Deuteronomy 16:1–8

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib1 and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month2 he3 brought you out of Egypt by night. 16:2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal4 (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he5 chooses to locate his name. 16:3 You must not eat any yeast with it; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, symbolic of affliction, for you came out of Egypt hurriedly. You must do this so you will remember for the rest of your life the day you came out of the land of Egypt. 16:4 There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land6 for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning.7 16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages8 that the Lord your God is giving you, 16:6 but you must sacrifice it9 in the evening in10 the place where he11 chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt. 16:7 You must cook12 and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses; you may return the next morning to your tents. 16:8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day.13

1	sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March–April in the modern calendar.
2	tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3	tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
4	tn Heb “sacrifice the Passover” (so NASB). The word “animal” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
5	tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.
6	tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”
7	tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8	tn Heb “gates.”
9	tn Heb “the Passover.” The translation uses a pronoun to avoid redundancy in English.
10	tc The MT reading אֶל (’el, “unto”) before “the place” should, following Smr, Syriac, Targums, and Vulgate, be omitted in favor of ב (bet; בַּמָּקוֹם, bammaqom), “in the place.”
11	tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.
12	tn The rules that governed the Passover meal are found in Exod 12:1–51, and Deut 16:1–8. The word translated “cook” (בָּשַׁל, bashal) here is translated “boil” in other places (e.g. Exod 23:19, 1 Sam 2:13–15). This would seem to contradict Exod 12:9 where the Israelites are told not to eat the Passover sacrifice raw or boiled. However, 2 Chr 35:13 recounts the celebration of a Passover feast during the reign of Josiah, and explains that the people “cooked (בָּשַׁל, bashal) the Passover sacrifices over the open fire.” The use of בָּשַׁל (bashal) with “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) suggests that the word could be used to speak of boiling or roasting.
13	tn The words “on that day” are not in the Hebrew text; they are supplied in the translation for clarification (cf. TEV, NLT).