The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
Deuteronomy 16:1–8 — Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·mō·wr ’eṯ- ḥō·ḏeš hā·’ā·ḇîḇ wə·‘ā·śî·ṯā pe·saḥ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā kî bə·ḥō·ḏeš hā·’ā·ḇîḇ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā hō·w·ṣî·’ă·ḵā mim·miṣ·ra·yim lā·yə·lāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Keep the-month of-Abib, and-you-shall-make a-Passover to-Yahweh your-God; for in-the-month of-Abib Yahweh your-God brought-you-out from-Egypt by-night.
Where the English smooths the original
The month Abib was so called from the “ears of corn” which appeared in it. By night .—Pharaoh’s permission was given on the night of the death of the first-born, though Israel did not actually depart until the next day ( Numbers 33:3-4 ).Ellicott on the two cruxes of the verse — the meaning of "Abib" and the reconciliation of "by night" with the morning departure.
month of Abib ] Abib = young ears of corn ( Exodus 9:31 ; Leviticus 2:14 ) and the month fell in our March–April. So E and J ( Exodus 13:4 ; Exodus 23:15 ; Exodus 34:18 ). The name, belonging to the early agricultural calendar, was replaced after the Exile by the name Nisan of the later priestly calendarCambridge traces the name's history — the old agricultural "Abib" giving way to the post-exilic "Nisan" — and lists the very cross-references the Verifier flags below.
for though they did not set out until morning, when it was day light, and are said to come out in the day, yet it was in the night the Lord did wonders for them, as Onkelos paraphrases this clause; that he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, and passed over the houses of the Israelites, the door posts being sprinkled with the blood of the passover lamb slain that night, and therefore was a night much to be observedGill resolves "by night": the march was by day, but the night was when God acted — smote the firstborn and passed over the blood-marked doors.
As a further preservative against idolatry, Moses proceeds to inculcate upon them a strict regard to the most exact observance of the three great annual festivals, appointed by their law to be celebrated at the stated place of national worship, these being designed for this very end, to keep the people steady to the profession and practice of the religion of the one true God.Benson names the chapter's strategic purpose: the feasts are "a preservative against idolatry," binding the nation to one God at one place.
2You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·zā·ḇaḥ·tā Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā pe·saḥ ū·ḇā·qār ṣōn bam·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer- Yah·weh yiḇ·ḥar lə·šak·kên šə·mōw šām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-sacrifice a-Passover to-Yahweh your-God, from-the-herd and-the-flock, in-the-place that Yahweh will-choose to-make-dwell His-Name there.
Where the English smooths the original
the word "Passover" is employed in a broader sense, and includes not only the paschal lamb, but the paschal sacrifices generally, which the Rabbins embrace under the common name of chagiga; not the burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, however, prescribed in Numbers 28:19-26 , but all the sacrifices that were slain at the feast of the PassoverKeil's solution to the "herd" problem: "Passover" here is the whole week of festal sacrifices (the chagigah), not the lamb alone.
partly because it is here said to consist of the flock and of the herd, or of sheep and oxen , and partly because it follows, Deu 16:3 , Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it, seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith , i.e. with the passover, which could not be done with the passover strictly so called, which was to be wholly spent in one day.Poole gives the two textual proofs that "Passover" is broad here: the oxen, and the seven-day eating that a one-day lamb cannot bear.
in the place which Jehovah shall choose ] To Jehovah Sam. LXX add thy God . In J, Exodus 12:21-26 , the service is domestic; and P, Exodus 12:3 ff., also preserves its domestic characterCambridge marks the historical shift Deuteronomy introduces: the older sources keep the Passover "domestic"; here it is moved to the one chosen place.
You shall eat the Easter lamb.The Geneva gloss reads the "Passover" of the verse as the paschal ("Easter") lamb — the narrow sense the other voices weigh against the broad.
3You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō- ṯō·ḵal ḥā·mêṣ ‘ā·lāw šiḇ·‘aṯ yā·mîm tō·ḵal- ‘ā·lāw maṣ·ṣō·wṯ le·ḥem ‘ō·nî kî yā·ṣā·ṯā mê·’e·reṣ miṣ·ra·yim ḇə·ḥip·pā·zō·wn lə·ma·‘an tiz·kōr ’eṯ- yō·wm kōl ḥay·ye·ḵā yə·mê ṣê·ṯə·ḵā mê·’e·reṣ miṣ·ra·yim
Literal — word-for-word from the original
You-shall-not eat with-it leavened-bread; seven days you-shall-eat with-it unleavened-bread, bread of-affliction — for in-haste you-came-out from-the-land of-Egypt — so-that you-may-remember the-day of-your-coming-out from-the-land of-Egypt all the-days of-your-life.
