Exodus 12:39
Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victuals.
KJV
And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.
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Commentary
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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
22 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּאפ֨וּ | vai.yo.Fu | and they baked | H644 → |
| אֶת־ | 'et- | <obj.> | H853 → |
| הַבָּצֵ֜ק | ha.ba.Tzek | the dough | H1217 → |
| אֲשֶׁ֨ר | 'a.Sher | which | H834 → |
| הוֹצִ֧יאוּ | ho.Tzi.'u | they had brought out | H3318 → |
| מִמִּצְרַ֛יִם | mi.mitz.Ra.yim | from Egypt | H4714 → |
| עֻגֹ֥ת | 'u.Got | bread cakes | H5692 → |
| מַצּ֖וֹת | ma.Tzot | unleavened bread<s> | H4682 → |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → |
| חָמֵ֑ץ | cha.Metz | it was leavened | H2556 → |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → |
| גֹרְשׁ֣וּ | go.re.Shu | they had been driven out | H1644 → |
| מִמִּצְרַ֗יִם | mi.mitz.Ra.yim | from Egypt | H4714 → |
| וְלֹ֤א | ve.Lo' | and not | H3808 → |
| יָֽכְלוּ֙ | ya.khe.Lu | they had been able | H3201 → |
| לְהִתְמַהְמֵ֔הַּ | le.hit.mah.Me.ah | to delay | H4102 → |
| וְגַם־ | ve.gam- | and also | H1571 → |
| צֵדָ֖ה | tze.Dah | provision[s] | H6720 → |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → |
| עָשׂ֥וּ | 'a.Su | they had made | H6213 → |
| לָהֶֽם׃ | la.Hem | for <the> themselves |
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