Exodus 12:13
The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
KJV
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
⋯
Commentary
3 voicesVoices on this verse
loading…Hebraic traditional view
The night Israel still keeps
This chapter founds Passover, in Hebrew Pesach, the spring feast that remembers the night God struck Egypt's firstborn and passed over the blood-marked houses. Jewish families keep it to this day with a ceremonial meal called the seder (Hebrew for “order”): unleavened flatbread (matzah), bitter herbs, cups of wine, and the retelling of this chapter's story, with the children asking the questions.
Honesty about the timeline helps the reader: in the Bible's own period the center of the feast was the lamb, slain and eaten as this chapter commands. The seder as now practiced took its shape after the Temple fell in AD 70 and the lamb could no longer be offered; its oldest written outline is in the Mishnah, the first code of Jewish oral law (about AD 200), which already includes the four cups and the rule that “in every generation a person must see himself as if he personally came out of Egypt.”
Sources: Mishnah Pesachim 10 (the seder's oldest outline) · Mishnah Pesachim 10:5 (“in every generation”) · The Feasts of the LORD (this site's study)
Original language & word study
22 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| וְהָיָה֩ | ve.ha.Yah | and it will become | H1961 → |
| הַדָּ֨ם | ha.Dam | the blood | H1818 → |
| לָכֶ֜ם | la.Khem | for <the> you | |
| לְאֹ֗ת | le.'Ot | <into> a sign | H226 → |
| עַ֤ל | 'al | on | H5921 → |
| הַבָּתִּים֙ | ha.ba.Tim | the houses | H1004 → |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | 'a.Sher | where | H834 → |
| אַתֶּ֣ם | 'a.Tem | you | H859 → |
| שָׁ֔ם | Sham | [are] there | H8033 → |
| וְרָאִ֙יתִי֙ | ve.ra.'I.ti | and I will see | H7200 → |
| אֶת־ | 'et- | <obj.> | H853 → |
| הַדָּ֔ם | ha.Dam | the blood | H1818 → |
| וּפָסַחְתִּ֖י | u.fa.sach.Ti | and I will pass over | H6452 → |
| עֲלֵכֶ֑ם | 'a.le.Khem | over you | H5921 → |
| וְלֹֽא־ | ve.lo'- | and not | H3808 → |
| יִֽהְיֶ֨ה | yih.Yeh | it will be | H1961 → |
| בָכֶ֥ם | va.Khem | among <the> you | |
| נֶ֙גֶף֙ | ne.gef | a plague | H5063 → |
| לְמַשְׁחִ֔ית | le.mash.Chit | for destruction | H4889 → |
| בְּהַכֹּתִ֖י | be.ha.ko.Ti | when strike I | H5221 → |
| בְּאֶ֥רֶץ | be.'E.retz | in [the] land of | H776 → |
| מִצְרָֽיִם׃ | mitz.Ra.yim | Egypt | H4714 → |
The walk
Featured studies on this passage
On Exodus 12:13
Jesus: Titles & Roles
No single title carries him. Scripture names Jesus by a constellation of titles — Christ, Son of Man, Lamb of God, Logos, High Priest, King of Kings — and each one is a door. This hub gathers every title page on the site and anchors the rest to the verses that confer them.
Open the study →
On Exodus 12:13
Passover
The night a lamb's blood turned judgment aside — and the Lamb it was always drawing toward.
Open the study →
On Exodus 12:13
The Scarlet Thread: MannaFest
Open the study →
On Exodus 12:13
Taw — The Mark of God
The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet — drawn in the Sinaitic script as a cross — appears at the decisive moments of judgment and rescue: the doorposts of Goshen, the foreheads in Jerusalem, the sealing of the 144,000, and the cross at Golgotha.
Open the study →
On Exodus 12:13
The Blood
Open the study →
On Exodus 12:13
The Lamb — Revelation's Christology
Open the study →
About Exodus
