לֹא־תֹאכַ֤ל עָלָיו֙ חָמֵ֔ץ שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִ֛ים תֹּֽאכַל־עָלָ֥יו מַצּ֖וֹת לֶ֣חֶם עֹ֑נִי כִּ֣י בְחִפָּז֗וֹן יָצָ֨אתָ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לְמַ֣עַן תִּזְכֹּר֔ אֶת־י֤וֹם צֵֽאתְךָ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם כֹּ֖ל יְמֵ֥י חַיֶּֽיךָ׃
3You must not eat with it anything leavened. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it—the bread of affliction—because you came out of the land of Egypt in great haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “remember” in English is translated in Mairasi as “it is (or: place it) in your liver’s crack” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar as barrang-dwangka, literally “ear-hold” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).
See also forget, wisdom, God remembered Noah and Seat of the Mind / Seat of Emotions.
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “leaven” (or “yeast”) in English is translated in Tzotzil as “the thing that swells the stomach of bread” and in Mairasi “bread cooking ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
In the occurrences in Mark 8:15 it is translated in Wantoat as “salt.” (Source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)
See also leaven (1Cor 5:6).
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “unleavened bread” in English is translated in various ways:
The six-day Festival of Unleavened Bread was originally separate from the one-day Passover Festival (see Exo 23.14-15; 34.18).
Unleavened bread: that is, bread made without leaven, or yeast (see Exo 12.15). The leaven, or yeast, was a piece of leavened dough saved over from the previous baking of bread, and was normally added to the fresh dough to make it rise. Unleavened bread may also be expressed as “bread with no yeast,” or “bread without anything added to make it rise,” or even “… anything added to make it soft to eat.”
With it: that is, with the animal offered in sacrifice, which would be eaten by the worshiper(s). We may also express this first sentence as “When you eat this animal do not eat bread prepared with yeast.”
The bread of affliction: New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “bread of distress,” Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “bread of suffering,” Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “bread of misery [or, sadness].” For the word itself, used in connection with the conditions in Egypt, see Exo 3.7. The Israelites left Egypt “in such a hurry” (Good News Translation) that they didn’t have time to prepare regular leavened bread (Exo 12.33-34, 39).
The second part of the verse is rather repetitious, and translators should try to arrange the clauses and phrases in such a way as to avoid the use of dashes, such as those that appear in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.
Good News Translation “that place of suffering” seems to add something that isn’t in the text. However, it was probably added in order to make clear the meaning of “bread of suffering.” A better way to do this is to add the words “that place where you worked like slaves” after the word Egypt.
You may remember: this is the reason for the Passover Festival. It is to keep alive the memory of that event which brought the Israelite nation into being as the people of Yahweh. We may also translate “the bread without yeast will remind you of the day….”
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• When you eat [the flesh of] this animal, do not eat bread that you have made with yeast. For seven days you must eat bread without yeast as you did when you had to quickly leave Egypt, where you had been treated like slaves. As long as you live, this will remind you of the day when you came out of Egypt.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .