Exodus 12:34

וַיִּשָּׂא הָעָם אֶת־בְּצֵקוֹ טֶרֶם יֶחְמָץ מִשְׁאֲרֹתָם צְרֻרֹת בְּשִׂמְלֹתָם עַל־שִׁכְמָֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּשָּׂ֥א הָעָ֛ם אֶת־בְּצֵק֖וֹ טֶ֣רֶם יֶחְמָ֑ץ מִשְׁאֲרֹתָ֛ם צְרֻרֹ֥ת בְּשִׂמְלֹתָ֖ם עַל־שִׁכְמָֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἀνέλαβεν δὲ ὁ λαὸς τὸ σταῖς πρὸ τοῦ ζυμωθῆναι, τὰ φυράματα αὐτῶν ἐνδεδεμένα ἐν τοῖς ἱματίοις αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τῶν

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Tulit igitur populus conspersam farinam antequam fermentaretur: et ligans in palliis, posuit super humeros suos.

Spanish

Así que el pueblo se llevó la masa antes de ponerle la levadura, y cargaron en los hombros los recipientes de amasar envueltos en sus mantos.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y llevó el pueblo su masa antes que se leudase, sus masas envueltas en sus sábanas sobre sus hombros.

English

So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse states that the people carried off their dough before it had been leavened, and that their kneading troughs, wrapped in their garments, were placed on their shoulders. The sentence describes the physical act of transporting unleavened dough and its containers during the departure from Egypt.

Key words

yissa ("it carried off", H5375G) — qal narrative verb, third person, continuing the sequence of the story ("and then he/it carried").
betzeq ("dough", H1217) — masculine singular noun in construct with the suffix -o ("his/its"), giving "his dough," tied to the collective noun ha'am ("the people").
terem ("before", H2962) followed by yechmatz ("it was leavened", H2556A) — an imperfect verb expressing an action not yet completed at the time of the main verb.
mish'arotam ("their kneading troughs", H4863) — feminine plural noun in construct with the plural suffix -am ("their"), shifting from the singular betzeqo to a plural form.
tzerurot ("bound up", H6887B) — qal passive participle, feminine plural, agreeing grammatically with mish'arotam, describing the troughs as wrapped.

What the text says

The clause opens with the verb yissa ("it carried off", H5375G) governing the collective singular subject ha'am ("the people", H5971A), followed by the object marker 'et (H0853) and betzeqo ("its dough", H1217) with a singular suffix. The temporal clause terem yechmatz ("before it was leavened", H2962 + H2556A) uses an imperfect verb to mark an action still pending relative to the main narrative verb.

After this, the text shifts without a connecting vav to a second set of nouns: mish'arotam ("their kneading troughs", H4863), tzerurot ("bound up", H6887B), simlotam ("their clothes", H8071), and shikhmam ("their shoulder", H7926), all carrying the plural suffix -am ("their"). This shift from the singular collective ha'am and singular betzeqo to plural possessive suffixes reflects that the single collective noun "the people" is treated as composed of many individuals, each with his own trough, garments, and shoulder. The passive participle tzerurot ("bound up", H6887B) agrees in gender and number with mish'arotam, describing the troughs as wrapped inside the garments.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders two distinct nouns, τὸ σταῖς ("the dough") and τὰ φυράματα αὐτῶν ("their kneading-masses"), preserving the Hebrew's two-object structure (dough, then troughs). The Vulgate, however, uses only "conspersam farinam" ("mixed flour/dough") and does not render a separate noun for mish'arotam ("kneading troughs", H4863); instead it says the people bound this same dough ("et ligans") in cloaks and placed it on their shoulders, collapsing the Hebrew's two nouns into one continuous action.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.