The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Exodus 12:14–28 — 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.
14And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
haz·zeh hay·yō·wm wə·hā·yāh lə·zik·kā·rō·wn lā·ḵem wə·ḥag·gō·ṯem ’ō·ṯōw ḥaḡ Yah·weh tə·ḥāg·gu·hū ‘ō·w·lām ḥuq·qaṯ lə·ḏō·rō·ṯê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And this day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep-it-as-a-pilgrim-feast a feast to YHWH; throughout your generations, as a perpetual statute, you shall keep it as a feast.
Where the English smooths the original
Israel was to keep "for a commemoration as a feast to Jehovah," consecrated for all time, as an "eternal ordinance,"
A memorial - A commemorative and sacramental ordinance of perpetual obligation. As such, it has ever been observed by the Hebrews.
ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance {i} for ever. (h) Of the benefits received for your deliverance. (i) That is, until Christ's coming: for then ceremonies will end.The 1599 marginal note (i) reads "for ever" as "until Christ's coming"—a Reformation gloss on ʿōlām that the reader should weigh against Keil's "to all eternity."
both festivals were instituted before the events they were to commemorate had transpired.
15For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šiḇ·‘aṯ yā·mîm tō·ḵê·lū ’aḵ maṣ·ṣō·wṯ hā·ri·šō·wn bay·yō·wm taš·bî·ṯū śə·’ōr mib·bāt·tê·ḵem kî kāl- ’ō·ḵêl ḥā·mêṣ hā·ri·šōn mî·yō·wm ‘aḏ- haš·šə·ḇi·‘î yō·wm wə·niḵ·rə·ṯāh han·ne·p̄eš ha·hi·w mî·yiś·rā·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; surely on the first day you shall make-cease the leaven from your houses—for everyone eating what-is-leavened, from the first day to the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Where the English smooths the original
Leaven, taken as typical of corruption, was to be wholly put away, not allowed by any householder to lurk anywhere within his house—a solemn warning that we are to make no compromise with sin.
Leaven was regarded as produced by corruption
the mazzoth, or unleavened loaves, were symbolical of the new life, as cleansed from the leaven of a sinful nature.
16On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·ri·šō·wn ū·ḇay·yō·wm yih·yeh lā·ḵem kāl- qō·ḏeš miq·rā- qō·ḏeš miq·rā- haš·šə·ḇî·‘î ū·ḇay·yō·wm ḇā·hem lō- yê·‘ā·śeh mə·lā·ḵāh ’aḵ ’ă·šer yê·’ā·ḵêl ne·p̄eš lə·ḵāl hū lə·ḇad·dōw yê·‘ā·śeh lā·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And on the first day there shall be for you a holy convocation, and on the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done on them—only what must be eaten by every soul, that alone may be done by you.
Where the English smooths the original
17So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·šə·mar·tem ’eṯ- ham·maṣ·ṣō·wṯ kî haz·zeh bə·‘e·ṣem hay·yō·wm hō·w·ṣê·ṯî ṣiḇ·’ō·w·ṯê·ḵem ’eṯ- mê·’e·reṣ miṣ·rā·yim ū·šə·mar·tem ’eṯ- haz·zeh hay·yō·wm ‘ō·w·lām ḥuq·qaṯ lə·ḏō·rō·ṯê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And you shall keep the Unleavened Bread, for on the bone of this day I brought your hosts out from the land of Egypt; and you shall keep this day throughout your generations, a perpetual statute.
Where the English smooths the original
the exodus formed the groundwork of the seven days' feast, because it was by this that Israel had been introduced into a new vital element.
lit. the bone (i.e. the substance ) of the day , the day itself, the very day
The expression “have I brought” indicates either that these directions were not given until after the Exodus, or at any rate that they were not reduced to writing until then.
18In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bā·ri·šōn tō·ḵə·lū maṣ·ṣōṯ bā·‘e·reḇ bə·’ar·bā·‘āh ‘ā·śār yō·wm la·ḥō·ḏeš ‘aḏ bā·‘ā·reḇ hā·’e·ḥāḏ wə·‘eś·rîm la·ḥō·ḏeš yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
Where the English smooths the original
The evening intended is not that with which the fourteenth day began, but that with which it closed, the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth day.
This long abstinence from leaven denotes, that the whole lives of those who are Israelites indeed should be without guile, hypocrisy, and malice, and should be spent in sincerity and truth.
19For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šiḇ·‘aṯ yā·mîm lō śə·’ōr yim·mā·ṣê bə·ḇāt·tê·ḵem kî kāl- ’ō·ḵêl maḥ·me·ṣeṯ ha·hi·w han·ne·p̄eš bag·gêr ū·ḇə·’ez·raḥ hā·’ā·reṣ wə·niḵ·rə·ṯāh mê·‘ă·ḏaṯ yiś·rā·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses, for everyone eating what-is-leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel—whether sojourner or native of the land.
Where the English smooths the original
no exclusion of the Gentiles by reason of race or descent was ever contemplated by God, either at the giving of the law, or at any other time.
from the first it was open to those who were not of Hebrew blood to share in the Hebrew privileges by accepting the covenant of circumcision, and joining themselves to the nation.
הארץ אזרח, a tree that grows upon the soil in which it was planted; hence indigena, the native of a country.
20You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō ṯō·ḵê·lū kāl- maḥ·me·ṣeṯ tō·ḵə·lū maṣ·ṣō·wṯ bə·ḵōl mō·wō·šə·ḇō·ṯê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Anything leavened you shall not eat; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.
Where the English smooths the original
wherever ye dwell, whether in Egypt, or in the wilderness, or in Palestine, or in Babylonia, or in Media, this law shall be observed. So the Jews observe it everywhere to this day, though they no longer sacrifice the Paschal lamb.
this is repeated over and over, that they might be the more careful of observing this precept
21Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mō·šeh way·yiq·rā lə·ḵāl ziq·nê yiś·rā·’êl way·yō·mer ’ă·lê·hem miš·ḵū ū·qə·ḥū lā·ḵem ṣōn lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯê·ḵem wə·ša·ḥă·ṭū hap·pā·saḥ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And Moses called to all the elders of Israel and said to them: Draw out and take for yourselves a flock-animal for your families, and slaughter the Passover.
Where the English smooths the original
The passover - The word is here applied to the lamb; an important fact, marking the lamb as the sign and pledge of the exemption of the Israelites.
The word is introduced here as if the institution were already well known.
It was designed to look forward, as an earnest of the great sacrifice of the Lamb of God in the fulness of time. Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; his death was our life.
22Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·lə·qaḥ·tem ’ă·ḡud·daṯ ’ê·zō·wḇ ū·ṭə·ḇal·tem bad·dām ’ă·šer- bas·sap̄ wə·hig·ga‘·tem min- had·dām ’ă·šer bas·sāp̄ ’el- ham·maš·qō·wp̄ wə·’el- šə·tê ham·mə·zū·zōṯ lō ’îš wə·’at·tem ṯê·ṣə·’ū mip·pe·ṯaḥ- bê·ṯōw ‘aḏ- bō·qer
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and you shall make the blood touch the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go out from the door of his house until morning.
Where the English smooths the original
The reason for the command not to go out of the door of the house was, that in this night of judgment there would be no safety anywhere except behind the blood-stained door.
