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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.

Commentary

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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
OriginalTransliterationMeaningWord study
וַיֹּאפ֨וּvai.yo.Fuand they bakedH644
אֶת־'et-<obj.>H853
הַבָּצֵ֜קha.ba.Tzekthe doughH1217
אֲשֶׁ֨ר'a.SherwhichH834
הוֹצִ֧יאוּho.Tzi.'uthey had brought outH3318
מִמִּצְרַ֛יִםmi.mitz.Ra.yimfrom EgyptH4714
עֻגֹ֥ת'u.Gotbread cakesH5692
מַצּ֖וֹתma.Tzotunleavened bread<s>H4682
כִּ֣יkiforH3588
לֹ֣אlo'notH3808
חָמֵ֑ץcha.Metzit was leavenedH2556
כִּֽי־ki-forH3588
גֹרְשׁ֣וּgo.re.Shuthey had been driven outH1644
מִמִּצְרַ֗יִםmi.mitz.Ra.yimfrom EgyptH4714
וְלֹ֤אve.Lo'and notH3808
יָֽכְלוּ֙ya.khe.Luthey had been ableH3201
לְהִתְמַהְמֵ֔הַּle.hit.mah.Me.ahto delayH4102
וְגַם־ve.gam-and alsoH1571
צֵדָ֖הtze.Dahprovision[s]H6720
לֹא־lo'-notH3808
עָשׂ֥וּ'a.Suthey had madeH6213
לָהֶֽם׃la.Hemfor <the> themselves

The walk

About Exodus

The Firstborn of the Egyptians Are Slain — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Firstborn of the Egyptians Are Slain — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain