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Verses Compiled by :
Published On :
March 16, 2011
Last Updated :
October 5, 2024
The Bible tells us that unleavened bread was eaten with bitter herbs, as a reminder to the Israelites of the bitter years they spent in bondage to the Egyptians. In describing this bread, and why it was eaten, the KJV Bible informs us of the following: "And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour."
Exodus 1:14, KJV
"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."
Deuteronomy 16:3, KJV
"And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it."
Exodus 12:8, KJV
"The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs."
Numbers 9:11, KJV
"And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them."
Exodus 29:2, KJV
According to the Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Hebrew Aramaic English Lexicon, the term "unleavend bread" is derived from the word "matstsah" -- pronounced mats-tsaw' -- which it defines as "bread or cake without leaven". It also states that "matstsah" is in turn derived from "matsats" -- pronounced maw-tsats' -- which means "to drain out or suck". In referring to this second Hebrew word, the lexicon states "in the sense of greedily devouring for sweetness". It is quite possible then, that unleavened bread, while it may have been heavy and flat, may also have been sweet to the taste. To add support for this idea, consider the following verse from the Book of Ezekiel; taking into account that the word "meat", is also translated as "bread": "My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 16:19, KJV
And of course, "Every day with Jesus -- the true Bread of Life who was born in Bethlehem, or "house of bread" -- is sweeter than the day before!". |