What Does Exodus 23:15 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The feast that remembers your exit from constriction also says that you do not arrive before God empty-handed.
THE MEANING
This verse gives release a rhythm you can taste and carry: the appointed time returns through unleavened bread, and coming before God includes what you bring. The departure is remembered as a living movement out of constriction, held in the present rather than left behind as a past event.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that deliverance is only about leaving is undone here: the verse joins the remembered exit with an arrival before God that is not empty-handed.
THE ROOT
יָצָאתָ
yatsa
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
y-ts-ʾ
To go out, emerge, or depart.
“Came out” names the movement of emergence. The feast binds that movement to a recurring present, so the remembered release is carried in the act of leaving constriction.
ALSO GROWS
yetsi'ah: Going out; an exit.
יְצִיאָה
It names the departure as a movement, not merely a change of location.
motsa: An outgoing or source.
מוֹצָא
The same root can describe an emergence as the beginning from which something proceeds.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
מ־צ־ר
m-ts-r
Narrowness; a constricted or strait place.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. The name carries the image of tzar, “narrow,” in Mitzrayim, the two narrows. “Came out” is therefore movement from constriction into spaciousness, as well as departure from a place.
ALSO GROWS
metsar: A strait or narrow place.
מֵצַר
It gives the name’s narrowness a concrete shape: a place where movement is constrained.
metsarim: Narrow places; straits.
מְצָרִים
The plural echoes the constricting image carried by Mitzrayim.
רֵיקָם
reqam
GROWS FROM
ר־י־ק
r-y-q
To be empty or emptied.
The word describes arriving with empty hands, not simply possessing an abstract lack. In the same sentence that recalls release, the verse gives presence a tangible shape: an arrival that carries something.
ALSO GROWS
riq: Empty; void.
רֵיק
It makes the basic image of emptiness visible beneath “empty-handed.”
riqen: To empty or make empty.
רִיקֵן
This verbal branch shows emptiness as a condition produced by emptying, which clarifies what the verse excludes from the arrival.
THE PATTERN
Release stays present through a repeated sign that shapes both remembrance and what is brought into God’s presence.
And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.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.Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.THE THREAD
And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.This verse uses the same roots for keeping the feast and coming out of Egypt: shamar (שָׁמַר, guard or keep) and yatsa (יָצָא, go out). The guarded practice keeps the movement of release present across generations.
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