Exodus 12:15

12:15 For seven days ¹  you must eat ²  bread made without yeast. ³  Surely ⁴  on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast ⁵  from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off ⁶  from Israel.

Exodus 12:19-20

12:19 For seven days ⁷  yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person ⁸  will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner ⁹  or one born in the land. 12:20 You will not eat anything made with yeast; in all the places where you live you must eat bread made without yeast.’”

Exodus 12:39

12:39 They baked cakes of bread without yeast using the dough they had brought from Egypt, for it was made without yeast – because they were thrust out ¹⁰  of Egypt and were not able to delay, they ¹¹  could not prepare ¹²  food for themselves either.

Exodus 13:3-7

13:3 Moses said to the people, “Remember ¹³  this day on which you came out from Egypt, from the place where you were enslaved, ¹⁴  for the Lord brought you out of there ¹⁵  with a mighty hand – and no bread made with yeast may be eaten. ¹⁶  13:4 On this day, ¹⁷  in the month of Abib, ¹⁸  you are going out. ¹⁹ 

13:5 When ²⁰  the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, ²¹  then you will keep ²²  this ceremony ²³  in this month. 13:6 For seven days ²⁴  you must eat ²⁵  bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there is to be ²⁶  a festival to the Lord. 13:7 Bread made without yeast must be eaten ²⁷  for seven days; ²⁸  no bread made with yeast shall be seen ²⁹  among you, and you must have no yeast among you within any of your borders.

Exodus 34:18

34:18 “You must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days ³⁰  you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you; do this ³¹  at the appointed time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.

Leviticus 23:6

23:6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month ³²  will be the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Numbers 9:11

9:11 They may observe it on the fourteenth day of the second month ³³  at twilight; they are to eat it with bread made without yeast and with bitter herbs.

Numbers 28:17

28:17 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the festival. For seven days bread made without yeast must be eaten.

Numbers 28:1

Daily Offerings

28:1 ³⁴ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Colossians 1:8

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

[12:15]  ¹ tn This expression is an adverbial accusative of time. The feast was to last from the 15th to the 21st of the month.

[12:15]  ² tn Or “you will eat.” The statement stresses their obligation – they must eat unleavened bread and avoid all leaven.

[12:15]  ³ tn The etymology of מַצּוֹת (matsot, “unleavened bread,” i.e., “bread made without yeast”) is uncertain. Suggested connections to known verbs include “to squeeze, press,” “to depart, go out,” “to ransom,” or to an Egyptian word “food, cake, evening meal.” For a more detailed study of “unleavened bread” and related matters such as “yeast” or “leaven,” see A. P. Ross, NIDOTTE 4:448-53.

[12:15]  ⁴ tn The particle serves to emphasize, not restrict here (B. S. Childs, Exodus [OTL], 183, n. 15).

[12:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “every eater of leavened bread.” The participial phrase stands at the beginning of the clause as a casus pendens, that is, it stands grammatically separate from the sentence. It names a condition, the contingent occurrences of which involve a further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[12:15]  ⁶ tn The verb וְנִכְרְתָה (vÿnikhrÿtah) is the Niphal perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it is a common formula in the Law for divine punishment. Here, in sequence to the idea that someone might eat bread made with yeast, the result would be that “that soul [the verb is feminine] will be cut off.” The verb is the equivalent of the imperfect tense due to the consecutive; a translation with a nuance of the imperfect of possibility (“may be cut off”) fits better perhaps than a specific future. There is the real danger of being cut off, for while the punishment might include excommunication from the community, the greater danger was in the possibility of divine intervention to root out the evildoer (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). Gesenius lists this as the use of a perfect with a vav consecutive after a participle (a casus pendens) to introduce the apodosis (GKC 337 §112.mm).

[12:19]  ⁷ tn “Seven days” is an adverbial accusative of time (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12, §56).

[12:19]  ⁸ tn The term is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), often translated “soul.” It refers to the whole person, the soul within the body. The noun is feminine, agreeing with the feminine verb “be cut off.”

[12:19]  ⁹ tn Or “alien”; or “stranger.”

[12:39]  ¹⁰ sn For the use of this word in developing the motif, see Exod 2:17, 22; 6:1; and 11:1.

[12:39]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and also.”

[12:39]  ¹² tn The verb is עָשׂוּ (’asu, “they made”); here, with a potential nuance, it is rendered “they could [not] prepare.”

[13:3]  ¹³ tn The form is the infinitive absolute of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”). The use of this form in place of the imperative (also found in the Decalogue with the Sabbath instruction) stresses the basic meaning of the root word, everything involved with remembering (emphatic imperative, according to GKC 346 §113.bb). The verb usually implies that there will be proper action based on what was remembered.

[13:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from a house of slaves.” “House” is obviously not meant to be literal; it indicates a location characterized by slavery, a land of slaves, as if they were in a slave house. Egypt is also called an “iron-smelting furnace” (Deut 4:20).

[13:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from this” [place].

[13:3]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; it could be rendered “must not be eaten” in the nuance of the instruction or injunction category, but permission fits this sermonic presentation very well – nothing with yeast may be eaten.

[13:4]  ¹⁷ tn The word הַיּוֹם (hayyom) means literally “the day, today, this day.” In this sentence it functions as an adverbial accusative explaining when the event took place.

[13:4]  ¹⁸ sn Abib appears to be an old name for the month, meaning something like “[month of] fresh young ears” (Lev 2:14 [Heb]) (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 106). B. Jacob (Exodus, 364) explains that these names were not precise designations, but general seasons based on the lunar year in the agricultural setting.

[13:4]  ¹⁹ tn The form is the active participle, functioning verbally.

[13:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and it will be when.”

[13:5]  ²¹ tn See notes on Exod 3:8.

[13:5]  ²² tn The verb is וְעָבַדְתָּ (vÿ’avadta), the Qal perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive. It is the equivalent of the imperfect tense of instruction or injunction; it forms the main point after the temporal clause – “when Yahweh brings you out…then you will serve.”

[13:5]  ²³ tn The object is a cognate accusative for emphasis on the meaning of the service – “you will serve this service.” W. C. Kaiser notes how this noun was translated “slavery” and “work” in the book, but “service” or “ceremony” for Yahweh. Israel was saved from slavery to Egypt into service for God as remembered by this ceremony (“Exodus,” EBC 2:383).

[13:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Seven days.”

[13:6]  ²⁵ tn The imperfect tense functions with the nuance of instruction or injunction. It could also be given an obligatory nuance: “you must eat” or “you are to eat.” Some versions have simply made it an imperative.

[13:6]  ²⁶ tn The phrase “there is to be” has been supplied.

[13:7]  ²⁷ tn The imperfect has the nuance of instruction or injunction again, but it could also be given an obligatory nuance.

[13:7]  ²⁸ tn The construction is an adverbial accusative of time, answering how long the routine should be followed (see GKC 374 §118.k).

[13:7]  ²⁹ tn Or “visible to you” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 366).

[34:18]  ³⁰ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[34:18]  ³¹ tn The words “do this” have been supplied.

[23:6]  ³² tn Heb “to this month.”

[9:11]  ³³ sn The delay of four weeks for such people would have permitted enough time for them to return from their journey, or to recover from any short termed defilement such as is mentioned here. Apart from this provision, the Passover was to be kept precisely at the proper time.

[28:1]  ³⁴ sn For additional reading on these chapters, see G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament; A. F. Rainey, “The Order of Sacrifices in the Old Testament Ritual Texts,” Bib 51 (1970): 485-98; N. H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival.