Note the change from third person (“They” in verse 8) to the second person plural. Do not eat any of it raw, that is, the meat must be cooked before eating, but not boiled with water. Good News Translation considers “boiled” to be clear enough without adding with water, but the Hebrew repeats the word boiled for emphasis. So New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “or cooked in any way with water,” and Durham has “or soaked or boiled in water.”

Roasted, as in verse 8, means “roasted over fire” (Durham). It is to be “roasted whole” (Good News Translation), as indicated by the following list: its head with its legs and its inner parts. The word for legs actually refers to the lower legs (Revised English Bible “shins”; New American Bible “shanks”; New Jerusalem Bible “feet”), but the idea is to include those parts of the animal often discarded. The word for inner parts refers to the animal’s “internal organs” (Good News Translation), or “entrails” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Revised English Bible).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• You [plural] must not eat any part of the animal that is raw or boiled with water. You must roast the entire animal with fire before you eat it. This includes the head, the legs, and the internal organs.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .