And Moses said introduces a quote that contains an embedded quote. We may assume that he is speaking to the people. This (zeh) points forward to what follows. What the LORD has commanded is literally “the word that Yahweh commanded.” Let an omer of it be kept is now the words of Yahweh, but Good News Translation avoids an embedded quote by using indirect speech at the second quote level. Contemporary English Version also avoids the embedded quote, but at the first level:

• Moses told the people that the LORD had said, “Store up….”

Literally the Hebrew reads “fullness of the omer from it to be preserved.” The Septuagint has “you [plural] fill” rather than the noun “fullness.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project argues for the Hebrew, but most translations follow the Greek, since the meaning is obviously the same: “Fill an omer with it” (Jerusalem Bible), or “Store up two quarts of this manna” (Contemporary English Version). For omer see the discussion at verse 16.

Throughout your generations, literally “for [or, to] your [plural] generations,” is the same as in 12.14. This refers to all the “generations to come” (New International Version), that is, “your descendants” (New American Bible). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “throughout the ages,” but it is better to retain the your, since it refers to all the future Israelite descendants.

That they may see the bread refers to the future descendants, so Translator’s Old Testament begins a new sentence here: “Your descendants will then be able to see the food.” (See the comment on “bread” at verse 4.) Which I fed you in the wilderness means “which I gave you to eat in the wilderness” (Translator’s Old Testament). (For wilderness see the discussion at 15.22.) When I brought you out of the land of Egypt is literally “in my causing you [plural] to go out from the land of Egypt.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .