Keluaran 12:23-27

12:23 For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees ¹  the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer ²  to enter your houses to strike you. ³  12:24 You must observe this event as an ordinance for you and for your children forever. 12:25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe ⁴  this ceremony. 12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ⁵  – 12:27 then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice ⁶  of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck ⁷  Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low ⁸  to the ground,

[12:23]  ¹ tn The first of the two clauses begun with perfects and vav consecutives may be subordinated to form a temporal clause: “and he will see…and he will pass over,” becomes “when he sees…he will pass over.”

[12:23]  ² tn Here the form is the Hiphil participle with the definite article. Gesenius says this is now to be explained as “the destroyer” although some take it to mean “destruction” (GKC 406 §126.m, n. 1).

[12:23]  ³ tn “you” has been supplied.

[12:25]  ⁴ tn The verb used here and at the beginning of v. 24 is שָׁמַר (shamar); it can be translated “watch, keep, protect,” but in this context the point is to “observe” the religious customs and practices set forth in these instructions.

[12:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “what is this service to you?”

[12:27]  ⁶ sn This expression “the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover” occurs only here. The word זֶבַח (zevakh) means “slaughtering” and so a blood sacrifice. The fact that this word is used in Lev 3 for the peace offering has linked the Passover as a kind of peace offering, and both the Passover and the peace offerings were eaten as communal meals.

[12:27]  ⁷ tn The verb means “to strike, smite, plague”; it is the same verb that has been used throughout this section (נָגַף, nagaf). Here the construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause.

[12:27]  ⁸ tn The two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “and the people bowed down and they worshiped.” The words are synonymous, and so one is taken as the adverb for the other.