The Paschal Lamb

Artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India.

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complete verse (Exodus 12:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 12:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do not eat raw meat or boiled. Roast the heads of those goats/sheep and (the) legs and roast also (the) stomachs/internal organs.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water. Eat all the roasted meat including the head, legs and the innards.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) are- not -to-eat the raw or boiled meat, but-instead you (plur.) are-to-roast it whole together-with the head, feet and the internal-organs.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “But you (pl.) can’t/mustn’t eat the sipsip’s flesh uncooked, and not boiled in water either. But you must roast it with fire together with its head and its legs and arms and all of its interior parts.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “you shall not it eat raw, you shall not it boil. you shall bake it body entirely all, with its head, with its foot, with that which be present its belly.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “You must not eat any of the meat raw, and you must not boil the meat. You must roast it whole, without cutting off the head or the legs or removing the internal parts.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 12:9

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 .