Exodus 12:39

וַיֹּאפוּ אֶת־הַבָּצֵק אֲשֶׁר הוֹצִיאוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם עֻגֹת מַצּוֹת כִּי לֹא חָמֵץ כִּֽי־גֹרְשׁוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם וְלֹא יָֽכְלוּ לְהִתְמַהְמֵהַּ וְגַם־צֵדָה לֹא־עָשׂוּ לָהֶֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיֹּאפ֨וּ אֶת־הַבָּצֵ֜ק אֲשֶׁ֨ר הוֹצִ֧יאוּ מִמִּצְרַ֛יִם עֻגֹ֥ת מַצּ֖וֹת כִּ֣י לֹ֣א חָמֵ֑ץ כִּֽי־גֹרְשׁ֣וּ מִמִּצְרַ֗יִם וְלֹ֤א יָֽכְלוּ֙ לְהִתְמַהְמֵ֔הַּ וְגַם־צֵדָ֖ה לֹא־עָשׂ֥וּ לָהֶֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἔπεψαν τὸ σταῖς ὃ ἐξήνεγκαν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἐνκρυφίας ἀζύμους, οὐ γὰρ ἐζυμώθη· ἐξέβαλον γὰρ αὐτοὺς οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι, καὶ οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν ἐπιμεῖναι, οὐδὲ ἐπισιτισμὸν ἐποίησαν ἑαυτοῖς εἰς τὴν ὁδόν.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Coxeruntque farinam, quam dudum de Ægypto conspersam tulerant: et fecerunt subcinericios panes azymos: neque enim poterant fermentari, cogentibus exire Ægyptiis, et nullam facere sinentibus moram: nec pulmenti quidquam occurrerat præparare.

Spanish

Como los echaron de Egipto y no tuvieron tiempo de prepararse comida, cocieron la masa que llevaban y comieron pan sin levadura.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y cocieron tortas sin levadura de la masa que habían sacado de Egipto; porque no había leudado, por cuanto echándolos los Egipcios, no habían podido detenerse, ni aun prepararse comida.

English

Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse narrates that the people baked the dough they had carried out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, explaining that the dough had not fermented because their departure was so sudden that they could not wait, nor had they prepared travel provisions.

Key words

ba.Tzek ("dough", H1217) — masculine singular noun, the raw material referred to by the object marker 'et-ha- before it.
ma.Tzot ("unleavened bread", H4682) — feminine plural noun describing the type of 'u.Got ("bread cakes", H5692) produced by baking.
cha.Metz ("it was leavened", H2556A) — qal perfect, 3rd masc. sing., negated by lo' ("not", H3808), stating the completed (non-)state of the dough.
go.re.Shu ("they had been driven out", H1644G) — pual perfect, a passive intensive form indicating the people were the recipients of the expulsion, not its agents.
hit.mah.Me.ah ("delay", H4102) — hithpael infinitive, a reflexive form suggesting the action of "lingering" as something the subjects would have done to/for themselves, governed by le- ("to").

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative va-yo'fu ("and they baked", H0644), a wayyiqtol form that continues the story sequence. Its object is 'et-ha-batzek ("the dough", H1217), further specified by the relative clause 'asher hotzi'u mi-Mitzrayim ("which they had brought out from Egypt", H3318H + H4714G), a hiphil perfect showing a completed causative action prior to the baking. The result of the baking, 'ugot matzot ("cakes of unleavened bread", H5692 + H4682), stands in apposition to the dough, naming the product rather than adding a second object.

Two causal clauses follow, each introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A). The first, lo' chametz ("it had not leavened", H2556A), gives the immediate physical reason. The second, ki gorshu mi-Mitzrayim ("for they had been driven out from Egypt", H1644G), uses the pual (passive) stem, marking the people as those acted upon by an unspecified external force rather than as agents of their own departure. This passive reason is expanded by ve-lo' yakhlu le-hitmahmeah ("and they were not able to delay", H3201 + H4102), where the hithpael infinitive hitmahmeah frames "delaying" as a self-involving action they lacked the capacity to perform. The verse closes with ve-gam tzedah lo' 'asu lahem ("and also provisions they had not made for themselves", H6720 + H6213H + H9038), reinforcing the theme of unpreparedness with the added lahem ("for themselves").

Differences between versions

The LXX adds εἰς τὴν ὁδόν ("for the way/journey") after "provisions," a specification not present in the Hebrew tzedah lo'-'asu lahem. The LXX also renders gorshu ("they had been driven out") with an active-agent phrasing, ἐξέβαλον γὰρ αὐτοὺς οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι ("for the Egyptians drove them out"), explicitly naming the Egyptians as agents, where the Hebrew pual leaves the agent unstated. The Vulgate similarly makes the agency explicit with cogentibus exire Ægyptiis ("the Egyptians compelling them to leave"), aligning with the LXX's added agent rather than the passive, agentless Hebrew construction.

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