Deuteronomy 16:3

3 Thou shalt not eat therein bread dighted with sourdough; in seven days thou shalt eat bread of affliction, (that is) without sourdough, for suddenly, either hastily, thou wentest out of Egypt, that thou have mind of the day of thy going out of Egypt, in all the days of thy life. (Thou shalt not eat it with any bread made with yeast; yea, for seven days thou shalt eat the bread of affliction, that is, bread made without yeast, for suddenly, or hastily, thou wentest out of Egypt, so that thou shalt remember the day of thy going out of Egypt, all the days of thy life.)

Deuteronomy 16:3 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 16:3

Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it
With the passover, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; that is, with the passover lamb, nor indeed with any of the passover, or peace offerings, as follows; see ( Exodus 12:8 )

seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread therewith;
with the passover; this plainly shows, that by the passover in the preceding verse is not meant strictly the passover lamb, for that was eaten at once on the night of the fourteenth of the month, and not seven days running, and therefore must be put for the whole solemnity of the feast, and all the sacrifices of it, both the lamb of the fourteenth, and the Chagigah of the fifteenth, and every of the peace offerings of the rest of the days were to be eaten with unleavened bread:

[even] the bread of affliction;
so called either from the nature of its being heavy and lumpish, not grateful to the taste nor easy of digestion, and was mortifying and afflicting to be obliged to eat of it seven days together; or rather from the use of it, which was, as Jarchi observes, to bring to remembrance the affliction they were afflicted with in Egypt:

for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste;
and had not time to leaven their dough; so that at first they were obliged through necessity to eat unleavened bread, and afterwards by the command of God in remembrance of it; see ( Exodus 12:33 Exodus 12:34 Exodus 12:39 ) ,

that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the
land of Egypt all the days of thy life;
how it was with them then, how they were hurried out with their unleavened dough; and that this might be imprinted on their minds, the master of the family used F16, at the time of the passover, to break a cake of unleavened bread, and say, this is the bread of affliction or bread of poverty; as it is the way of poor men to have broken bread, so here is broken bread.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 Haggadah Shel Pesach, in Seder Tephillot, fol. 242. Maimon. Chametz Umetzah, c. 8. sect. 6.

Deuteronomy 16:3 In-Context

1 Keep thou the month of new fruits, and of the beginning of summer, that thou make pask to thy Lord God; for in this month thy Lord God led thee out of Egypt in the night. (Observe thou the month of Abib, at the beginning of summer, and keep thou the Passover to the Lord thy God; for in this month the Lord thy God led thee out of Egypt in the night.)
2 And thou shalt offer pask to thy Lord God, of sheep, and of oxen, in the place which thy Lord God choose, that his name dwell there. (And thou shalt offer the Passover to the Lord thy God, yea, a sheep, or an ox, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name shall be there.)
3 Thou shalt not eat therein bread dighted with sourdough; in seven days thou shalt eat bread of affliction, (that is) without sourdough, for suddenly, either hastily, thou wentest out of Egypt, that thou have mind of the day of thy going out of Egypt, in all the days of thy life. (Thou shalt not eat it with any bread made with yeast; yea, for seven days thou shalt eat the bread of affliction, that is, bread made without yeast, for suddenly, or hastily, thou wentest out of Egypt, so that thou shalt remember the day of thy going out of Egypt, all the days of thy life.)
4 Nothing dighted with sourdough shall appear in all thy coasts by seven days, and of the flesh of that that is offered in the eventide, (that is, of the lamb of the pask,) shall not dwell in the first day in the morrowtide. (Nothing made with yeast shall appear in all thy land for seven days, and none of the flesh of what is offered in the evening, that is, of the Passover lamb, shall remain past the first day, into the next morning.)
5 Thou shalt not be able to offer pask in each of thy cities which thy Lord God shall give to thee, (Thou shalt not offer the Passover in all the cities which the Lord thy God shall give thee,)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.