Exodus 12:34
in Exodus 12So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
KJV
And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
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This verse in Exodus 12
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThe people took their dough before it was leavened, etc. - There was no time now to make any regular preparation for their departure, such was the universal hurry and confusion. The Israelites could carry but little of their household utensils with them; but some, such as they kneaded their bread and kept their meal in, they were obliged to carry with them. The kneading troughs of the Arabs are comparatively small wooden bowls, which, after kneading their bread in, serve them as dishes out of which they eat their victuals.
This site's exposition
the Egyptians were urgent upon the people
on Exodus 12:33-34
Egypt drives out the people it had refused to release, saying we be all dead men. The dough goes onto their shoulders unleavened because there is no time, which means the seven-day feast commanded at verse 15 rests on a practical fact of that same morning. The reason for the ordinance and the reason of the moment turn out to be one reason.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
It was to be killed by the whole congregation between the two evenings, that is, between three o'clock and six. Christ suffered in the latter end of the world, Heb. ix, 26, by the hand of the Jews, the whole multitude of them, Luke xxiii, 18. Not a bone of it must be broken, ver. 46, which is expressly said to be fulfilled in Christ, John xix, 33,
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-46-anchored-34-34
And the people took their dough before it was leavened,....
The first day of the march of Abraham's seed towards Canaan was just 430 years (it should seem to a day) from the promise made to Abraham, Gen. xii. 2 , I will make of thee a great nation. See how punctual God is to his time; though his promises be not performed quickly, they will be accomplished in their season.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
people took . . . their kneading-troughs--Having lived so long in Egypt, they must have been in the habit of using the utensils common in that country. The Egyptian kneading-trough was a bowl of wicker or rush work, and it admitted of being hastily wrapped up with the dough in it and slung over the shoulder in their hykes or loose upper garments.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Kneadingtroughs - (Compare the margin and Deu 28:5). The troughs were probably small wooden bowls in which the cakes when baked were preserved for use. The Hebrews used their outer garment, or mantle, in the same way as the Bedouins at present, who make a bag of the voluminous folds of their burnous. See Rth 3:15; 2Ki 4:39.
How the passage was read
On Exodus 12:1-51On Exodus 12:1-51
The night Israel still keeps
This chapter founds Passover, in Hebrew Pesach, the spring feast that remembers the night God struck Egypt's firstborn and passed over the blood-marked houses. Jewish families keep it to this day with a ceremonial meal called the seder (Hebrew for “order”): unleavened flatbread (matzah), bitter herbs, cups of wine, and the retelling of this chapter's story, with the children asking the questions.
Honesty about the timeline helps the reader: in the Bible's own period the center of the feast was the lamb, slain and eaten as this chapter commands. The seder as now practiced took its shape after the Temple fell in AD 70 and the lamb could no longer be offered; its oldest written outline is in the Mishnah, the first code of Jewish oral law (about AD 200), which already includes the four cups and the rule that “in every generation a person must see himself as if he personally came out of Egypt.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Pesachim 10 (the seder's oldest outline) · Mishnah Pesachim 10:5 (“in every generation”) · The Feasts of the LORD (this site's study)
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּשָּׂ֥א | vaiyisa' | and it carried off | H5375 → | 656 times |
| הָעָ֛ם | haam | the people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בְּצֵק֖וֹ | betzeko | dough its | H1217 → | |
| טֶ֣רֶם | terem | before | H2962 → | 56 times |
| יֶחְמָ֑ץ | yechmatz | it was leavened | H2556 → | 8 times |
| מִשְׁאֲרֹתָ֛ם | misharotam | kneading troughs their | H4863 → | |
| צְרֻרֹ֥ת | tzerurot | [were] bound up | H6887 → | |
| בְּשִׂמְלֹתָ֖ם | besimlotam | in clothes their | H8071 → | 29 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| שִׁכְמָֽם׃ | shikhmam | shoulder their | H7926 → |
וַיִּשָּׂ֥אand it carried off
vaiyisa'H5375 →656 times
הָעָ֛םthe people
haamH5971 →1873 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
בְּצֵק֖וֹdough its
betzekoH1217 →
טֶ֣רֶםbefore
teremH2962 →56 times
יֶחְמָ֑ץit was leavened
yechmatzH2556 →8 times
מִשְׁאֲרֹתָ֛םkneading troughs their
misharotamH4863 →
צְרֻרֹ֥ת[were] bound up
tzerurotH6887 →
בְּשִׂמְלֹתָ֖םin clothes their
besimlotamH8071 →29 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
שִׁכְמָֽם׃shoulder their
shikhmamH7926 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
1 stopEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 8:3The Nile will teem with frogs, and they will come into your palace and up to your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and your people, and into your…
it leads to
- Psalms 105:30
Their land teemed with frogs, even in their royal chambers.
- Psalms 105:30
Where this verse is studied
About Exodus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.