Exodus 12:20

Summary

Exodus 12:20 issues a prohibition and a corresponding command: no leavened food is to be eaten, and unleavened bread is to be eaten instead, in every dwelling place of those addressed. The verse repeats the verb "to eat" twice, once negated and once affirmed, framing the instruction as a strict binary.

Key words

• mach.Me.tzet ("thing leavened", H2556A) — a hiphil participle (feminine singular), literally "the thing causing leaven/that which is leavened," functioning as a substantive noun for the prohibited food category.
• to.Khe.lu ("you will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, expressing a future/ongoing prohibition when combined with the negation lo' ("not", H3808).
• mo.she.Vo.tei.Khem ("your dwelling places", H4186 + H9026) — feminine plural noun in construct with the 2nd person masculine plural suffix, indicating every location where the addressees reside.
• to.khe.Lu ("you will eat", H0398) — the same qal imperfect verb repeated without negation, now as a positive instruction.
• ma.Tzot ("unleavened bread", H4682) — feminine plural noun, the direct object of the second occurrence of to.khe.Lu.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel clauses, each anchored by a form of the verb akhal ("to eat", H0398) in the qal imperfect. The first clause negates the verb with lo' ("not", H3808) and places the object kol-mach.Me.tzet ("any thing leavened", H3605 + H2556A) before the verb, giving prominence to what is forbidden. The second clause reverses the pattern: the locative phrase be.Khol mo.she.Vo.tei.Khem ("in all your dwelling places", H9003 + H3605 + H4186 + H9026) precedes the verb, and the object ma.Tzot ("unleavened bread", H4682) follows it, emphasizing the scope of place rather than the object itself.

The word mach.Me.tzet (H2556A) is grammatically a hiphil participle, a causative form here used substantively — it designates not simply "leaven" but "that which causes leavening" or "the leavened thing," a nuance not distinguished in translations that simply render it as "anything leavened." The repetition of the identical verb form to.khe.Lu/to.Khe.lu (H0398) in both halves of the verse creates a structural symmetry in Hebrew that is somewhat diluted in translation, where the English and Spanish versions vary the surrounding wording ("eat" vs. "comeréis") but preserve the two-part negative/positive structure.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mo.she.Vo.tei.Khem ("your dwelling places", H4186) with κατοικητηρίῳ ("dwelling place," singular in Greek despite the Hebrew plural construct), and adds the demonstrative-like ’δε in Swete's text, a feature not present in the Hebrew. The Vulgate's habitaculis vestris ("your dwellings") mirrors the Hebrew plural more closely than the Greek singular does.