Discovery BoxExodus 12:15 
Context12:15 For seven days 1 you must eat 2 bread made without yeast. 3 Surely 4 on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast 5 from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off 6 from Israel.
Exodus 21:29
Context21:29 But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, 7 and he did not take the necessary precautions, 8 and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.
Exodus 23:11
Context23:11 But in the seventh year 9 you must let it lie fallow and leave it alone so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave any animal in the field 10 may eat; you must do likewise with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Exodus 31:14
Context31:14 So you must keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you. Everyone who defiles it 11 must surely be put to death; indeed, 12 if anyone does 13 any 14 work on it, then that person will be cut off from among his 15 people.
Exodus 34:18
Context34:18 “You must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days 16 you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you; do this 17 at the appointed time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.
1 tn This expression is an adverbial accusative of time. The feast was to last from the 15th to the 21st of the month.
2 tn Or “you will eat.” The statement stresses their obligation – they must eat unleavened bread and avoid all leaven.
3 tn The etymology of מַצּוֹת (matsot, “unleavened bread,” i.e., “bread made without yeast”) is uncertain. Suggested connections to known verbs include “to squeeze, press,” “to depart, go out,” “to ransom,” or to an Egyptian word “food, cake, evening meal.” For a more detailed study of “unleavened bread” and related matters such as “yeast” or “leaven,” see A. P. Ross, NIDOTTE 4:448-53.
4 tn The particle serves to emphasize, not restrict here (B. S. Childs, Exodus [OTL], 183, n. 15).
5 tn Heb “every eater of leavened bread.” The participial phrase stands at the beginning of the clause as a casus pendens, that is, it stands grammatically separate from the sentence. It names a condition, the contingent occurrences of which involve a further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).
6 tn The verb וְנִכְרְתָה (vÿnikhrÿtah) is the Niphal perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it is a common formula in the Law for divine punishment. Here, in sequence to the idea that someone might eat bread made with yeast, the result would be that “that soul [the verb is feminine] will be cut off.” The verb is the equivalent of the imperfect tense due to the consecutive; a translation with a nuance of the imperfect of possibility (“may be cut off”) fits better perhaps than a specific future. There is the real danger of being cut off, for while the punishment might include excommunication from the community, the greater danger was in the possibility of divine intervention to root out the evildoer (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). Gesenius lists this as the use of a perfect with a vav consecutive after a participle (a casus pendens) to introduce the apodosis (GKC 337 §112.mm).
sn In Lev 20:3, 5-6, God speaks of himself as cutting off a person from among the Israelites. The rabbis mentioned premature death and childlessness as possible judgments in such cases, and N. M. Sarna comments that “one who deliberately excludes himself from the religious community of Israel cannot be a beneficiary of the covenantal blessings” (Exodus [JPSTC], 58).
7 tn The Hophal perfect has the idea of “attested, testified against.”
8 tn Heb “he was not keeping it” or perhaps guarding or watching it (referring to the ox).
9 tn Heb “and the seventh year”; an adverbial accusative with a disjunctive vav (ו).
10 tn Heb “living thing/creature/beast of the field.” A general term for animals, usually wild animals, including predators (cf. v. 29; Gen 2:19-20; Lev 26:22; Deut 7:22; 1 Sam 17:46; Job 5:22-23; Ezek 29:5; 34:5).
11 tn This clause is all from one word, a Piel plural participle with a third, feminine suffix: מְחַלְלֶיהָ (mÿkhalleha, “defilers of it”). This form serves as the subject of the sentence. The word חָלַל (khalal) is the antonym of קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be holy”). It means “common, profane,” and in the Piel stem “make common, profane” or “defile.” Treating the Sabbath like an ordinary day would profane it, make it common.
12 tn This is the asseverative use of כִּי (ki) meaning “surely, indeed,” for it restates the point just made (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §449).
13 tn Heb “the one who does.”
14 tn “any” has been supplied.
15 tn Literally “her” (a feminine pronoun agreeing with “soul/life,” which is grammatically feminine).
16 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
17 tn The words “do this” have been supplied.
