Exodus 12:20

20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

Exodus 12:20 in Other Translations

KJV
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
ESV
20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread."
NLT
20 During those days you must not eat anything made with yeast. Wherever you live, eat only bread made without yeast.”
MSG
20 Don't eat anything raised. Only matzoth."
CSB
20 Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes."

Exodus 12:20 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 12:20

Ye shall eat nothing leavened
Bread or anything else that had any leaven in it: in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread,
that is, if they eat any bread at all, it must be such; otherwise they might eat cakes of almonds or of eggs mixed with sugar, provided there was no leaven used, and this the Jews call the rich unleavened bread F16: this is repeated over and over, that they might be the more careful of observing this precept; but as this was limited for a certain time, it plainly appears to be a mistake of Tacitus F17 the Roman historian, who represents unleavened bread as the bread the Jews eat of in common.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 See Leo Modena's History of the Rites of the Jews, par. 3. c. 3. sect. 5.
F17 Hist. l. 5. c. 4.

Exodus 12:20 In-Context

18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.
20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Leviticus 3:17; Numbers 35:29; Ezekiel 6:6
  • 2. Exodus 13:6
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