Exodus 12:16
On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And in the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.
KJV
And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
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Commentary
2 voicesVoices on this verse
loading…Hebraic traditional view
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.”
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)
Original language & word study
24 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| וּבַיּ֤וֹם | u.vai.Yom | and [will be] on the day | H3117 → |
| הָרִאשׁוֹן֙ | ha.ri.shOn | <the> first | H7223 → |
| מִקְרָא־ | mik.ra'- | a convocation of | H4744 → |
| קֹ֔דֶשׁ | Ko.desh | holiness | H6944 → |
| וּבַיּוֹם֙ | u.vai.yOm | and on the day | H3117 → |
| הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י | ha.she.vi.'I | <the> seventh | H7637 → |
| מִקְרָא־ | mik.ra'- | a convocation of | H4744 → |
| קֹ֖דֶשׁ | Ko.desh | holiness | H6944 → |
| יִהְיֶ֣ה | yih.Yeh | it will be | H1961 → |
| לָכֶ֑ם | la.Khem | to <the> you | |
| כָּל־ | kol- | any | H3605 → |
| מְלָאכָה֙ | me.la.Khah | work | H4399 → |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → |
| יֵעָשֶׂ֣ה | ye.'a.Seh | it will be done | H6213 → |
| בָהֶ֔ם | va.Hem | on <the> them | |
| אַ֚ךְ | 'akh | only | H389 → |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | 'a.Sher | [that] which | H834 → |
| יֵאָכֵ֣ל | ye.'a.Khel | it will be eaten | H398 → |
| לְכָל־ | le.khol | by every | H3605 → |
| נֶ֔פֶשׁ | Ne.fesh | person | H5315 → |
| ה֥וּא | hu' | it | H1931 → |
| לְבַדּ֖וֹ | le.va.Do | to only it | H905 → |
| יֵעָשֶׂ֥ה | ye.'a.Seh | it will be done | H6213 → |
| לָכֶֽם׃ | la.Khem | by <the> you |
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