Exodus 12:45 — Word Study
WLCתּוֹשָׁ֥ב וְשָׂכִ֖יר לֹא־ יֹ֥אכַל־ בּֽוֹ׃
BSAA temporary residenttôwshâb [foreigner, sojourner, resident alien, living among you] or hired handsâkîyr [hired worker, servant, paid by the day or year] shall notlôʼ [under any circumstances] eatʼâkal▸
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| תּוֹשָׁ֥ב | a resident alien | Noun common, masculine singular absolute |
| וְשָׂכִ֖יר | and a hired laborer | Conjunction |
| לֹא־ | not | Particle |
| יֹ֥אכַל־ | he will eat | Verb, Qal, imperfect third person masculine singular |
| בּֽוֹ׃ | in it | Preposition, suffix |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover. |
| KJV | A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. |
| ASV | A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof. |
| YLT | a settler or hired servant doth not eat of it; |
| WEB | A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it. |
| BBE | A man from a strange country living among you, and a servant working for payment, may not take part in it. |
Where they part company is תּוֹשָׁב — see How Translations Differ.
The main clause introduces the subjects, followed by a negation and the action they are prohibited from taking.
8 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them ›
clause
verbאָכַל
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Exodus 12:45
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — Regulations for the Passovergenerated
Exodus 12:45 is part of the instructions given to the Israelites regarding the observance of the Passover. This verse highlights the importance of who is permitted to partake in the ceremonial meal, emphasizing that only those who are part of the community can participate. This reflects the broader theme of inclusion and exclusion within the covenant community of Israel, as seen in other passages like Leviticus 22:10 and Ephesians 2:12.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leviticus 22:10 | No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired hand eat it. |
| 2 | Ephesians 2:12 | remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 2 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — תּוֹשָׁב, to.Shavgenerated
The word תּוֹשָׁב (to.Shav) is a noun that refers to a 'resident alien' or 'sojourner.' It indicates a foreigner who lives among the Israelites but is not a native citizen. This term is significant in understanding the social dynamics of ancient Israel, as it denotes someone who is part of the community to some extent but does not hold the same status as a native-born Israelite.
The parsing as a masculine singular noun indicates that it refers to an individual. The use of this term in the context of the Passover underscores the exclusivity of the meal, which is reserved for those fully integrated into the Israelite community.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, which uses the phrase temporary resident.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The main clause of the verse centers on the verb יֹ֥אכַל (he will eat), with two noun phrases as the subject: תּוֹשָׁב (temporary resident) and וְשָׂכִ֖יר (hired hand). The structure clearly delineates who is excluded from the Passover meal.
The word order emphasizes the subjects first, establishing the focus on those who are not permitted to eat, followed by the negation לֹא־ (not), which underscores the prohibition.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
In the Septuagint, the term תּוֹשָׁב is rendered as πάροικος (paroikos), which also means 'foreigner' or 'sojourner.' This choice reflects a similar understanding of the term as one living among a community but not fully belonging to it.
The use of שָׂכִיר is translated as μισθωτὸς (misthōtos), meaning 'hired laborer.' This indicates a consistent interpretation of the roles of those who are excluded from the Passover.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Exodus 12:45 states that a temporary resident or a hired worker is not allowed to eat the Passover meal. This regulation emphasizes the importance of being part of the Israelite community to partake in this significant celebration.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
A temporary resident is someone who lives among the Israelites but is not a native citizen, often referred to as a sojourner or foreigner.
The exclusion emphasizes the importance of belonging to the covenant community of Israel, which is central to the observance of the Passover.
This regulation highlights the significance of the Passover as a communal celebration, meant for those who are fully integrated into the Israelite community.
Similar themes of inclusion and exclusion can be found in other passages, such as Leviticus 22:10 and Ephesians 2:12, which address who may partake in sacred meals.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What does it mean to belong to a community, and how can I foster that sense of belonging in my own life?
- How can understanding the cultural context of the Passover help me appreciate its significance today?
