Exodus 12:17
So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance for ever.
KJV
And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
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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
19 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם֮ | u.she.mar.Tem | and you will keep | H8104 → |
| אֶת־ | 'et- | <obj.> | H853 → |
| הַמַּצּוֹת֒ | ha.ma.tzOt | the unleavened bread<s> | H4682 → |
| כִּ֗י | Ki | for | H3588 → |
| בְּעֶ֙צֶם֙ | be.'E.tzem | on [the] substance of | H6106 → |
| הַיּ֣וֹם | hai.Yom | the day | H3117 → |
| הַזֶּ֔ה | ha.Zeh | <the> this | H2088 → |
| הוֹצֵ֥אתִי | ho.Tze.ti | I brought out | H3318 → |
| אֶת־ | 'et- | <obj.> | H853 → |
| צִבְאוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם | tziv.'o.tei.Khem | hosts your | H6635 → |
| מֵאֶ֣רֶץ | me.'E.retz | from [the] land of | H776 → |
| מִצְרָ֑יִם | mitz.Ra.yim | Egypt | H4714 → |
| וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֞ם | u.she.mar.Tem | and you will keep | H8104 → |
| אֶת־ | 'et- | <obj.> | H853 → |
| הַיּ֥וֹם | hai.Yom | the day | H3117 → |
| הַזֶּ֛ה | ha.Zeh | <the> this | H2088 → |
| לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶ֖ם | le.do.ro.tei.Khem | to generations your | H1755 → |
| חֻקַּ֥ת | chu.Kat | a statute of | H2708 → |
| עוֹלָֽם׃ | o.Lam | perpetuity | H5769 → |
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