Where the English smooths the original
Moses called the unleavened bread "the bread of affliction," because the Israelites had to leave Egypt in anxious flight ( Exodus 12:11 ) and were therefore unable to leaven the dough ( Exodus 12:39 ), for the purpose of reminding the congregation of the oppression endured in Egypt, and to stir them up to gratitude towards the Lord their deliverer, that they might remember that day as long as they lived.Keil ties the three threads of the verse together: haste, unleavened bread, and lifelong remembrance — the affliction recalled to provoke gratitude.
and that this might be imprinted on their minds, the master of the family used (p), at the time of the passover, to break a cake of unleavened bread, and say, this is the bread of affliction, &c. or bread of poverty; as it is the way of poor men to have broken bread, so here is broken bread.Gill cites the living haggadah — the householder breaking the matzah with the words "this is the bread of affliction" — a rite still kept.
seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread—a sour, unpleasant, unwholesome kind of bread, designed to be a memorial of their Egyptian misery and of the haste with which they departed, not allowing time for their morning dough to ferment.JFB on the bread's deliberate unpleasantness — a memorial of misery and of the haste that gave no time to leaven.
bread of affliction ] The affliction of Israel in Egypt, Exodus 3:7 ; Exodus 4:31 , culminating in the haste or trepidation (Driver) with which they ate their last meal there. So P, Exodus 12:11 ; cp. for the meaning of the word, Deuteronomy 20:3 ; 1 Samuel 23:26 ; Isaiah 52:12 .Cambridge cites the very verses (Exodus 12:11; Isaiah 52:12) the Verifier links by the rare word chippâzôwn — independent confirmation of the verbal thread.
offer the sacrifices proper to the feast of the Passover, which lasted seven days. Compare a similar use of the word in a general sense in John 18:28 . In the latter part of Deuteronomy 16:4 and in the following verses Moses passes, as the context again shows, into the narrower sense of the word Passover.Barnes confirms the unit's controlling distinction independently of Keil and Poole, and supplies the New Testament parallel: in John 18:28 the Jews would not defile themselves "that they might eat the passover" — i.e. the whole festal week — the same broad sense found here, before the text narrows to the lamb at v. 4b.
4No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·lō- śə·’ōr yê·rā·’eh lə·ḵā bə·ḵāl gə·ḇul·ḵā šiḇ·‘aṯ yā·mîm wə·lō- min- hab·bā·śār ’ă·šer tiz·baḥ bā·‘e·reḇ hā·ri·šō·wn bay·yō·wm yā·lîn lab·bō·qer
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-no leaven shall-be-seen for-you in-all your-territory seven days; and-none of-the-flesh that you-sacrifice in-the-evening of-the-first day shall-remain-overnight until the-morning.
Where the English smooths the original
leaven itself was not to be in the house (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7 ; see Kitto's 'Cyclop. of Bibl. Lit.,' vol. 3. p. 429).The Pulpit Commentary presses the law past the loaf to the leaven-agent itself, and cross-references 1 Corinthians 5:7 — leaven purged from the house as the apostolic figure of purged sin.
For before the passover they were to search diligently every room in the house, and every hole and crevice, that none might remain any where; see Exodus 12:15 , neither shall there be anything of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morningGill describes the diligent search for leaven — every hole and crevice — that the "shall not be seen" command produced in practice.
that none of the flesh of the paschal lamb was to be left till the next morning, in order that all corruption might be kept at a distance from the paschal food. Leaven, for example, sets the dough in fermentation, from which putrefaction ensues; and in the East, if flesh is kept, it very quickly decomposes.Keil unifies the two prohibitions of the verse under one logic: leaven and overnight flesh are both barred because both breed corruption.
5You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō ṯū·ḵal liz·bō·aḥ ’eṯ- hap·pā·saḥ bə·’a·ḥaḏ šə·‘ā·re·ḵā ’ă·šer- Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā nō·ṯên lāḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
You-are-not able to-sacrifice the-Passover in-one of-your-gates that Yahweh your-God is-giving to-you.
Where the English smooths the original
The reason of this is evident the passover itself was a sacrifice; hence Christ, as our passover, is said to be sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5:3 ; and many other sacrifices, as we have just seen, were to be offered during the seven days of the feast. Now no sacrifice was accepted but from the altar that sanctified it. It was therefore necessary that they should go up to the place of the altarBenson gives the reasoning behind centralization — the Passover is a true sacrifice needing the sanctifying altar — and draws the line straight to "Christ, as our passover."
Within any of thy gates, i. e of thy cities, as that word is oft used, as Genesis 22:17 24:60 Deu 17:2 Ruth 4:10 .Poole on the idiom: "thy gates" = "thy cities," with the parallel uses across the Pentateuch and Ruth.
This was chiefly accomplished, when the temple was built.The Geneva gloss identifies when the unnamed "place" was realized: the building of the Temple.
6You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî ’im- tiz·baḥ ’eṯ- hap·pe·saḥ ’el- ham·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer- Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā yiḇ·ḥar lə·šak·kên šə·mōw šām bā·‘ā·reḇ haš·še·meš kə·ḇō·w mō·w·‘êḏ ṣê·ṯə·ḵā mim·miṣ·rā·yim
Literal — word-for-word from the original
But only at the-place that Yahweh your-God will-choose to-make-dwell His-Name there — there you-shall-sacrifice the-Passover in-the-evening, as-the-sun comes-in, at-the-appointed-time of-your-coming-out from-Egypt.
Where the English smooths the original
The word “season” here is ambiguous in the English. Does it mean the time of year, or the time of day? The Hebrew word, which usually denotes a commemorative time, might seem to point to the hour of sunset as the time when the march actually began.Ellicott exposes the ambiguity of môwʻêd that the translator must resolve — "the time of year, or the time of day?"
There thou shalt sacrifice the passover, to wit, in the court of the tabernacle or temple. This he prescribed, partly, that this great work might be done with more solemnity and care, in such manner as God required; partly, because it was not only a sacrament, but also a sacrifice, as appears because it is so called, Exodus 12:27 23:18 34:25 Numbers 9:7 , and because here was the sprinkling of blood, which is the essential part and character of a sacrifice; and partly, to design the place where Christ, the true Passover or Lamb of God, was to be slain.Poole gathers the three reasons for the one place — solemnity, the blood that makes it a true sacrifice, and the foreshadowing of "where Christ, the true Passover… was to be slain."
at even, at the going down of the sun"—literally, "between the evenings."JFB pins the literal Hebrew idiom for the hour of slaughter — "between the evenings."
between the two evenings it was killed, before the sun was set, and afterwards at night it was eaten; the Targum of Jonathan is,"and at evening, at the setting of the sun, ye shall eat it until the middle of the nightGill, with the Targum, splits the timing: killed "between the two evenings" before sunset, eaten through the night to midnight.
7And you shall roast it and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·ḇiš·šal·tā wə·’ā·ḵal·tā bam·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā bōw ū·p̄ā·nî·ṯā yiḇ·ḥar ḇab·bō·qer wə·hā·laḵ·tā lə·’ō·hā·le·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-cook [it] and-eat [it] in-the-place that Yahweh your-God will-choose; and-you-shall-turn in-the-morning and-go to-your-tents.
Where the English smooths the original
And thou shalt seethe ] The Heb. bashal may be used in the general sense of cooking , but it usually means to boil ( Deuteronomy 14:21 ; 1 Samuel 2:13 ; 1 Samuel 2:15 ). The R.V. roast is due to the effort to harmonise this law with that of P, Exodus 12:9 , which directs that the sacrifice shall be roast with fire ; but P expressly adds that it shall not be boiled in water, and uses for this the same vb bashal as D does. Clearly D and P enjoin different methods of preparing the paschal lamb.Cambridge states the boiling-vs-roasting tension at its sharpest: bashal means "boil," the "roast" rendering is harmonizing, and "D and P enjoin different methods."
The word for "roast" signifies to "boil", and is justly so used, and so Onkelos here renders it, and the Septuagint version both roast and boil; but it is certain that the passover lamb was not to be boiled, it is expressly forbidden, Exodus 12:8 wherefore some think the Chagigah is here meant, and the other offerings that were offered at this feastGill takes the opposite harmonizing road from Cambridge: since the word means "boil" yet the lamb may not be boiled, the verse must speak of the chagigah-offerings, not the lamb.
The expression "to thy tents," for going "home," points to the time when Israel was till dwelling in tents, and had not as yet secured any fixed abodes and houses in Canaan, although this expression was retained at a still later time (e.g., 1 Samuel 13:2 ; 2 Samuel 19:9 , etc.).Keil on "to thy tents": a relic of the nomadic age, kept as an idiom for "home" long after Israel had houses.
Thou shalt turn in the morning — The words are only a permission, not an absolute command. After the solemnity was over, they might return to their several places of abode.Benson reads "turn in the morning" as permission, not command — dismissal granted after the feast, not a same-day departure.
8For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šê·šeṯ yā·mîm tō·ḵal maṣ·ṣō·wṯ haš·šə·ḇî·‘î ū·ḇay·yō·wm ‘ă·ṣe·reṯ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā lō ṯa·‘ă·śeh mə·lā·ḵāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Six days you-shall-eat unleavened-bread, and-on-the-seventh day [is] a-solemn-assembly to-Yahweh your-God; you-shall-not do any work.
Where the English smooths the original
A solemn assembly. —Literally, as in the Margin, a restraint—i.e., a day when work was forbidden. The word is applied to the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles in Leviticus 23:36 , and Numbers 29:35 , and does not occur elsewhere in the Pentateuch.Ellicott unlocks ʻătsârâh from its root — "a restraint," a day of withheld labor — and notes its only other Pentateuchal use, the climax of Tabernacles.
Six days, to wit, besides the first day, on which the passover was killed; or rather besides the seventh and the last day, which is here mentioned apart, not as if leavened bread might be eaten then, for the contrary was evident from many places, but because there was something more to be done, to wit, a solemn assembly to be kept. So in all there were seven days , as it is said, Exodus 12:15 Leviticus 23:6 Numbers 28:17 .Poole reconciles "six" with "seven": the seventh is counted apart for its added assembly, not because leaven returns on it — seven days in all.
the seventh day is brought into especial prominence as the azereth of the feast (see at Leviticus 23:36 ), simply because, in addition to the eating of mazzoth, there was to be an entire abstinence from work, and this particular feature might easily have fallen into neglect at the close of the feast.Keil's resolution: the seventh is singled out not to shorten the feast but because its rest-from-work was the part most likely to be let slip at the end.
thou shalt do no work therein; that is, the business of their callings, their trades and manufactories; they were obliged to abstain from all kind of work excepting what was necessary for the dressing of food, and in this it differed from a sabbath; see Exodus 12:16 .Gill defines the work-prohibition precisely — occupational labor barred, food-preparation allowed — distinguishing the festal day from a full Sabbath.
they might disperse to their several "tents" or "dwellings" 1 Kings 8:66 . These would of course be within a short distance of the sanctuary, because the other Paschal offerings were yet to be offered day by day for seven days and the people would remain to share them; and especially to take part in the holy convocation on the first and seventh of the days.Barnes settles the apparent collision between v. 7's morning departure "to your tents" and the seven-day feast: the "tents" are lodgings near the sanctuary, not the towns of v. 5 — the pilgrim disperses locally and stays for the week's offerings and the seventh-day assembly.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with a bare infinitive — šāmôr (H8104), "keep, keep!" — the same verb used of guarding the Sabbath and the covenant. What is to be guarded is a month: Abib (H24), a rare word (six verses in all Scripture) that is not a name but a thing in the fields — "green ears of corn," as Ellicott, JFB, and Gill all note. Cambridge traces its fate: the agricultural "Abib" of the early calendar "was replaced after the Exile by the name Nisan of the later priestly calendar." Benson names the strategy behind the whole chapter — the feasts are "a further preservative against idolatry," three annual pilgrimages "to keep the people steady to the profession and practice of the religion of the one true God." Even the day's puzzle — Israel "brought out… by night," though they marched by day (Exodus 13:3) — the voices resolve in unison: Gill, with Onkelos, says "it was in the night the Lord did wonders for them… smote all the firstborn… and passed over the houses." The night belongs to God's act; the morning, to Israel's march.
The chapter's controlling idea is centralization, repeated (Barnes counts) "no less than six times" in this passage: the Passover may be sacrificed only "in the place the LORD will choose to make His Name dwell there" (v. 2). The verb is zâbach (H2076) — to slaughter in sacrifice — and on that word Benson hangs the logic: "the passover itself was a sacrifice… no sacrifice was accepted but from the altar that sanctified it." So v. 5 says, literally, you are not able (yâkôl) to keep it "within any of thy gates" — Poole: "i.e. of thy cities." This is a real historical shift, and Cambridge marks it: in the older sources "the service is domestic," eaten in the home; Deuteronomy moves the blood to the altar. Keil draws out the theological consequence — "the smearing of the door-posts with the blood was tacitly abolished, since the blood was to be sprinkled upon the altar as sacrificial blood." The home-rite of Egypt becomes the temple-rite of the land.
For seven days, no châmêts (H2557, "leaven," a word that already in Hebrew carries "ferment" and figurative "sourness"); instead, matstsôth (H4682) — "unleavened bread," whose root Strong's gives, against expectation, as "sweetness." Moses names it lechem ‘ōnî, "bread of affliction" (H6040), and the reason is sealed by one of the rarest words in the Bible: Israel left Egypt bᵉchippāzôn (H2649, "in haste") — a word that occurs in only three verses anywhere. Keil binds the threads: the bread recalls that they "had to leave Egypt in anxious flight… to stir them up to gratitude." Gill cites the living rite — the householder breaking the matzah and saying "this is the bread of affliction." Verse 4 widens the ban: not the loaf but the very leaven-agent (śᵉ’ōr, H7603, the Pulpit Commentary insists) must "not be seen" — and the sacrificial flesh may not "lodge overnight" (lûwn, H3885), because, as Keil says bluntly, "in the East, if flesh is kept, it very quickly decomposes." Leaven and leftover flesh fall under one law: keep corruption from the holy food.
The slaughter is fixed to "the evening, as the sun comes in" (Hebrew has no "set" — the sun enters) — the hour JFB and Gill render "between the evenings." Ellicott catches the ambiguity of môwʻêd (H4150), the "appointed time": is it "the time of year, or the time of day?" Verse 7 then springs the unit's hardest translation-crux: the verb is bâshal (H1310), which "usually means to boil" — yet Exodus 12:9 forbids boiling and commands roasting. Cambridge concedes the conflict outright: "D and P enjoin different methods… the R.V. roast is due to the effort to harmonise." Gill takes the other road — if the word means boil, it must speak of the chagigah, not the lamb. The pilgrim then "turns" (pânâh) home "to thy tents" — a nomadic fossil-phrase Keil and Cambridge both flag as older than the settled land. Finally (v. 8) the seventh day is an ‘ătsârâh (H6116) — which Ellicott unlocks from its root as "a restraint," a day of withheld work. The number "six" against the "seven" of vv. 3–4 is not a contradiction: Keil and Poole agree the seventh is merely singled out for its added rest.
Read under the rule that Scripture interprets Scripture, three things press up out of this unit — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted:
This feast is built to fight forgetting. The whole passage is wired for memory: "guard" the month, eat "bread of affliction," "so that you may remember… all the days of your life" (v. 3). The food is deliberately unpleasant (JFB: "sour, unpleasant"), the haste is preserved in a word so rare it appears three times in all Scripture. Israel is not asked to recall a fact but to taste it annually — the redeemed are people who re-enter their own slavery once a year so they never lose their gratitude.
The blood moves from the door to the altar. The most striking thing Deuteronomy does is relocate the Passover from the home (where, in Egypt, the blood went on the doorposts) to "the place the LORD will choose." Keil sees it: the doorpost-blood is "tacitly abolished," because the blood now belongs on the altar. A rite that began as a household's private deliverance becomes the whole nation's public sacrifice. The Passover grows up from a family meal into a temple-offering — and so was ready, when the time came, to be read as the sacrifice.
The text shows its own seams, and does not hide them. Deuteronomy 16 says "boil" where Exodus says "roast, not boiled"; it says "six days" where the surrounding verses say seven; it lets "Passover" mean both the lamb and the whole week. The honest reader does not paper these over. The commentators themselves split — Cambridge says the laws simply differ; Gill and Keil harmonize. That two godly readings of one text can stand side by side is not a defect of Scripture but the discipline of reading it: the seams are where the work is done.
A feast is memory you can eat: bread baked in such haste it never had time to rise, served once a year so a freed people never forgets the night the blood stood between them and the destroyer. (⚙ a fallible reading, not Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The opening command, "keep the month of Abib," reaches back to the earlier festal laws that name the same month. The link is unusually firm because Abib (ʼâbîyb, H24) is a rare word — only six verses in all Scripture. The Verifier ties this verse to Exodus 13:4 by ʼâbîyb together with chôdesh ("month," H2320) and yâtsâʼ ("brought out"), and to Exodus 23:15 by ʼâbîyb, chôdesh, and shâmar ("keep," the very verb of v. 1). Cambridge independently cites exactly these cross-references — "So E and J (Exodus 13:4; 23:15; 34:18)." A shared lexeme this scarce, joined to the shared command-verb, marks a true verbal kinship, not a vague echo.
Deuteronomy 16:1 · Exodus 13:4 · Exodus 23:15 · Exodus 34:18
basis: rare shared lexeme H24 ʼâbîyb (only 6 vv in all Scripture) + H2320 chôdesh (224 vv) + H8104 shâmar (440 vv, the shared command-verb) + H3318 yâtsâʼ — Verifier-computed for Deut 16:1 ↔ Exod 13:4 and ↔ Exod 23:15; Cambridge names these same cross-references in its note on the verse
"You came out of Egypt in haste" rests on chippāzôn (H2649), one of the rarest words in the Hebrew Bible — it occurs in only three verses anywhere, and the other two are both in view here. Exodus 12:11 commands the first Passover to be eaten "in haste (chippāzôn); it is the LORD's passover" — the night this verse remembers. Isaiah 52:12 deliberately inverts it for the new exodus: "ye shall not go out in haste (chippāzôn), nor go by flight." Cambridge cites both verses by name in its note on "bread of affliction." When a word this scarce binds three texts, the link is as verbal as Scripture offers — and the Isaiah reversal turns a fingerprint into a theology: the second redemption will not be a panicked flight but a led procession.
Deuteronomy 16:3 · Exodus 12:11 · Isaiah 52:12
basis: rare shared lexeme H2649 chippâzôwn (only 3 vv in all Scripture: Deut 16:3, Exod 12:11, Isa 52:12) — Verifier-computed for both pairs; Cambridge cites Exod 12:11 and Isa 52:12 by name. Isaiah deliberately negates the word ("not in haste"), a verbal allusion confirmed by the shared scarce lexeme
The seven-day unleavened-bread law restates the Exodus institution almost in its own words. The Verifier links Deuteronomy 16:3 to Exodus 12:15 by a cluster including two uncommon festal terms — matstsâh ("unleavened bread," H4682, 42 vv) and châmêts ("leaven," H2557, only 13 vv) — with shebaʻ ("seven") and ʼâkal ("eat"). The same pair binds it to Exodus 13:7, and to Exodus 12:19 (which adds the rarer śᵉ’ôr, H7603, the yeast-agent of Deut 16:4). Keil reads Deuteronomy 16:4 as Moses deliberately "repeating" the points "laid down in Exodus 13:7" and "Exodus 23:18; 34:25." Because châmêts is rare and the two leaven-terms recur together, this is a genuine verbal restatement of one law across the codes.
Deuteronomy 16:3 · Exodus 12:15 · Exodus 13:7 · Exodus 12:19
basis: shared lexemes H2557 châmêts (rare, 13 vv) + H4682 matstsâh (42 vv) + H7651 shebaʻ + H398 ʼâkal — Verifier-computed for Deut 16:3 ↔ Exod 12:15 and ↔ Exod 13:7; the rare châmêts plus matstsâh together mark a verbal restatement of the one unleavened-bread law (Keil: Moses "repeats" Exod 13:7)
The centralizing refrain — "the place the LORD will choose to make His Name dwell there" — is the signature formula of Deuteronomy, sounded first at 12:11 and repeated through chapter 16 (vv. 2, 6, 7, 11). The Verifier ties 16:2 to 12:11 by the formula's whole word-cluster: bâchar ("choose," H977), mâqôwm ("place," H4725), shâkan ("make dwell," H7931), shēm ("Name," H8034), and shâm ("there," H8033). Held honestly: these are not a quotation of a distinct text but the recurring formulaic refrain of one book — Barnes notes the centralization is "reiterated… no less than six times" in this chapter alone. So the basis is the shared Deuteronomic formula, and the tier is structural, not verbal.
Deuteronomy 16:2 · Deuteronomy 16:6 · Deuteronomy 12:11
basis: shared lexeme cluster H977 bâchar (164 vv) + H4725 mâqôwm (379 vv) + H7931 shâkan (124 vv) + H8034 shêm (771 vv) + H8033 shâm — Verifier-computed for Deut 16:2 ↔ Deut 12:11. The Verifier flags lexeme overlap, but this is Deuteronomy's own recurring centralization formula (12:5,11,14; 16:2,6,7,11), not a quotation of a separate text — so the honest tier is structural
The rule that the sacrificial flesh "shall not lodge overnight until morning" repeats the old altar-law of the covenant codes. The Verifier links Deuteronomy 16:4 to Exodus 23:18 by lûwn ("to remain overnight," H3885 — the exact verb of v. 4), zâbach ("sacrifice," H2076), and bôqer ("morning," H1242). Keil names the same cross-references: Moses "repeats… the one in Exodus 23:18 and 34:25, that none of the flesh of the paschal lamb was to be left till the next morning." The shared overnight-verb plus the sacrifice-and-morning frame make this a firm structural restatement of one ritual rule across the law-codes — guarding the holy flesh from decay.
Deuteronomy 16:4 · Exodus 23:18 · Exodus 34:25
basis: shared lexemes H3885 lûwn (78 vv, the exact 'remain overnight' verb of Deut 16:4) + H2076 zâbach (127 vv) + H1242 bôqer (189 vv) — Verifier-computed for Deut 16:4 ↔ Exod 23:18; Keil cites Exod 23:18 and 34:25 as the same law repeated. Recurring ritual vocabulary, not a rare quotation — tier structural
The ban on the leaven-agent in v. 4 — śᵉ’ôr ("yeast-starter," H7603), not the loaf — uses one of the rarest words in the Torah: it occurs in only five verses. Two of the other four converge here. Exodus 12:19 commands the same starter gone from the houses for the seven days; and Leviticus 2:11 makes the principle a law of the altar itself — "ye shall burn no leaven (śᵉ’ôr)… in any offering of the LORD made by fire." The Verifier confirms the Deuteronomy 16:4 ↔ Leviticus 2:11 link on this scarce shared lexeme. The kinship is verbal and the theology is one: what is brought to God must be free of the agent of fermentation — the same logic Keil draws on this verse ("leaven sets the dough in fermentation, from which putrefaction ensues"). Held honestly: Leviticus 2:11 also forbids honey and is a grain-offering law, not a Passover text; the firm tie is the rare leaven-word and its shared rationale, not a quotation of the Passover statute.
Deuteronomy 16:4 · Leviticus 2:11 · Exodus 12:19
basis: rare shared lexeme H7603 sᵉʼôr (only 5 vv in all Scripture) — Verifier-computed for Deut 16:4 ↔ Lev 2:11 and ↔ Exod 12:19. The same scarce yeast-agent word ties the Passover leaven-ban to the altar-law (Lev 2:11, leaven barred from every fire-offering) and to the Exodus institution (Exod 12:19). A lexeme this rare marks verbal kinship; the link is the shared leaven-agent ban, not a quotation of the Passover law itself
This law looks forward to its first keeping in Canaan and to its prophetic renewal. Joshua 5:11 records Israel eating "unleavened cakes" of "the produce of the land" the day after the first Passover at Gilgal; Ezekiel 45:21 reissues the Passover-and-unleavened-bread ordinance for the restored temple. The Verifier links both to this unit by pesach ("Passover," H6453, 46 vv), with Ezekiel adding chôdesh ("month"). Held honestly: pesach is the festival's proper name, shared by every Passover text, so this is a thematic/structural identity — the same ordinance enacted (Joshua) and re-prescribed (Ezekiel) — not a quotation. The tier is structural.
Deuteronomy 16:1 · Deuteronomy 16:2 · Joshua 5:11 · Ezekiel 45:21
basis: shared lexeme H6453 peçach (46 vv) for Deut 16:2 ↔ Josh 5:11; + H2320 chôdesh for ↔ Ezek 45:21 — Verifier-computed. peçach is the festival's proper name shared by all Passover texts, so the basis is the shared ordinance (Joshua enacts it in the land; Ezekiel re-prescribes it for the restored temple), not a verbal quotation — tier structural
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The commentators on this very chapter reach forward to the New Testament's central application of the feast. Benson, expounding the centralization of v. 5, draws the line himself: "the passover itself was a sacrifice; hence Christ, as our passover, is said to be sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5"; and the Pulpit Commentary, on the leaven of v. 4, cites 1 Corinthians 5:7 — "purge out the old leaven… For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." Matthew Henry, reading the whole festal law (vv. 1–17), hears it summon the believer never to "forget his low estate of guilt and misery, his deliverance, and the price it cost the Redeemer." That Deuteronomy moves the slaying to the altar at the chosen place (Poole: "to design the place where Christ, the true Passover or Lamb of God, was to be slain") prepared the rite for its fulfillment in a sacrifice offered at Jerusalem. Held honestly: this is a Hebrew-text → Greek-text link — no shared Strong's number is possible — so it is figural, not lexical; but it is ancient and woven into these very commentaries.
Deuteronomy 16:2 · Deuteronomy 16:5 · Deuteronomy 16:6 · 1 Corinthians 5:7
The seven-day purge of leaven (vv. 3–4) becomes, in Paul, a figure of the Christian's purged life: "purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump… not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7–8). The Pulpit Commentary makes the connection on this passage's own ground, citing 1 Corinthians 5:7 as the leaven of Deuteronomy 16:4 is described. The Hebrew already loads châmêts with the figurative sense of "sourness" and corruption — the very moral freight Paul gives it. As Keil read the literal law (leaven barred because it breeds "putrefaction"), so the apostle reads the spiritual: the festal week of unleavened bread is a parable of a life kept free of the old fermenting corruption. Held honestly: cross-Testament and figural, not a shared lexeme.
Deuteronomy 16:3 · Deuteronomy 16:4 · 1 Corinthians 5:8
The matzah is named lechem ‘ōnî, "the bread of affliction" (v. 3) — bread eaten in poverty and haste, broken (Gill) with the words "this is the bread of affliction." Christian reading has long heard in the Passover-bread that Christ took, broke, and named "this is my body" (Luke 22:19, at a Passover meal) the bread of affliction transfigured: the bread of Israel's affliction becoming the bread of Christ's affliction given for the world, and so the "bread of life" (John 6:35, 48). The lifelong remembrance commanded here — "that thou mayest remember… all the days of thy life" — finds its echo in "this do in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24). Held honestly: this is a typological reading across Testaments, marked as such; the connection is figural and thematic, not a verbal quotation, and is offered to be tested against the texts themselves.
Deuteronomy 16:3 · Luke 22:19 · John 6:35 · 1 Corinthians 11:24
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries on Deuteronomy 16:1–8, attributed in place: Charles Ellicott (Commentary for English Readers, 1878), Joseph Benson (1810s), Matthew Henry (Concise Commentary, 1706), Albert Barnes (Notes, 1834), Jamieson–Fausset–Brown (1871), Matthew Poole (1685), John Gill (1746–63), the Geneva Study Bible (1599), the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1880s), the Pulpit Commentary (1880s), and Keil & Delitzsch (1860s). Each excerpt is a contiguous, unaltered substring of its source; a few are drawn from the running notes the older commentaries place on the unit's first verse (16:1) and so are cited to that verse's page.
The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parsings, literal renderings, and the "where the English smooths the Hebrew" notes are this tool's own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against BDB/HALOT and a standard grammar. Several genuine tensions in the unit are reported, not smoothed: the word "Passover" shifts between the lamb (narrow) and the whole seven-day festival (broad), which the commentators (Keil, Poole, Benson) resolve from the "herd" of v. 2 and the seven-day eating of v. 3; the cooking-verb of v. 7 is bâshal ("boil"), against Exodus 12:9's "roast, not boiled," where Cambridge judges "D and P enjoin different methods" while Gill and the harmonizers refer it to the chagigah; and "six days" (v. 8) against the "seven" of vv. 3–4, which Keil and Poole reconcile by the seventh day's special prominence. These are left open, with the voices on both sides.
On the cross-references: three links in this unit are truly verbal, each resting on a rare shared lexeme the Verifier computed — Deuteronomy 16:1 ↔ Exodus 13:4/23:15 on ʼâbîyb ("Abib," only 6 vv), Deuteronomy 16:3 ↔ Exodus 12:11/Isaiah 52:12 on chippāzôn ("in haste," only 3 vv in all Scripture, with Isaiah deliberately negating it), and Deuteronomy 16:4 ↔ Leviticus 2:11/Exodus 12:19 on śᵉ’ôr (the yeast-agent, only 5 vv — the same scarce word that bars leaven from every fire-offering of the altar). The unleavened-bread link to Exodus 12:15/13:7 also reaches "verbal" on the uncommon pair châmêts / matstsâh. Three further links the Verifier flagged on lexeme overlap have been honestly tiered structural: the "place the LORD will choose" formula (16:2 ↔ 12:11) is Deuteronomy's own recurring refrain, not a quotation; "nothing left till morning" (16:4 ↔ Exodus 23:18) is shared ritual vocabulary; and the Passover-in-the-land links to Joshua 5:11 and Ezekiel 45:21 rest on pesach, the festival's proper name shared by every Passover text. The forward links to 1 Corinthians 5, John 6, and the Lord's Supper cross from a Hebrew text to a Greek one, where no shared Strong's number is even possible, so they are marked typological / structural — the Christ-our-Passover and unleavened-life readings are ancient and woven into these very commentaries (Benson and the Pulpit Commentary cite 1 Corinthians 5 by name here); the bread-of-affliction → bread-of-life reading is marked novel as a figural extension to be tested. The Joshua 1:5 → Hebrews 13:5 flagged-provenance rule does not apply to this unit (it is Deuteronomy 16 and contains no 16:5 NT-quotation of disputed provenance). ⚙ = machine-generated synthesis, to be verified. "Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)