Exodus 12:20

Study note

Setting — God issues this command to the Israelites through Moses during the Passover preparations in Egypt. The instruction follows the warning about removing leaven from every household and immediately precedes Moses directing the elders to select and slaughter the Passover lamb.

The words — The Hebrew מַחְמֶ֖צֶת (mach.me.tzet) literally means "thing leavened," while מַצּֽוֹת (ma.Tzot) translates to "unleavened breads." The text explicitly forbids consuming leavened items and mandates eating unleavened bread within every dwelling place.

The thread — This dietary boundary appears in Leviticus 23:6, Deuteronomy 16:3, and 1 Corinthians 5:7. Each reference maintains the original separation between leavened and unleavened foods during the festival period.

Why it lands — The verse demands strict dietary compliance during the specified days without exception. It requires readers to physically separate the two food types as a direct obedience measure.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.