What Does Deuteronomy 16:3 Mean?
You shall eat no soured bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unsoured bread with it, the bread of being bent low, for in flight you came out of the land of Egypt, so that you may remember the day you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.THE KEY
The bread of affliction keeps the constriction in memory without making it your dwelling.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you as one who remembers coming out of constriction; the bread makes that memory physical and recurring. Affliction is named, and the way out remains present through every day of your life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that remembering affliction means remaining inside it: the hardship is remembered as what you have come out of.
THE ROOT
עֳנִי
ʿonî
GROWS FROM
ענה
To afflict, bring low, or humble.
“being bent low” in this verse is ʿonî. Here affliction is made into bread: the condition of being brought low becomes something remembered through eating. The phrase holds the pressure together with the memory of coming out of it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānî: A person in a low or afflicted state.
עָנִי
It shows that the root describes a condition of being brought low, not only an event that causes pain.
məʿunneh: One who is afflicted or brought low.
מְעֻנֶּה
The same root appears in Isaiah 53:4, linking the affliction remembered here with affliction borne there.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitsrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
To bind, press in, or constrict.
The name carries the sense of constriction, and the verse repeats the departure from Egypt twice. Remembrance holds both what pressed in and the movement out of it.
ALSO GROWS
ṣar: Narrow, tight, or confining.
צַר
It makes the nature of the place-name visible: Egypt carries the image of narrowness.
mēṣar: A narrow place or distress.
מֵצַר
Psalm 118:5 sets the strait against a spacious place, echoing this verse’s movement out of constriction.
THE PATTERN
A repeated sign makes deliverance a memory carried into the present.
And Moses said to the people, Remember this day, when you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place. No risen bread shall be eaten.I remember the deeds of the LORD; surely I remember your wonders of old.And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.Both words grow from ענה (ʿnh, to afflict or bring low): Deuteronomy names עֳנִי (ʿonî, affliction), while Isaiah uses מְעֻנֶּה (məʿunneh, afflicted). Deuteronomy makes affliction the bread of remembering an exit; Isaiah uses the same root for affliction borne.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us