Instructions are given on how to celebrate Passover.

The passover sacrifice: that is, the animal offered in sacrifice, to celebrate the Passover Festival. For alternative ways to translate passover, see the previous verse.

From the flock or the herd: see 15.19.

The place which the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there: see 12.5; 14.23. Originally Passover was a family festival, celebrated in the home.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Go to the one place where Yahweh your [or, inclusive “our”] God chooses for you to worship him, and slaughter there one of your sheep or cattle while you are celebrating the Passover Festival. In this way you will honor Yahweh.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

The six-day Festival of Unleavened Bread was originally separate from the one-day Passover Festival (see Exo 23.14-15; 34.18).

Unleavened bread: that is, bread made without leaven, or yeast (see Exo 12.15). The leaven, or yeast, was a piece of leavened dough saved over from the previous baking of bread, and was normally added to the fresh dough to make it rise. Unleavened bread may also be expressed as “bread with no yeast,” or “bread without anything added to make it rise,” or even “… anything added to make it soft to eat.”

With it: that is, with the animal offered in sacrifice, which would be eaten by the worshiper(s). We may also express this first sentence as “When you eat this animal do not eat bread prepared with yeast.”

The bread of affliction: New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “bread of distress,” Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “bread of suffering,” Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “bread of misery [or, sadness].” For the word itself, used in connection with the conditions in Egypt, see Exo 3.7. The Israelites left Egypt “in such a hurry” (Good News Translation) that they didn’t have time to prepare regular leavened bread (Exo 12.33-34, 39).

The second part of the verse is rather repetitious, and translators should try to arrange the clauses and phrases in such a way as to avoid the use of dashes, such as those that appear in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

Good News Translation “that place of suffering” seems to add something that isn’t in the text. However, it was probably added in order to make clear the meaning of “bread of suffering.” A better way to do this is to add the words “that place where you worked like slaves” after the word Egypt.

You may remember: this is the reason for the Passover Festival. It is to keep alive the memory of that event which brought the Israelite nation into being as the people of Yahweh. We may also translate “the bread without yeast will remind you of the day….”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• When you eat [the flesh of] this animal, do not eat bread that you have made with yeast. For seven days you must eat bread without yeast as you did when you had to quickly leave Egypt, where you had been treated like slaves. As long as you live, this will remind you of the day when you came out of Egypt.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

No leaven shall be seen with you: this simply means that all leaven (or yeast) was to be removed from every household. Leaven was seen as an impure substance, and the word was sometimes used as a figure of evil.

The second part of the verse requires that the whole animal offered in sacrifice be eaten the first night, which seems to conflict with the instructions in verse 3. It may be, however, that we are to understand that a fresh animal was slaughtered each night of the seven-day festival.

The flesh which you sacrifice: more naturally, “the meat of the animal that you offered in sacrifice.” The meaning of nor shall any of the flesh … remain is that the whole animal had to be eaten that very same evening.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

This verse refers only to the one-day Passover Festival.

Boil it and eat it: that is, the animal offered in sacrifice (verse 2). The verb translated boil may have the more general meaning “cook” (New Revised Standard Version); in 2 Sam 13.8 it means “bake [cakes].” It may be better to use the more general term “cook.”

The place: that is, the central sanctuary or central place for worshiping Yahweh.

In the morning you shall turn and go to your tents: after spending the night in the central sanctuary, they were to return to their tents the following morning. The Israelites, present by the thousands at the sanctuary for the week-long festival, set up tents in which to spend their days. Good News Translation mistakenly has “return home”; Contemporary English Version is better with “return to your tents the next morning.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

The command to eat unleavened bread (see verse 3) for six days is repeated.

A solemn assembly: New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “a solemn gathering,” New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible “an assembly.” This was a formal worship, bringing the festival to a close. The purpose was to worship Yahweh. So Good News Translation has “assemble to worship the LORD…,” and Contemporary English Version has “come together to worship the LORD.” A similar gathering in Exo 12.6 is called “a holy assembly.”

To the LORD your God: “in honor of the LORD your God,” or “to worship the LORD your God” (see Good News Translation).

You shall do no work on it: on the closing day of the Festival, no work was to be done; the day would be equivalent to a sabbath.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

You shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God: to keep means to celebrate. A translator is free to translate literally the feast of weeks but may prefer the more meaningful “Harvest Festival” (Good News Translation). To the LORD your God means “in honor of the LORD your God,” or “to honor the LORD your God.”

With the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand: in this rather unwieldy clause the Hebrew word translated the tribute occurs only here in the Old Testament, and its precise form and meaning are in doubt. The rendering of New Revised Standard Version is supported by other translations and commentaries and should be followed: “contributing a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the LORD your God”; so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “offering your freewill contribution according as the LORD your God has blessed you,” and New International Version “giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing the LORD your God has given you” (and see Good News Translation). Some translators will wish to make the meaning of as … blesses you clear; for example, “Bring him [Yahweh] a freewill offering [or, offering from the heart], depending upon how much grain he has given you.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

It will be better to start a separate sentence here, and not run on from verse 10 as Revised Standard Version does.

And you shall rejoice before the LORD may also be expressed as “Your hearts will be full of joy as you celebrate the festival in the presence of Yahweh.” Before the LORD may be rendered as “in the place where Yahweh dwells.”

You shall rejoice: the festive gathering is to include everyone, starting with the man and his sons and daughters (the mother is not mentioned).

Manservant and … maidservant: the same two words used in 15.17.

The Levite who is within your towns: see 14.27.

The sojourner: see 5.14; 10.18-19.

The fatherless and the widow: see 14.29.

The place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there: see 14.23.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .