Exodus 29:2

Summary

Exodus 29:2 lists three types of unleavened baked items — bread, cakes, and wafers — to be made from wheat flour, with the cakes mixed with oil and the wafers smeared with oil. The verse closes by specifying that all of them are to be made from solet ("fine flour of", H5560) of wheat.

Key words

• ma.Tzot ("unleavened breads", H4682) — feminine plural noun, repeated three times, each time governed by a different construct noun (bread, cakes, wafers), indicating that all three items share the unleavened quality.
• be.lu.Lot ("mixed", H1101A) — qal passive participle, feminine plural, agreeing with chalot ("cakes of", H2471); describes the cakes as having been mixed with oil as an ongoing state/result.
• me.shu.Chim ("smeared", H4886) — qal passive participle, masculine plural, agreeing with reqiqei ("wafers of", H7550); describes the wafers as anointed/smeared with oil, using a different verb than belulot.
• So.let ("fine flour of", H5560) — feminine singular construct noun, introducing the final clause that specifies the flour type for the entire list.
• ta.'a.Seh ("you will make", H6213H) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, expressing a future/ongoing instruction directed at a single addressee.

What the text says

The verse is built as a list of three construct chains, each headed by a different noun (lechem, "bread of"; challot, "cakes of"; reqiqei, "wafers of") followed by matzot ("unleavened breads", H4682) in each case. This repetition of matzot across all three items, rather than a single shared modifier, gives the Hebrew a cumulative, itemized rhythm not always preserved when translations use "unleavened" only once.

The two participles belulot ("mixed", H1101A) and meshuchim ("smeared", H4886) are grammatically distinct: the first is feminine plural, agreeing with the feminine challot ("cakes of"), and the second is masculine plural, agreeing with the masculine reqiqei ("wafers of"). Both are passive participles, describing a completed action whose result characterizes the noun — the cakes as having been mixed with oil, the wafers as having been smeared with oil. The distinction between "mixed" (oil incorporated into the dough) and "smeared" (oil applied to the surface) is preserved in the Hebrew verb choice but can be flattened in translation.

The final clause, solet chittim ta'aseh otam ("fine flour of wheat you will make them"), uses the construct noun solet ("fine flour of", H5560) followed by chittim ("wheats", H2406), and the imperfect verb ta'aseh ("you will make", H6213H) addressed to a singular "you," followed by the object marker plus suffix otam ("them"). This clause functions as a summary instruction applying the wheat-flour specification retroactively to all three items named earlier.

Differences between versions

The LXX omits a separate rendering for lechem matzot ("bread of unleavened breads") as a distinct item, moving directly to "unleavened loaves mixed in oil" (ἄρτους ἀζύμους πεφυραμένους ἐν ἐλαίῳ), merging what the Hebrew presents as two separate items (bread, then cakes) into one description. The Vulgate, by contrast, preserves three distinct items (panes, crustulam, lagana) matching the Hebrew's threefold structure.