- In what ways do I see parallels between ancient Israel's regulations and modern practices of inclusion and exclusion?
- How can I ensure that my actions reflect the values of community and belonging, as seen in this passage?
Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Exodus 12:45 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleA foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. One of another nation, and one that was only hired by the day, week, or year; as they were not obliged to circumcision, so without it they had
Read John Gill on Exodus 12 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryA foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. A foreigner , [ towshaab (H8453)] - a stranger living in another country without the rights of citizenship (see the note at Exodus 12:19).
Read Robert Jamieson on Exodus 12 →Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy BibleExcept he submit to circumcision, as . See .
Read Matthew Poole on Exodus 12 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New TestamentsExodus 12:45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.Ver. 45. A foreigner.] Unless a proselyte.
Read John Trapp on Exodus 12 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(45) An hired servant.—It is assumed that the hired servant will be a foreigner; otherwise, of course, he would participate.
Read Charles John Ellicott on Exodus 12 →AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the BibleVerse 45. A foreigner] תושב toshab, from ישב yashab, to sit down or dwell; one who is a mere sojourner, for the purpose of traffic, merchandise, c., but who is neither a proselyte of the gate nor of the covenant. And a hired servant] Who, though he be bought with money, or has indented himself for a certain term to serve a Jew, yet has not become either a proselyte of the gate or of the covenant. None of these shall eat of it, because not circumcised - not brought under the bond of the covenant and not being under obligation to observe the Mosaic law, had no right to its privileges and blessings. Even under the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is the author of eternal salvation only to…
Read AdamClarke on Exodus 12 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges45. The settler (tτshβb) and hired servant are not to eat of it. The technical distinction between the tτshβb and the gκr (v. 48) is not altogether clear. To judge from the etymology, the tτshβb was a foreigner, more permanently ‘settled’ in Israel than an ordinary gκr, and also perhaps (Leviticus 22:10; Leviticus 25:6) more definitely attached to a particular family (LXX. usually πάροικος), but, like the gκr, without civil rights, and dependent for his position on the good-will of his patronus (cf. Genesis 23:4, Leviticus 25:23, Psalms 39:12, 1 Chronicles 29:15): the word also occurs Leviticus 25:35; Leviticus 25:40; Leviticus 25:45; Leviticus 25:47 (twice), Numbers 35:15. RV. ‘sojourner,’…
Read Cambridge on Exodus 12 →Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the BibleA foreigner - or sojourner: one who resides in a country, not having a permanent home, nor being attached to an Israelitish household.
Read Albert Barnes on Exodus 12 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover.
A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.
A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover.
A foreigner and a hired worker must not eat it.
Tyndale line
A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof.
A sojourner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
A foreigner, and a hired servant shall not eat of it.
A stranger or an hyred seruant shall not eat thereof.
Strictly literal
A settler and a hired servant shall not eat it.
a settler or hired servant doth not eat of it;
a settler or hired servant does not eat of it;
A resident foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof.
Foreigners and hired servants must not eat any of the food.
From the Latin
The stranger and the hireling shall not eat thereof.
Simplified
Foreign visitors or those hired from other nations shall not eat the Passover.
A man from a strange country living among you, and a servant working for payment, may not take part in it.
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text states, "תּוֹשָׁ֥ב וְשָׂכִ֖יר לֹא־ יֹ֥אכַל־ בּֽוֹ׃" which translates to, "A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover." The Septuagint agrees with the Masoretic Text in terms of the words used, although its structure may differ due to translation. The Samaritan Pentateuch also agrees word for word with the Masoretic Text. The Dead Sea Scrolls present a mixed picture: 4Q11, 4Q14, 4Q136, and 8Q3 have variations where some words are partially restored or supplied by editors, but they largely align with the Masoretic Text. 4Q128 and 4Q136 show slight variations in spelling and word forms, but the core message remains consistent across these witnesses. Overall, the major witnesses agree with the Masoretic Text, affirming the prohibition against the Passover for temporary residents and hired hands.
תּוֹשָׁ֥ב וְשָׂכִ֖יר לֹא־ יֹ֥אכַל־ בּֽוֹ׃
5 of the 5 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
תושׁב ושׂכיר לא יאכל בו
Agrees with the Masoretic Text here, word for word.
[תושב] [ושכיר] [לא] [יאכל] [ב׳ו]
nothing on the leather here — 5 supplied entire by an editor.
[תושב] [ושכיר] לא יאכל ב׳ו
3 words on the leather — 2 supplied entire by an editor.
תושב ושכיר לוא יואכל [ב׳וה]
2 words on the leather — 2 partly restored, 1 supplied entire by an editor.
תושב ושכיר לוא יכל ב׳ו
4 words on the leather — 1 partly restored.
[תושב] [ושכיר] [לא] יאכל [ב׳ו]
nothing on the leather here — 1 partly restored, 4 supplied entire by an editor.
תושב ושכיר לא יאכל ב׳ו
5 words on the leather.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Exodus 12:45
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
תּוֹשָׁב (towshab) primarily means 'sojourner' or 'dweller,' indicating a resident alien or stranger, distinct from a native citizen. It is mentioned in 1 Kings 17:1 as the home of Elijah, תִּשְׁבֶּה (Tishbe), which also refers to a place associated with the term.
תּוֹשָׁב n.m. sojourner
base
[תִּשְׁבֶּה] n.pr.loc. 1 K 17:1 home of Elijah
ref
H8453a תּוֹשָׁב sojourner H8453b תִּשְׁבֶּה home of Elijah
8453 towshab to-shawb'
or toshab (1 Kings 17:1) {to-shawb'}; from 3427; a dweller
(but not outlandish (5237)); especially (as distinguished from
a native citizen (active participle of 3427) and a temporary
inmate (1616) or mere lodger (3885)) resident
alien:--foreigner, inhabitant, sojourner, stranger.
see HEBREW for 03427
see HEBREW for 05237
see HEBREW for 03427
see HEBREW for 01616
see HEBREW for 03885
תּוֹשָׁב (to.shav) — sojourner.
sojourner, stranger
תִּשְׁבֶּה (tish.beh) — Tishbe.
Tishbe = "foreigner"
the home of Elijah
Also named: tish.bi (תִּשְׁבִּי "Tishbite" H8664)
N-ms — Noun common · masculine singular absoluteHNcmsa
al'-yen: Found in the King James Version for ger, (Ex 18:3) = "guest," hence: "foreigner," "sojourner" the Revised Version (British and American); also for nekhar (Isa 61:5) = "foreign," "a foreigner" the Revised Version (British and American) (concrete), "heathendom" (abstract), "alien," "strange" (-er), and for nokhri (De 14:21 the Revised Version (British and American) "foreigner"; compare Job 19:15; Ps 69:8; La 5:2)--"strange," in a variety of degrees and meanings: "foreign," "non-relative," "adulterous," "different," "wonderful," "alien," "outlandish," "strange."…
Alien
A foreigner, or person born in another country, and therefore not entitled to the rights and privileges of the country where he resides. Among the Hebrews there were two classes of aliens.
(1.) Those who were strangers generally, and who owned no landed property.
(2.) Strangers dwelling in another country without being naturalized (Lev. 22:10; Ps. 39:12).
Both of these classes were to enjoy, under certain conditions, the same rights as other citizens (Lev. 19:33, 34; Deut. 10:19). They might be naturalized and permitted to enter into the congregation of the Lord by submitting to circumcision and abandoning idolatry (
שָׂכִיר (sakiyr) refers to someone who is hired, typically as a laborer or servant. The term can also apply to animals that are hired for work. It is derived from a root meaning 'to hire' and is used in contexts involving daily or yearly wages.