The word translated “bason” has another meaning also, viz., “threshold;” and this meaning was preferred in the present place both by the LXX. and by Jerome.
it was ordained in the arrangements of an all-wise Providence that the Roman soldiers should undesignedly, on their part, make use of this symbolical plant to Christ when, as our Passover, He was sacrificed for usJFB draws a figural line from the hyssop here to the hyssop at the cross (John 19:29). This is a typological reading, not a verbal-Hebrew link; the Gospel word is Greek hyssōpos.
the dipping the bunch of hyssop into the blood of the lamb may signify the exercise of faith on the blood of Christ
23When the LORD passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh wə·‘ā·ḇar lin·gōp̄ ’eṯ- miṣ·ra·yim wə·rā·’āh ’eṯ- had·dām ‘al- ham·maš·qō·wp̄ wə·‘al šə·tê ham·mə·zū·zōṯ Yah·weh ū·p̄ā·saḥ ‘al- hap·pe·ṯaḥ wə·lō yit·tên ham·maš·ḥîṯ lā·ḇō ’el- bāt·tê·ḵem lin·gōp̄
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And YHWH will pass through to strike Egypt, and He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and YHWH will pass over the door, and will not give the destroyer leave to come into your houses to strike.
Where the English smooths the original
pass over ] The verb is cognate with pésaḥ .
the Lord will pass over the door; and the house where this blood is sprinkled
There is no struggle or opposition (as Bishop Lowth and Redslob think) between Jehovah and” the destroyer,” who is simply His minister
it is to be noted that elsewhere Jehovah himself is everywhere spoken of as the sole agent; and that in the present passage the word used has the meaning of "destruction" no less than that of "destroyer."
24And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·šə·mar·tem ’eṯ- haz·zeh had·dā·ḇār ‘aḏ- ‘ō·w·lām lə·ḥāq- lə·ḵā ū·lə·ḇā·ne·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And you shall keep this thing as a statute for you and for your sons, forever.
Where the English smooths the original
Not the sprinkling of the blood, which was never repeated after the first occasion, but the sacrifice of the lamb, commanded in Exodus 12:21 .
The ceremony is called עבדה, "service," inasmuch as it was the fulfilment of a divine command, a performance demanded by God, though it promoted the good of Israel.
25When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hā·yāh kî- ṯā·ḇō·’ū ’el- hā·’ā·reṣ ’ă·šer Yah·weh yit·tên lā·ḵem ka·’ă·šer dib·bêr ū·šə·mar·tem ’eṯ- haz·zōṯ hā·‘ă·ḇō·ḏāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And it shall be, when you come into the land that YHWH will give you, as He has spoken, that you shall keep this service.
Where the English smooths the original
26When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hā·yāh kî- bə·nê·ḵem yō·mə·rū ’ă·lê·ḵem māh hā·‘ă·ḇō·ḏāh haz·zōṯ lā·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And it shall be, when your children say to you, What is this service to you?
Where the English smooths the original
the usages practised at this yearly commemorative feast were so peculiar that the curiosity of the young would be stimulated, and thus parents had an excellent opportunity, which they were enjoined to embrace, for instructing each rising generation in the origin and leading facts of the national faith.
God expects this even from the Jewish children, and much more from Christian men, that they should inquire and understand what is said or done in the public worship or service of God
27you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wa·’ă·mar·tem hū pe·saḥ ze·ḇaḥ- Yah·weh ’ă·šer pā·saḥ ‘al- bāt·tê ḇə·nê- yiś·rā·’êl bə·miṣ·ra·yim bə·nā·ḡə·pōw ’eṯ- miṣ·ra·yim wə·’eṯ- hiṣ·ṣîl bāt·tê·nū hā·‘ām way·yiq·qōḏ way·yiš·ta·ḥăw·wū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Then you shall say: It is a Passover sacrifice to YHWH, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He struck Egypt and delivered our houses. And the people bowed and worshiped.
Where the English smooths the original
It has been denied that the Paschal lamb was, in the true sense of the word, a sacrifice (Carpzov and others). But this passage alone is decisive on the question, and proves that it was.
The emphatic word is “Passover;” and it was the meaning of this term which was especially to be explained.
the Passover lamb was a sacrifice offered to Yahweh by His ordinance.
The people bowed the head and worshipped — They hereby signified their submission to this institution as a law, and their thankfulness for it as a privilege.
28And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl way·yê·lə·ḵū way·ya·‘ă·śū ka·’ă·šer Yah·weh ’eṯ- ṣiw·wāh mō·šeh wə·’a·hă·rōn kên ‘ā·śū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And the sons of Israel went and did; just as YHWH had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
Where the English smooths the original
They then proceeded to execute the command, that through the obedience of faith they might appropriate the blessing of this "service."
The long series of miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron had so impressed the people, that they yielded an undoubting and ready obedience.
And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
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 not with an event but with a calendar. Albert Barnes calls the day "a commemorative and sacramental ordinance of perpetual obligation" (Notes on the Bible, 1834), and the Hebrew bears him out: the day is to be a zikkārôn, a memorial, kept as a ḥuqqat ʿōlām, an "age-long statute." Keil & Delitzsch press the duration to its limit—"consecrated for all time, as an 'eternal ordinance'"—while the Geneva Study Bible (1599) reads the same ʿōlām against the grain: "for ever" means "until Christ's coming: for then ceremonies will end." The synthesis notes the dispute is grammatical, not doctrinal: ʿōlām (root "hidden, time out of mind") names duration beyond sight, and the Hebrew alone cannot decide between "to all eternity" and "to the end of the age." Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871) catch the oddest feature: "both festivals were instituted before the events they were to commemorate had transpired." The memorial is appointed before there is anything to remember—a striking note that Ellicott and Cambridge take as evidence that the directions were framed (or written) after the Exodus, since v. 17 says "I brought out" of an event still future in the narrative.
Seven days, no leaven—and the penalty for a crumb is to be "cut off from Israel" (wə·niḵrəṯāh). The commentators are unanimous on what leaven means and divided on the severity. Charles Ellicott (1878): "Leaven, taken as typical of corruption, was to be wholly put away... a solemn warning that we are to make no compromise with sin." Cambridge grounds the symbol in antiquity—"Leaven was regarded as produced by corruption"—citing Plutarch that leaven is "the offspring of corruption." Keil turns it positive: the maṣṣôṯ "were symbolical of the new life, as cleansed from the leaven of a sinful nature." The Hebrew distinguishes what the English blurs: śəʾôr (the rare starter, 5 vv) in v. 15 versus ḥāmêṣ / maḥmeṣeṯ (the leavened product) in vv. 15, 19-20. And the law widens as it repeats—from "houses" (v. 15) to "in all your dwellings" (v. 20). Gill reads the long abstinence morally: the life of true Israelites should be "without guile, hypocrisy, and malice... spent in sincerity and truth"—near Paul's own use of this passage (1 Corinthians 5:8). Verse 19's extension of the penalty to the gêr, the resident foreigner, prompts the Pulpit Commentary to its widest claim: "no exclusion of the Gentiles by reason of race or descent was ever contemplated by God."
The scene shifts from calendar to crisis. Moses gathers the elders and commands the ʾăḡudaṯ ʾêzôḇ, the bunch of hyssop (a rare word, 4 vv), dipped in the blood of the ṣōn—a generic "flock-animal," not necessarily a lamb, as Cambridge and Pulpit both insist. The blood is struck on lintel and two doorposts, the very door-words (mašqôp̄, 3 vv; məzûzōṯ, 17 vv) that bind this verse verbally back to Exodus 12:7. Two textual cruxes stand here. First, bas·sap̄—"basin" or "threshold"? Ellicott notes "this meaning [threshold] was preferred... both by the LXX. and by Jerome," which would place the lamb's slaughter on the doorsill itself. Second, the mašḥîṯ, "the destroyer": Keil identifies him as "the angel of Jehovah," while the Pulpit Commentary observes that the word "has the meaning of 'destruction' no less than that of 'destroyer'"—agent or act, the Hebrew will not say. Ellicott resolves the theology cautiously: there is "no struggle or opposition... between Jehovah and 'the destroyer,' who is simply His minister." The single non-negotiable is the door: Keil, "in this night of judgment there would be no safety anywhere except behind the blood-stained door."
Twice the rare verb pāsaḥ (H6452, only seven verses in all Scripture) carries the weight of the whole institution. Cambridge states the philological fact plainly at v. 23: "The verb is cognate with pésaḥ"—the act and the feast share one root. Gill draws the consoling line: "the Lord will pass over the door; and the house where this blood is sprinkled." By v. 27 the verb has migrated from divine promise into Israel's own confession—"a Passover-sacrifice to YHWH, who passed over the houses"—and is now paired with hiṣṣîl, "delivered, snatched away." That same rare pairing surfaces in Isaiah 31:5, where YHWH, "passing over, He will deliver" Jerusalem, suggesting the verb may carry not merely "skip past" but "hover protectively over." The synthesis records this as a genuine verbal thread (shared H6452), while noting the protective nuance is an interpretive reading the lexeme permits but does not compel.
The unit closes by reaching past the night to the children who never saw it. The feast is built to provoke a question—"What is this ʿăḇōḏāh to you?" (v. 26)—and the word is loaded: ʿăḇōḏāh is "service," the same root as the slavery Israel just left. JFB: the rite's very peculiarity means "the curiosity of the young would be stimulated, and thus parents had an excellent opportunity, which they were enjoined to embrace, for instructing each rising generation." Poole universalizes it: "God expects this even from the Jewish children, and much more from Christian men, that they should inquire and understand what is said or done in the public worship." The answer to the child is a confession that the lamb is a true zeḇaḥ, a sacrifice—"this passage alone is decisive on the question, and proves that it was" (Pulpit). And the people's response, before the deliverance has even arrived, is worship: they "bowed the head" (way·yiqqōḏ) and "prostrated" (way·yištaḥăwwū). Keil names the closing obedience exactly: "through the obedience of faith they might appropriate the blessing of this 'service.'" Faith acts first; the blessing follows.
Read under Sola Scriptura, this unit refuses to let redemption be a memory. God appoints the memorial before the deliverance happens (vv. 14, 17)—which means the feast is not Israel's grateful invention but God's prior gift, a frame He builds before He acts, so that the act will never be free-floating. The whole architecture runs from a day (v. 14) to a door (v. 22) to a child's question (v. 26): time, place, and transmission. And at the hinge stands one rare verb, pāsaḥ—God passing over a blood-marked threshold. The text is unembarrassed that safety rests on a sign God sees, not on the worthiness of those behind it: "when he seeth the blood... the LORD will pass over." What is asked of Israel is not merit but blood applied and a door not abandoned. That the same word for their old bondage (ʿăḇōḏāh) becomes the word for their new worship is, I think, the quiet center of the passage: the freed are not released into autonomy but into a different service—and they bow in it (v. 27) before they are even out of Egypt. This reading is fallible; weigh it against the text.
He appointed the memorial before there was anything to remember — grace builds the altar before it strikes the blow.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The instruction to strike the lintel and two doorposts with blood (vv. 22-23) repeats, almost word for word, the original command of Exodus 12:7. The Verifier records the link on three shared lexemes, two of them rare: mašqôp̄ (lintel, only 3 verses) and məzûzâh (doorpost, 17 verses), with dām (blood). This is not theme but the same sentence restated—Moses delivering to the elders what God gave to him.
Exodus 12:7
basis: shared rare lexemes H4947 mashqôwph (in 3 vv) + H4201 mᵉzûwzâh (in 17 vv) + H1818 dâm — Verifier-computed; the rarity of mashqôwph makes this a near-quotation, not mere overlap
The defining verb pāsaḥ ("pass over," H6452) occurs in only seven verses in all of Scripture, and three of them are in this single chapter—vv. 13, 23, 27. The Verifier ties v. 23 to v. 13 on this rare lexeme (with dām, rāʾāh, Miṣrayim). The thread is the chapter binding its own promise (v. 13), command (v. 23), and confession (v. 27) with one word that becomes the name of the feast.
Exodus 12:13
basis: shared rare lexeme H6452 pâçach (in only 7 vv) + H1818 dâm + H7200 râʼâh + H4714 Mitsrayim — Verifier-computed
The Unleavened-Bread legislation is restated within the Pentateuch using the same cluster of terms. The Verifier links v. 15 to Exodus 13:7 on śəʾôr (starter, rare—5 vv), ḥāmêṣ (leaven, 13 vv), maṣṣâh (unleavened, 42 vv), and šebaʿ (seven). The same lexemes anchor Deuteronomy 16:3-4. These are the standing technical vocabulary of the feast; the verbal overlap is the law speaking to itself across its books.
Exodus 13:7 · Deuteronomy 16:4 · Deuteronomy 16:3
basis: shared lexemes incl. rare H7603 sᵉʼôr (in 5 vv) + H2557 châmêts (in 13 vv) + H4682 matstsâh + H7651 shebaʻ — Verifier-computed across the parallel Unleavened-Bread statutes
The exclusion of leaven is not unique to Passover; it governs the sacrificial system. The Verifier links Leviticus 2:11 to this unit on śəʾôr (rare, 5 vv) and ḥāmêṣ (13 vv): "no meal offering... shall be made with leaven." Exodus 23:18 and 34:25 forbid leaven with the blood of the feast (chag + ḥāmêṣ), and Leviticus 23:17 is the deliberate exception—the wave loaves alone are baked with leaven. The thread is the consistent law-grammar of leaven-as-corruption that Paul later moralizes (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Leviticus 2:11 · Leviticus 23:17 · Exodus 23:18 · Exodus 34:25
basis: shared rare lexeme H7603 sᵉʼôr (in 5 vv) + H2557 châmêts (in 13 vv); Exodus 34:25 / 23:18 add H2282 chag — Verifier-computed
The "bunch of hyssop" (ʾăguddâh, H92) is a rare word, found in only four verses. The Verifier surfaces its other occurrences: Isaiah 58:6, where God commands to "loose the bands [ʾăguddâh] of the yoke," and Amos 9:6, where God founds His "troop [ʾăguddâh, vault]" upon the earth. The shared lexeme is real but the sense diverges sharply—a bound wisp, an oppressive bond, an arched vault. This is recorded as a lexical curiosity, not a thematic claim; the word binds, but binds different things.
Isaiah 58:6 · Amos 9:6
basis: shared rare lexeme H92 ʼăguddâh (in only 4 vv) — Verifier-computed; downgraded from verbal because the single shared word carries unrelated senses (wisp / yoke-band / vault), so no quotation is claimed
Isaiah 31:5 reuses the rare Passover verb: "As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending He will deliver it, passing over [pāsaḥ] He will preserve it." The Verifier links it to this unit on pāsaḥ (H6452, 7 vv) and nāṣal (deliver), the very pair found together in Exodus 12:27 (pāsaḥ + hiṣṣîl). Isaiah reads the verb protectively—God hovering over to shield—which may illumine the nuance latent in Exodus, though Exodus itself states only the sparing.
Isaiah 31:5
basis: shared rare lexeme H6452 pâçach (in only 7 vv) + H5337 nâtsal — Verifier-computed; the same pâçach+nâtsal pairing appears in Exodus 12:27, marking a deliberate Isaianic echo
Because pāsaḥ is so rare, its few other appearances are jarring. In 1 Kings 18:21 Israel "halt [pāsaḥ] between two opinions"; in 18:26 the prophets of Baal "leaped upon [pāsaḥ] the altar"; in 2 Samuel 4:4 a related root makes Mephibosheth lame. The Verifier flags the shared lexeme honestly, but the sense (limp, hop, waver) is unrelated to the salvific "pass over." Recorded as a lexical link only, with no theological claim—the word's range, not a thread of meaning.
1 Kings 18:21 · 1 Kings 18:26 · 2 Samuel 4:4
basis: shared lexeme H6452 pâçach (in 7 vv) per Verifier, BUT the verb there means 'limp / waver / hop,' a distinct sense from Exodus's salvific 'pass over' — flagged so no spurious meaning-thread is inferred from raw lexeme overlap
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The New Testament makes the identification explicit and verbal: "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Paul reads this very unit—"purge out... the old leaven" (5:6-8)—as fulfilled in the gospel. Matthew Henry (1706) speaks for the whole tradition: the feast "was designed to look forward, as an earnest of the great sacrifice of the Lamb of God... Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; his death was our life." The link from the Hebrew pesaḥ to the Greek pascha of 1 Corinthians is a citation in the apostolic text itself, but because the testaments differ in language it is recorded as a structural/typological fulfillment, not a shared-Strong's verbal link.
1 Corinthians 5:7 · Exodus 12:21 · Exodus 12:27
The Passover lamb's bones were not to be broken (Exodus 12:46), and John records its fulfillment at the cross: "these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken" (John 19:36). Within our unit the lamb is named hap·pāsaḥ (v. 21) and confessed a true zeḇaḥ, sacrifice (v. 27)—the very thing John says Jesus is. This is an explicit NT citation of the Passover statute; tiered typological/structural because it crosses Hebrew to Greek and cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers.
John 19:36 · Exodus 12:27
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown observe that "it was ordained in the arrangements of an all-wise Providence that the Roman soldiers should undesignedly... make use of this symbolical plant"—the hyssop of Exodus 12:22 reappearing in John 19:29, lifting the sponge to the dying Christ. This is a figural (typological) reading: the Hebrew ʾêzôḇ and the Greek hyssōpos are not a verbal-Strong's link, and the Gospel writers may use "hyssop" loosely. Offered as figural correspondence, widely held among the older commentators, to be weighed, not proven.
Exodus 12:22 · John 19:29
Hebrews 11:28 reads the night of v. 23 as an act of faith: "Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them." The Greek ho olothreuōn ("the destroyer") renders the Hebrew mašḥîṯ of our verse, and Keil notes the LXX/Hebrews equivalence directly. Protection by blood applied, received in faith and obedience (v. 28, "so they did"), is read by the NT as the pattern of saving faith—structural fulfillment across the testaments, not a lexical identity.
Hebrews 11:28 · Exodus 12:23 · Exodus 12:28
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:
This unit is Exodus 12:14-28 — the perpetual ordinance of Passover and Unleavened Bread, and the first keeping of it. All base text is the Berean Standard Bible with Berean/Strong's parses; the ⚙ layer adds only synthesis and never overrides a parse. Genuine textual cruxes recorded, not smoothed: (1) saph in v. 22 means both "basin" and "threshold"—LXX and Jerome chose "threshold," which would relocate the slaughter to the doorsill; the synthesis leaves it open. (2) māšaḵ in v. 21 ("draw out" vs. "withdraw/go") is read intransitively by Keil and Barnes, transitively by others; unresolved. (3) The mašḥîṯ ("destroyer," v. 23) is read by Keil as the angel of YHWH and by the Pulpit Commentary as possibly the act of destruction itself, not a personal agent. Source-critical claims by Cambridge / Keil (that vv. 14-20 belong to P and vv. 21-27 to J, and may originally have stood elsewhere) are reported as those commentators' views, not endorsed. On the cross-references: all Hebrew↔Hebrew thread bases are the Verifier's computed shared Strong's lexemes; rarity drives the tier (pâçach, mashqôwph, sᵉʼôr, ʼăguddâh are all rare). The 1 Kings 18 / 2 Samuel 4 link is flagged because the shared verb pâçach there means "limp / waver," not "pass over"—raw lexeme overlap that would mislead if read as a meaning-thread. All Christ-section links cross Hebrew to Greek and are therefore tiered structural / typological, never "verbal," even where the NT explicitly cites the passage (1 Corinthians 5:7; John 19:36; Hebrews 11:28). The Joshua 1:5 → Hebrews 13:5 rule does not apply to this unit. Every voice excerpt is a verbatim contiguous substring of the sourced public-domain commentary; trimming to a pointed excerpt is the only editing performed.
✦ = 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)