Exodus 12:27
you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
KJV
That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
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Commentary
2 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
21 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֡ם | va.'a.mar.Tem | and you will say | H559 → |
| זֶֽבַח־ | ze.vach- | [is] a sacrifice of | H2077 → |
| פֶּ֨סַח | Pe.sach | passover | H6453 → |
| ה֜וּא | hu' | it | H1931 → |
| לַֽיהוָ֗ה | la.Yah.weh | to Yahweh | H3068 → |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | 'a.Sher | who | H834 → |
| פָּ֠סַח | Pa.sach | he passed over | H6452 → |
| עַל־ | 'al- | over | H5921 → |
| בָּתֵּ֤י | ba.Tei | [the] houses of | H1004 → |
| בְנֵֽי־ | ve.nei- | [the] people of | H1121 → |
| יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ | Yis.ra.'El | Israel | H3478 → |
| בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם | be.mitz.Ra.yim | in Egypt | H4714 → |
| בְּנָגְפּ֥וֹ | be.na.ge.Po | when struck he | H5062 → |
| אֶת־ | 'et- | <obj.> | H853 → |
| מִצְרַ֖יִם | mitz.Ra.yim | Egypt | H4714 → |
| וְאֶת־ | ve.'Et | and <obj.> | H853 → |
| בָּתֵּ֣ינוּ | ba.Tei.nu | houses our | H1004 → |
| הִצִּ֑יל | hi.Tzil | he delivered | H5337 → |
| וַיִּקֹּ֥ד | vai.yi.Kod | and it bowed low | H6915 → |
| הָעָ֖ם | ha.'Am | the people | H5971 → |
| וַיִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוּֽוּ׃ | vai.Yish.ta.cha.Vu | and they bowed down | H7812 → |
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