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And after drinking from the rock, then the supply of Egyptian provisions completely fails. And so, with no foreign food left for them which they had brought as provisions from Egypt, the food flows down from above, being at once both varied and uniform. For its appearance was uniform, but its quality had variety, becoming for each one what was suitable according to the kind of his desire. 2.138 What then is it that we learn? By how many purifications one must cleanse oneself of the Egyptian and foreign life, so as to empty the sack of his soul of all the food of wickedness, which the Egyptians prepare, and so receive with a pure soul in oneself the food that comes down from above, which no sowing from agriculture brought forth for us, but a bread ready, unsown and unplowed, descending from above, but found on the earth. 2.139 And you understand in every way this true food through the riddle in the history, that the bread that came down from heaven is not an incorporeal thing. For how could the incorporeal become food for the body? But that which is not incorporeal is certainly a body. And neither plowing nor sowing cultivated the body of this bread, but the earth, remaining as it is, is found full of such divine food, of which the hungry partake, being taught beforehand the mystery concerning the Virgin through this miracle.

2.140 This uncultivated bread, then, is also the Word, changing its power along with the manifold nature of its quality according to the suitableness of those who eat it. For it knows not only how to be bread, but also to become milk and meat and vegetables and whatever may be both suitable and pleasing to the one partaking, as the divine Apostle Paul teaches, he who sets before us such and so great a table, who makes the Word a more solid and meaty food for the more perfect, and vegetables for the weaker, and milk for infants. 2.141 And all the wonders that the history relates concerning that food are doctrines for the life of virtue. For it says that an equal share of the food was set before all, being neither more than was needed nor less, according to the different strength of those gathering. And this is, according to my word, a certain counsel set before the community for those who procure the resources for living from these material things not to go beyond the limits of need, but to know well that the one measure for the nature of food for all is the daily enjoyment, 2.142 in which, even if many times more than is needed is prepared, the stomach by nature cannot go beyond its own measures, nor is it stretched out by the greediness of the preparation. But, as the history says, neither did he who took much have too much (for he has nowhere to put the excess), nor did he who took little have too little (for need, being contracted, was made commensurate with what was found). 2.143 And that for those who store up the surplus their greed is transformed into a generation of worms, the word in a way cries out through these things to the covetous that everything outside of need that is held by this covetous desire, on the next day, that is, in the life to be expected, becomes a worm for the one who stored it up. And the one who hears surely understands by this worm the undying worm that is brought to life by covetousness. 2.144 But that the stored supply lasted on the Sabbath alone, undergoing no corruption, contains some such counsel, that there is a time when one must use a covetous choice in those things where what is gathered does not admit of corruption, becoming useful to us then when, having passed beyond the preparation of this life, we enter into the inactivity after death. For the day before the Sabbath both is and is called the preparation for the Sabbath. And this would be this life, in which we prepare for ourselves the things of the coming life, 2.145 in which none of the works now permitted to us is performed, not agriculture, not commerce, not military service, nor any other of the things zealously pursued here, but spending our time in complete inactivity from such works, of those now ours during life

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καὶ μετὰ τὸ πιεῖν ἐκ τῆς πέτρας, τότε παντελῶς ἡ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἐφοδίων ἐπίλειψις γίνεται. Καὶ οὕτω μηδεμιᾶς αὐτοῖς ὑπολειφθείσης ἀλλοφύλου τροφῆς, ἣν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἐπεσιτίσαντο, ἄνωθεν ἐπιρρεῖ ἡ τροφή, ποικίλη τις ἅμα καὶ μονοειδὴς οὖσα. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ φαινόμενον μονοειδὲς ἦν, ἡ δὲ ποιότης τὸ ποικίλον εἶχεν, ἑκάστῳ προσφόρως κατὰ τὸ εἶδος τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐγγινομένη. 2.138 Τί οὖν ἐστιν ὃ μανθάνομεν; ∆ι' ὅσων προσήκει καθαρσίων ἑαυτὸν ἐκκαθᾶραί τινα τῆς Αἰγυπτίας τε καὶ ἀλλοφύλου ζωῆς, ὥστε κενῶσαι τὸν τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ θύλακον πάσης τῆς κατὰ κακίαν τροφῆς, ἧς σιτοποιοῦσιν οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι, καὶ οὕτως τὴν ἄνωθεν κατιοῦσαν τροφὴν ἐν ἑαυτῷ καθαρᾷ τῇ ψυχῇ δέξασθαι, ἣν οὐ σπορὰ ἡμῖν τις ἐκ γεωπονίας ἀνέφυσεν, ἀλλ' ἕτοιμος ἄρτος ἄσπορός τε καὶ ἀνήροτος, ἄνωθεν μὲν κατιών, ἐπὶ δὲ γῆς εὑρισκόμενος. 2.139 Νοεῖς δὲ πάντως τὴν ἀληθῆ ταύτην βρῶσιν διὰ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἱστορίαν αἰνίγματος, ὅτι ὁ ἄρτος, ὁ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς, οὐκ ἀσώματόν τι χρῆμά ἐστι. Πῶς γὰρ ἂν σώματι τροφὴ γένοιτο τὸ ἀσώματον; Τὸ δὲ μὴ ἀσώματον σῶμα πάντως ἐστί. Τὸ δὲ σῶμα τούτου τοῦ ἄρτου οὔτε ἄροσις οὔτε σπορὰ ἐγεώργησεν, ἀλλ' ἡ γῆ, οἵα ἐστὶ μείνασα, πλήρης εὑρίσκεται τῆς τοιαύτης θείας τροφῆς, ἧς οἱ πεινῶντες μετέχουσι, τὸ κατὰ τὴν Παρθένον μυστήριον διὰ τῆς θαυματοποιΐας ταύτης προπαιδευόμενοι.

2.140 Οὗτος τοίνυν ὁ ἀγεώργητος ἄρτος καὶ λόγος ἐστί, τῷ πολυειδεῖ τῆς ποιότητος κατὰ τὰς τῶν ἐσθιόντων ἐπιτηδειότητας συνεξαλλάσσων τὴν δύναμιν. Οἶδε γὰρ οὐ μόνον ἄρτος εἶναι, ἀλλὰ καὶ γάλα γίνεσθαι καὶ κρέας καὶ λάχανα καὶ ὅτιπερ ἂν ᾖ τῷ προσφερομένῳ κατάλ ληλόν τε καὶ καταθύμιον, ὡς διδάσκει ὁ τὴν τοιαύτην καὶ τοσαύτην παρατιθεὶς ἡμῖν τράπεζαν Παῦλος ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστο λος, ὁ τοῖς τελειοτέροις στερροτέραν τε καὶ κρεώδη βρῶσιν τὸν λόγον ποιῶν καὶ λάχανα τοῖς ἀσθενεστέροις καὶ γάλα τοῖς νηπιάζουσι. 2.141 Τὰ δ' ὅσα περὶ τὴν τροφὴν ἐκείνην ἡ ἱστορία διέξεισι θαύματα δόγματα πρὸς τὸν κατ' ἀρετὴν βίον ἐστί. Φησὶ γὰρ ἴσην πᾶσι προκεῖσθαι τὴν τῆς τροφῆς μετουσίαν, οὐδὲν κατὰ τὴν διαφορὰν τῆς τῶν συλλεγόντων δυνάμεως οὔτε πλεονά ζουσαν κατὰ τὴν χρείαν οὔτε ἐλλείπουσαν. Τοῦτο δέ ἐστι κατά γε τὸν ἐμὸν λόγον συμβουλή τις τῷ κοινῷ προκειμένη μὴ παριέναι τοὺς ὅρους τῆς χρείας τοὺς τὰς ἀφορμὰς τοῦ ζῆν ἐκ τῶν ὑλικῶν τούτων ποριζομένους, ἀλλ' εὖ εἰδέναι ὅτι ἓν μέτρον τῇ φύσει τῆς ἐδωδῆς ἐπὶ πάντων ἐστὶν ἡ πρὸς ἡμέραν ἀπόλαυσις, 2.142 ἐν ᾗ, κἂν πολλαπλάσια παρα σκευασθῇ τῆς χρείας, ἡ γαστὴρ τὰ ἴδια μέτρα διαβῆναι φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει, οὐδὲ τῇ ἀπληστίᾳ τῆς παρασκευῆς συνεκ τείνεται. Ἀλλά, καθώς φησιν ἡ ἱστορία, οὔτε ὁ τὸ πολὺ λαβὼν ἐπλεόνασε (ποῦ γὰρ ἀπόθηται τὸ πλέον οὐκ ἔχει), οὔτε ὁ τὸ ὀλίγον ἠλαττόνησε (πρὸς γὰρ τὸ εὑρεθὲν συστα λεῖσα ἡ χρεία συνεμετρήθη). 2.143 Τὸ δὲ τοῖς τὸ περιττὸν ταμιεύουσιν εἰς σκωλήκων γένεσιν μεταποιεῖσθαι τὴν ἀπληστίαν, βοᾷ τρόπον τινὰ τοῖς πλεονέκταις διὰ τούτων ὁ λόγος ὅτι πᾶν τὸ ἔξω τῆς χρείας ὑπὸ τῆς πλεονεκτικῆς ταύτης ἐπιθυμίας περιεχόμενον, ἐν τῇ ἑξῆς ἡμέρᾳ, τουτέστιν ἐν τῷ προσδοκωμένῳ βίῳ, σκώληξ τῷ ταμιεύσαντι γίνεται. Νοεῖ δὲ πάντως ὁ ἀκούων διὰ τοῦ σκώληκος τούτου τὸν ἀτελεύτητον σκώληκα τὸν διὰ τῆς πλεονεξίας ζωογονούμενον. 2.144 Τὸ δὲ ἐν μόνῳ τῷ σαββάτῳ διαρκεῖν τὸ ἀπόθετον μηδεμίαν διαφθορὰν ὑπομένον τοιαύτην τινὰ συμβουλὴν περιέχει, ὅτι ἔσθ' ὅτε χρηστέον ἐστὶ τῇ πλεονεκτικῇ προαι ρέσει ἐν οἷς τὸ συναγόμενον διαφθορὰν οὐ προσίεται, τότε χρήσιμον ἡμῖν γινόμενον ὅταν παρελθόντες τὴν τοῦ βίου τούτου παρασκευὴν ἐν τῇ μετὰ θάνατον ἀπραξίᾳ γενώμεθα. Ἡ γὰρ πρὸ τοῦ σαββάτου ἡμέρα παρασκευὴ πρὸς τὸ σάββατον καὶ ἔστι καὶ ὀνομάζεται. Αὕτη δ' ἂν εἴη ὁ βίος οὗτος, ἐν ᾧ τὰ τῆς ἐρχομένης ζωῆς ἑαυτοῖς εὐτρεπίζομεν, 2.145 ἐν ᾗ ἔργον οὐδὲν τῶν νῦν ἡμῖν συγκεχωρημένων ἐπιτελεῖται, οὐ γεωργία, οὐκ ἐμπορία, οὐ στρατεία, οὐκ ἄλλο τι τῶν ὧδε σπουδαζομένων οὐδέν, ἀλλ' ἐν ἀπραξίᾳ πάσῃ τῶν τοιούτων ἔργων διάγοντες, τῶν νῦν ἡμῖν παρὰ τὸν βίον