This chapter begins with an account of the journeying of the children of Israel from Elim to the wilderness of Sin, where they murmured for want of bread, Ex 16:1, when the Lord told Moses that he would rain bread from heaven for them, which Moses informed them of; and withal, that the Lord took notice of their murmurings, Ex 16:4 which promise the Lord fulfilled; and a description of the bread, and the name of it, are given, Ex 16:13, and some instructions are delivered out concerning the quantity of it to be gathered, Ex 16:16, the time of gathering and keeping it, Ex 16:19, the gathering a double quantity on the sixth day for that and the seventh day, with the reason of it, Ex 16:22 and a further description of it, Ex 16:31, and an order to preserve an omer of it in a pot, to be kept for generations to come, that it might be seen by them, Ex 16:32, and the chapter is concluded with observing, that this bread was ate by the Israelites forty years, even till they came to the borders of the land of Canaan, and the quantity they ate every day is observed what it was, Ex 16:35.
Ver. 1. And they took their journey from Elim,.... And came again to the Red sea, as appears from Nu 33:10 perhaps to some bay or creek of it, which ran up from it, and lay in their way, and where for a short time they encamped to look at it, and recollect what had been done for them in bringing them through it; but as their stay here was short, and nothing of any importance or consequence happened, it is here omitted, and their next station is only observed:and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which still bears the same name, as a late traveller informs us, who passed through it, and says, we traversed these plains in nine hours, being all the way diverted with the sight of a variety of lizards and vipers, that are here in great numbers; and elsewhere he says, that vipers, especially in the wilderness of Sin which might very properly be called "the inheritance of dragons", were very dangerous and troublesome, not only our camels, but the Arabs who attended them, running every moment the risk of being bitten.
The Red sea, or the bay of it, they came to from Elim, according to Bunting was six miles, and from thence to the wilderness of Sin, sixteen more. This is a different wilderness from that of Zin, which is written with a different letter, Nu 20:1 and was on the other side of Mount Sinai, as this was the way to it, as follows:which is between Elim and Sinai according to the above writer , it was twenty miles from Elim the Israelites travelled, and forty more ere they came to Sinai.
Dr. Shaw says, after traversing the plains in nine hours, we were near twelve hours in passing the many windings and difficult ways which lie beteen those deserts and these of Sinai; the latter consists of a beautiful plain more than a league in breadth, and nearly three in length:on the fifteenth day of the second month, after their departing out of the land of Egypt; the month Ijar, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of April and part of May, and has its name from the beauty of the flowers, which appear at this time of the year: the Israelites were now come from thence a month or thirty days; for they came out the fifteenth of Abib or Nisan, and now it was the fifteenth of Ijar; and as the first day of this month, as Jarchi says, was on the first day of the week, this day must be so likewise; and yet sometimes the Jews say this was a sabbath day.
Shaw, p. 314. lb p. 444. Travels, p. 82. Ib. Travels, p. 314. T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 87.