Exodus 12:15
שִׁבְעַת יָמִים מַצּוֹת תֹּאכֵלוּ אַךְ בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן תַּשְׁבִּיתוּ שְּׂאֹר מִבָּתֵּיכֶם כִּי׀ כָּל־אֹכֵל חָמֵץ וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל מִיּוֹם הָרִאשֹׁן עַד־יוֹם הַשְּׁבִעִֽי׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
שִׁבְעַ֤ת יָמִים֙ מַצּ֣וֹת תֹּאכֵ֔לוּ אַ֚ךְ בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֔וֹן תַּשְׁבִּ֥יתוּ שְּׂאֹ֖ר מִבָּתֵּיכֶ֑ם כִּ֣י׀ כָּל־אֹכֵ֣ל חָמֵ֗ץ וְנִכְרְתָ֞ה הַנֶּ֤פֶשׁ הַהִוא֙ מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִיּ֥וֹם הָרִאשֹׁ֖ן עַד־י֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִעִֽי׃
ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας ἄζυμα ἔδεσθε, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας τῆς πρώτης ἀφανιεῖτε ζύμην ἐκ τῶν οἰκιῶν ὑμῶν· πᾶς ὃς ἂν φάγῃ ζύμην, ἐξολεθρευθήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ἐκείνη ἐξ Ἰσραήλ, ἀπὸ τῆς ἡμέρας τῆς πρώτης ἕως τῆς ἡμέας τῆς ἑβδόμης.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Septem diebus azyma comedetis: in die primo non erit fermentum in domibus vestris: quicumque comederit fermentatum, peribit anima illa de Israël, a primo die usque ad diem septimum.
Durante siete días comerán pan sin levadura. El primer día sacarán toda la levadura de sus casas, porque si alguien come pan con levadura entre el primer y el séptimo día, será expulsado del pueblo de Israel.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Siete días comeréis panes sin levadura; y así el primer día haréis que no haya levadura en vuestras casas: porque cualquiera que comiere leudado desde el primer día hasta el séptimo, aquella alma será cortada de Israel.
For 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.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 12:15 commands the Israelites to eat unleavened bread for seven days and to remove all leaven from their houses starting on the first day. It adds a warning: anyone who eats leavened food during this period is to be cut off from Israel.
Key words
- tashBitu ("you will remove", H7673A) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural: the subject actively causes the leaven to cease/disappear, not simply avoids it.
- 'akh ("surely", H0389) — adverb marking a restrictive or emphatic clause, setting the removal command apart from the general eating command in v.15a.
- 'oKhel ("[one who] eats", H0398) — qal participle, masculine singular: describes a general, ongoing category ("anyone who eats"), not a single past or future event.
- nikhreTah ("she will be cut off", H3772I) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect, agreeing with the feminine noun Nefesh ("person/soul", H5315J): the verb form shows the subject undergoing the action rather than performing it.
- shiv'At ("seven of", H7651) — cardinal number in construct state, binding directly to ya.Mim ("days", H3117G) to form the duration phrase "seven days."
What the text says
The verse opens with a construct chain, shiv'At yaMim, "seven of days," functioning as a time expression governing the following imperfect verb to.Khe.lu ("you will eat"), giving the sense of a repeated or continuous action across that span. The adverb 'akh then introduces a distinct, more restrictive instruction: on "the first day" (bayYom haRishon), the hiphil verb tashBitu demands an active, causative removal of se.'Or ("leaven", H7603) from the houses — the hiphil stem indicates that the people are to bring about the absence of leaven, not merely refrain from adding it.
The second half of the verse shifts from direct command to a conditional-consequence structure, introduced by ki ("for/if", H3588A). The participle 'oKhel chaMetz ("one eating leaven") describes a general class of offender, matched by the niphal verb nikhreTah, agreeing grammatically with the feminine noun hanNefesh hahi' ("that person/soul") — a passive construction describing removal from the community, framed with the same "first day...seventh day" span used earlier.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew hiphil tashBitu ("you will remove/cause to cease") is rendered in the LXX as ἀφανιεῖτε ("you will make disappear") and in the Vulgate as the impersonal statement "non erit fermentum" ("there will not be leaven"), shifting from an active command to a stated condition. The Hebrew nikhreTah ("will be cut off") appears in the LXX as ἐξολεθρευθήσεται ("will be utterly destroyed") and in the Vulgate as "peribit" ("will perish"), each using a different verb of consequence than the Hebrew's "cutting off."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.