Exodus 12:42
Because the LORD kept a vigil that night to bring them out of the land of Egypt, this same night is to be a vigil to the LORD, to be observed by all the Israelites for the generations to come.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
It is a night to be much observed unto Jehovah for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of Jehovah, to be much observed of all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
KJV
It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.
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Commentary
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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
16 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| לֵ֣יל | leil | [was] a night of | H3915 → |
| שִׁמֻּרִ֥ים | shi.mu.Rim | vigil<s> | H8107 → |
| הוּא֙ | hu' | it | H1931 → |
| לַֽיהוָ֔ה | la.Yah.weh | for Yahweh | H3068 → |
| לְהוֹצִיאָ֖ם | le.ho.tzi.'Am | to bring out them | H3318 → |
| מֵאֶ֣רֶץ | me.'E.retz | from [the] land of | H776 → |
| מִצְרָ֑יִם | mitz.Ra.yim | Egypt | H4714 → |
| הֽוּא־ | hu'- | it | H1931 → |
| הַלַּ֤יְלָה | ha.Lay.lah | the night | H3915 → |
| הַזֶּה֙ | ha.Zeh | <the> this | H2088 → |
| לַֽיהוָ֔ה | la.Yah.weh | for Yahweh | H3068 → |
| שִׁמֻּרִ֛ים | shi.mu.Rim | vigil<s> | H8107 → |
| לְכָל־ | le.khol | for all | H3605 → |
| בְּנֵ֥י | be.Nei | [the] people of | H1121 → |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | Yis.ra.'El | Israel | H3478 → |
| לְדֹרֹתָֽם׃ פ | le.do.ro.Tam | to generations their | H1755 → |
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