Exodus 12:46
בְּבַיִת אֶחָד יֵאָכֵל לֹא־תוֹצִיא מִן־הַבַּיִת מִן־הַבָּשָׂר חוּצָה וְעֶצֶם לֹא תִשְׁבְּרוּ־בֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
בְּבַ֤יִת אֶחָד֙ יֵאָכֵ֔ל לֹא־תוֹצִ֧יא מִן־הַבַּ֛יִת מִן־הַבָּשָׂ֖ר ח֑וּצָה וְעֶ֖צֶם לֹ֥א תִשְׁבְּרוּ־בֽוֹ׃
ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ βρωθήσεται, καὶ οὐκ ἐξοίσετε ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας τῶν κρεῶν ἵξω, καὶ ὀστοῦν οὐ συντρίψετε ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
In una domo comedetur, nec efferetis de carnibus ejus foras, nec os illius confringetis.
Se deberá comer dentro de una sola casa; no se puede sacar nada de carne de la casa, y no le quebrarán ningún hueso al animal.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
En una casa se comerá, y no llevarás de aquella carne fuera de casa, ni quebraréis hueso suyo.
It must be eaten inside one house. You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of the bones.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 12:46 gives two regulations concerning the consumption of the Passover animal: it must be eaten within a single house, without taking any of its meat outside, and none of its bones may be broken.
Key words
- yeAchel ("it will be eaten", H0398) — niphal imperfect, passive form of akal ("to eat"), indicating the animal itself is eaten, without naming an explicit agent.
- toTzi' ("you will bring out", H3318H) — hiphil imperfect, causative form; the subject causes something (meat) to go out, negated by lo' ("not", H3808) to form a prohibition.
- chuTzah ("[the] outside", H2351) — noun with directional he (H9011) suffix, indicating movement "toward the outside."
- tishbeRu ("you will break", H7665) — qal imperfect, second person masculine plural, referring to a collective prohibition addressed to multiple people ("you all").
- bo ("in it/him", H9033) — pronominal suffix attached to the preposition be (H9003), referring back to the animal whose bone must not be broken.
What the text says
The verse is built from three short clauses, each governed by a verb in the imperfect, a form that in this legal context expresses obligation or prohibition rather than simple future time. The first clause, beVayit 'eChad yeAchel ("in one house it will be eaten"), places the locative phrase bebayit 'echad ("in one house") before the passive verb ye'achel, emphasizing the location of the eating over the act itself. The niphal form of akal ("to eat", H0398) leaves the agent unspecified — the text states that the meat "is eaten," not who eats it.
The second clause switches to hiphil with totzi' ("you will bring out", H3318H), a causative verb addressed to a singular "you," negated by lo' to prohibit any removal of meat (basar, H1320) from the house to the outside (chutzah, with directional he). The third clause shifts to plural address, tishberu ("you all will break", H7665), a qal imperfect negated the same way, prohibiting the breaking of a bone ('etsem, H6106G) of the animal, referenced by the pronominal suffix bo ("in it," H9033). The shift from singular ("you will bring out") to plural ("you all will break") within the same verse reflects two distinct grammatical addressees for the two prohibitions.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the Hebrew directional chutzah ("toward the outside") with the adverb ἵξω ("outside"), losing the directional-he nuance present in Hebrew. The Vulgate's de carnibus ejus ("of its flesh") makes explicit a possessive relationship ("its") that in the Hebrew is expressed only through the definite article on habasar ("the meat"), without a possessive suffix.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.