eat, consume, devour, burn up, feed
מִתְּבוּאַת “the yield” “the crop” 212c תְּבוּאָה (tĕbûʾâ) produce[7] From 212 בּוֹא (bôʾ) go in, enter[8]
NOTE: two issues:
- When did the manna cease? This verse says that it stopped on the day after the Passover holiday, i.e., the 16th. But note that the idea is repeated in the verse (“and the manna ceased” and “Israel no longer had manna”). Why twice when one mention is sufficient? This is complicated by the Talmudic claim that manna stopped at the death of Moses (under the idea that each of the three leaders, Aaron, Miriam, and Moses, is associated with a particular miraculous occurrence while in the wilderness, i.e., Aaron with the pillar of fire and the cloud, Miriam with water, and Moses with manna). At the death of each, that particular miracle ceased. If this is true, then when Moses died, thirty days earlier, the manna stopped. The repetition of the phrase here is an indication that the manna collected before Moses died was now exhausted. Under this interpretive scheme, the verse should be rendered, “the stored manna was exhausted.”
But there is a logistic issue with this explanation. How did the people know that they needed to collect thirty days worth of manna before Moses died? Again, since they collected manna only for a 24 hour period prior to Moses death, did they now determine on his last day that there was thirty times as much? And did they know it would not spoil after 24 hours? Or was the manna they collected on the last day before he died inexhaustible until 30 days later, much like the miracle of the jars of oil with Elijah? There is no textual evidence for any of this, but tradition is often used to smooth over textual anomalies like the repeated claim in this verse.
Isn’t the simpler reading just the plain sense of this verse, that the manna continued to fall every day until this day? But if this reading is correct, then the idea of three miraculous events tied to each of the three leaders is unsupported and the Talmudic interpretation is suspect. Since the Talmud is viewed with nearly as much authority as the text itself, this creates a problem.
Rashi quotes the Talmud to make the claim the manna stopped with the death of Moses, but the RaDaK takes the simpler reading.
- Why are there two words for what the people ate (ʿābûr and tĕbûʾâ)? The suggestion is that there is some difference between what they ate at the Passover and what they ate after the Passover. The issue has to do with sanctification of “old grain” and “new grain.” According to tradition, they were not allowed to eat grain planted in Canaan until that grain had been sanctified after the Passover. This means that the grain used to make the Passover meal could not have come from crops in Canaan. Jewish Commentator Rabbi David Kimchi (RaDaK – 12th Century) notes that the roots of the words suggest this: ʿābûr from something in the past (“pass over, pass by, alienate”) and tĕbûʾâ from bô, “to enter, to go in,” something yet to occur. The grain of the past is replaced by the grain of the future.
But where did the grain used for the Passover come from? Certainly Israel did not plant crops during their forty years of wandering, yet in this verse they are assumed to have grain. Did they buy it from local merchants, as suggested in some Jewish commentaries? It’s hard to imagine local traders doing business with an invading army! They clearly could not have purchased the grain from the very cities they were about to destroy. And since there had been no Passover celebration for 38 years, how did they know what they needed for the event? The entire generation that came out of Egypt and celebrated the first and second Passover had died. If these two words suggest two sources of grain, how do we explain the logistics?
Do you suppose that the text simply leaves out these details because the author considered them unimportant? This would be consistent with the ancient Near Eastern view of “history.” Or do we have two separate traditions which some redactor has tried to meld together? No matter how we look at this text, there seem to be many logistics questions yet to be answered. Once more we discover that deeper layers in the text force us to ask questions unanswered.
So, now, is this the way you study the text of your Bible? As the Rabbi and I work through Joshua, I am building a study that treats every verse just like this. Colorful Hebrew.
Topical Index: Rashi, RaDaK, Joshua 5:12
[1] Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 2323 שָׁבַת. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 902). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 2323 שָׁבַת. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 902). Chicago: Moody Press.
[3] Kaiser, W. C. (1999). 1185 מחר. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 500). Chicago: Moody Press.
[4] Scott, J. B. (1999). 85 אַכַל. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 39). Chicago: Moody Press.
[5] (1999). 1556 עָבַר. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 640). Chicago: Moody Press.
[6] (1999). 1556 עָבַר. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 640). Chicago: Moody Press.
[7] Martens, E. A. (1999). 212 בּוֹא. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 93). Chicago: Moody Press.
[8] Martens, E. A. (1999). 212 בּוֹא. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 93). Chicago: Moody Press.
