Keluaran 12:14

12:14 This day will become ¹  a memorial ²  for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival ³  to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance. ⁴ 

Keluaran 12:24

12:24 You must observe this event as an ordinance for you and for your children forever.

Keluaran 23:15

23:15 You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days ⁵  you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time ⁶  you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before ⁷  me empty-handed.

Imamat 23:6

23:6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month ⁸  will be the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Ulangan 16:3-4

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 land ⁹  for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. ¹⁰ 

[12:14]  ¹ tn Heb “and this day will be.”

[12:14]  ² tn The expression “will be for a memorial” means “will become a memorial.”

[12:14]  sn The instruction for the unleavened bread (vv. 14-20) begins with the introduction of the memorial (זִכָּרוֹן [zikkaron] from זָכַר [zakhar]). The reference is to the fifteenth day of the month, the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. B. Jacob (Exodus, 315) notes that it refers to the death blow on Egypt, but as a remembrance had to be held on the next day, not during the night. He also notes that this was the origin of “the Day of the Lord” (“the Day of Yahweh”), which the prophets predicted as the day of the divine battle. On it the enemy would be wiped out. For further information, see B. S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel (SBT). The point of the word “remember” in Hebrew is not simply a recollection of an event, but a reliving of it, a reactivating of its significance. In covenant rituals “remembrance” or “memorial” is designed to prompt God and worshiper alike to act in accordance with the covenant. Jesus brought the motif forward to the new covenant with “this do in remembrance of me.”

[12:14]  ³ tn The verb וְחַגֹּתֶם (vÿkhaggotem), a perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive to continue the instruction, is followed by the cognate accusative חַג (khag), for emphasis. As the wording implies and the later legislation required, this would involve a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Yahweh.

[12:14]  ⁴ tn Two expressions show that this celebration was to be kept perpetually: the line has “for your generations, [as] a statute forever.” “Generations” means successive generations (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, perpetual” – no end in sight.

[23:15]  ⁵ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[23:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “in it.”

[23:15]  ⁷ tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; the nuance of permission works well here – no one is permitted to appear before God empty (Heb “and they will not appear before me empty”).

[23:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “to this month.”

[16:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”

[16:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.