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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - Joshua 5:12 - 5:12
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And the manna ceased - after they had eaten of the old corn - This miraculous supply continued with them as long as they needed it. While they were in the wilderness they required such a provision; nor could such a multitude, in such a place, be supported without a miracle. Now they are got into the promised land, the anathematized inhabitants of which either fall or flee before them, they find an old stock, and they are brought in just at the commencement of the harvest; hence, as there is an ample provision made in the ordinary way of Providence, there is no longer any need of a miraculous supply; therefore the manna ceased which they had enjoyed for forty years. The circumstances in which it was first given, its continuance with them through all their peregrinations in the wilderness, its accompanying them over Jordan, and ceasing as soon as they got a supply in the ordinary way of Providence, all prove that it was a preternatural gift. “On the fourteenth of Nisan they sacrificed the paschal lamb: on the fifteenth, i.e., according to our calculation, the same day after sunset, they disposed themselves for eating it, and actually did eat it. On the morrow, the sixteenth, after having offered to God the homer, they began eating the corn of the country; and the seventeenth, the manna ceased to fall from heaven. What supports this calculation is, that the homer or sheaf was offered the sixteenth of Nisan, in broad daylight, though pretty late. Now the manna did not fall till night, or very early in the morning; so that it cannot be said to have ceased falling the same day that the Israelites began to eat of the produce of the country.” - Dodd.