Exodus 12:9
אַל־תֹּאכְלוּ מִמֶּנּוּ נָא וּבָשֵׁל מְבֻשָּׁל בַּמָּיִם כִּי אִם־צְלִי־אֵשׁ רֹאשׁוֹ עַל־כְּרָעָיו וְעַל־קִרְבּֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
אַל־תֹּאכְל֤וּ מִמֶּ֙נּוּ֙ נָ֔א וּבָשֵׁ֥ל מְבֻשָּׁ֖ל בַּמָּ֑יִם כִּ֣י אִם־צְלִי־אֵ֔שׁ רֹאשׁ֥וֹ עַל־כְּרָעָ֖יו וְעַל־קִרְבּֽוֹ׃
οὐκ ἔδεσθε ἀπ’ αὐτῶν ὠμὸν οὐδὲ ἡψημένον ἐν ὕδατι ἀλλ’ ἢ ὀπτὰ πυρί, κεφαλὴν σὺν τοῖς ποσὶν καὶ τοῖς ἐνδοσθίοις.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Non comedetis ex eo crudum quid, nec coctum aqua, sed tantum assum igni: caput cum pedibus ejus et intestinis vorabitis.
No coman nada de la carne cruda ni hervida en agua; tiene que estar asada al fuego, entera, con su cabeza, sus patas y sus entrañas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Ninguna cosa comeréis de él cruda, ni cocida en agua, sino asada al fuego; su cabeza con sus pies y sus intestinos.
Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire— its head and legs and inner parts.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 12:9 prohibits eating the Passover animal raw or boiled in water, requiring instead that it be roasted whole by fire — including its head, legs, and internal organs.
Key words
- to'khelu ("you eat", H0398) — qal jussive, second person masculine plural, negated by 'al to form a prohibition ("you shall not eat").
- na' ("raw", H4995) — masculine singular adjective describing the state of the meat as uncooked.
- mevushal ("being boiled", H1310) — pual passive participle, intensifying the passive sense ("thoroughly boiled/cooked"), paired with the adjective vashel ("boiled", H1311) to reinforce the prohibited cooking method.
- tzeli ("roasted of...", H6748) — construct noun linked to 'esh ("fire", H0784), forming the phrase "roasted-of-fire," i.e., fire-roasted, the only permitted preparation.
- rosh ("head", H7218A), kera'ayim ("legs", H3767), qirbo ("entrails", H7130H) — each a construct noun with a third-person masculine singular suffix ("its"), listing the specific parts to be included in the roasting.
What the text says
The verse opens with a direct prohibition using the negation 'al (H0408) plus the jussive form to'khelu (H0398), addressed to a plural audience ("you shall not eat"). The forbidden preparations are named through two adjectival/participial terms: na' (H4995), a simple adjective for "raw," and the doubled construction vashel mevushal (H1311 + H1310), where the adjective and the pual participle from the same root reinforce each other to stress "thoroughly boiled." The exception is introduced by the compound particle ki 'im (H3588B + H0518B), meaning "except" or "but rather," which redirects the sentence toward the only acceptable method: tzeli-'esh (H6748 + H0784), a construct phrase literally "roasted of fire."
The final clause lists three body parts — rosh (H7218A), kera'ayim (H3767, a dual form indicating a pair of legs), and qirbo (H7130H) — each in construct state with a third-person suffix ("its head," "its legs," "its entrails"), connected by the preposition 'al (H5921A), here functioning as "along with" rather than its more common spatial sense "upon." This construction specifies that the animal is to be roasted as a single unit, without dismembering or removing these parts before cooking.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the Hebrew construct tzeli-'esh as ὀπτὰ πυρί ("roasted with fire"), and the Vulgate as assum igni ("roasted by fire") — both preserve the fire-roasting requirement without a construct-genitive structure, since Greek and Latin use a dative/instrumental case instead of the Hebrew construct chain. The Hebrew preposition 'al before the body parts is translated as σὺν ("with") in the LXX and cum ("with") in the Vulgate, both matching the associative sense described above rather than a literal "upon."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.