שָׂכִיר adj. hired
hired, of beast
usu. as subst. hireling, hired labourer
base
H7916 שָׂכִיר hired . hired, of beast
. usu. as subst. hireling, hired labourer
7916 sakiyr saw-keer'
from 7936; a man at wages by the day or year:--hired (man,
servant), hireling.
see HEBREW for 07936
שָׂכִיר (sa.khir) — hired.
1) hired
1a) hired (of animal)
1b) hireling, hired labourer (subst)
1b1) mercenary
Conj | Adj — ConjunctionHC/Aamsa
לֹא (lo') is a Hebrew word meaning 'not' or 'no.' It serves as a simple negation and can imply absence or prohibition. The word can also be used in various contexts, often combined with other particles for emphasis or clarification. Its Aramaic equivalent is לָא (la), which also means 'not.'
לֹא or לוֹא adv. not
base
H3808 לֹא or לוֹא not
3808 lo' lo
or lowi {lo}; or loh (Deut. 3:11) {lo}; a primitive particle;
not (the simple or abs. negation); by implication, no; often
used with other particles (as follows):--X before, + or else,
ere, + except, ig(-norant), much, less, nay, neither, never,
no((-ne), -r, (-thing)), (X as though...,(can-), for) not (out
of), of nought, otherwise, out of, + surely, + as truly as, +
of a truth, + verily, for want, + whether, without.
לֹא (lo) — not.
1) not, no
1a) not (with verb-absolute prohibition)
1b) not (with modifier-negation)
1c) nothing (subst)
1d) without (with particle)
1e) before (of time)
Aramaic equivalent: la (לָא "not" H3809)
Part — ParticleHTn
אָכַל (akal) means 'to eat' and encompasses a wide range of meanings, including literal consumption by humans and animals, as well as figurative uses like devouring by fire or destruction. It can describe actions such as feeding or causing to eat, and it also appears in contexts of oppression and destruction. The verb has various forms, indicating different subjects and nuances.
אָכַל 806 vb. eat
Qal
eat, human subject
of beasts, birds, etc., eat, devour
fig. of fire, devour, consume
of sword, devour, slay
in genl., devour, consume, destroy
fig. of oppression, devour the poor
Niph.
be eaten by man
be devoured by fire, consumed
be wasted, destroyed, of flesh
Pu. be consumed
Hiph.
cause to eat, feed with
cause to devoure, obj. sword
base
H398 אָכַל eat .. eat, human subject
. of beasts, birds, etc., eat, devour
. fig. of fire, devour, consume
. of sword, devour, slay
. in genl., devour, consume, destroy
. fig. of oppression, devour the poor
. . be eaten by man
. be devoured by fire, consumed
. be wasted, destroyed, of flesh
. be consumed
. . cause to eat, feed with
. cause to devoure, obj. sword
398 'akal aw-kal'
a primitive root; to eat (literally or figuratively):--X at
all, burn up, consume, devour(-er, up), dine, eat(-er, up),
feed (with), food, X freely, X in...wise(-deed, plenty), (lay)
meat, X quite.
אָכַל (a.khal) — to eat.
1) to eat, devour, burn up, feed
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to eat (human subject)
1a2) to eat, devour (of beasts and birds)
1a3) to devour, consume (of fire)
1a4) to devour, slay (of sword)
1a5) to devour, consume, destroy (inanimate subjects - ie, pestilence, drought)
1a6) to devour (of oppression)
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to be eaten (by men)
1b2) to be devoured, consumed (of fire)
1b3) to be wasted, destroyed (of flesh)
1c) (Pual)
1c1) to cause to eat, feed with
1c2) to cause to devour
1d) (Hiphil)
1d1) to feed
1d2) to cause to eat
1e) (Piel)
1e1) consume
Aramaic equivalent: a.khal (אֲכַל "to devour" H0399)
V-Qal-Imperf-3ms — Verb · Qal · imperfect third person masculine singularHVqi3ms
וֹ (o) — him.
Personal object pronoun - suffix for propositions and verbs without an object: 3rd person masculine singular
HRd/Sp3ms — Preposition · suffixHRd/Sp3ms