Exodus
Chapter 12
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Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
A dotted word is a harder one. Point at it, or tap it, for a short definition.
1God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2“This month is the head of months for you. It is first for you among the months of the year.
3Speak to the whole congregation of Israel: On the tenth of this month they shall each take a lamb for a father’s house, a lamb for the household.
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- Translation
Seh is a lamb or a kid, a head of the flock. “Lamb” is printed. Verse 5 allows a sheep or a goat.
4If the household is too small for a lamb, he and his neighbor nearest his house shall take one, by the count of persons. You shall reckon for the lamb according to what each one can eat.
5Your lamb shall be whole, a male, a year old. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.
6It shall be kept by you until the fourteenth day of this month. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it between the evenings.
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- Translation
Bein ha-arbayim is “between the evenings.” The Hebrew does not give a clock time. “At twilight” is the live alternative.
7They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
8They shall eat the meat that night, roasted in fire, and Made without yeast, so the bread stays flat. bread. With bitter herbs they shall eat it.
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Matzot are unleavened bread, bread with no leaven. Merorim are bitter herbs.
9Do not eat any of it raw, or boiled, boiled in water. Only roasted in fire, its head with its legs and with its innards.
10You shall not leave any of it until morning. What is left of it until morning you shall burn in fire.
11This is how you shall eat it: your waists belted, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. It is God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary.’s The meal that remembers the night Yahweh passed over Israel’s houses in Egypt..
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- Translation
Pesach is printed “Passover.” The verb of the same root is in verse 13, “I will pass over.” The name and the verb are kept as one family of words.
12I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and I will do judgments on all the gods of Egypt. I am God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary..
13The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. I will see the blood and pass over you, and no blow will be on you for destruction when I strike the land of Egypt.
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- Translation
Pasachti alekhem is “I will pass over you.” The verb is the one behind the name Passover. “Skip” and “shield” are live alternatives, and they are not printed.
14This day shall be a memorial for you, and you shall hold it as a feast to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary.. Through your generations you shall hold it as a lasting A rule that is meant to last..
15Seven days you shall eat Made without yeast, so the bread stays flat. bread. On the first day you shall make leaven cease from your houses, because every person who eats leavened bread, that person shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh day.
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Chametz is leavened bread. Se’or is the leaven itself, the starter. They are not the same word, and both appear in this chapter.
16On the first day a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on them. Only what each person eats, that alone may be done for you.
17You shall keep the Made without yeast, so the bread stays flat. bread, because on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt. You shall keep this day through your generations as a lasting A rule that is meant to last..
18In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat Made without yeast, so the bread stays flat. bread, until the twenty-first day of the month, in the evening.
19For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, because every person who eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a A person living in a land that is not their own. or a native of the land.
20You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your settlements you shall eat Made without yeast, so the bread stays flat. bread.”
21Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Draw out and take yourselves a flock animal for your clans, and slaughter the The meal that remembers the night Yahweh passed over Israel’s houses in Egypt..
22Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
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Ezov is printed “hyssop,” the plant the Hebrew names. Saf is the basin holding the blood.
23God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. will pass through to strike Egypt. He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. will pass over the door, and he will not let the destroyer come into your houses to strike.
24You shall keep this word as a A rule that is meant to last. for you and for your children forever.
25When you come to the land that God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. will give you, as he said, you shall keep this service.
26When your children say to you, ‘What is this service to you?’
27you shall say, ‘It is the The meal that remembers the night Yahweh passed over Israel’s houses in Egypt. sacrifice to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., because he passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he struck Egypt, and he rescued our houses.’” The people knelt and bowed low.
28The sons of Israel went and did so. As God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
29At midnight God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the pit-house, and every firstborn of the animals.
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- Translation
Beit ha-bor is the pit-house, the prison. Verse 5 named the slave woman at the mill. This verse names the captive in the pit. Both are printed as written.
30Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, because there was no house where there was not someone dead.
31He called Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go, serve God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., as you said.
32Take your flocks too, and your herds, as you said, and go. And bless me too.”
33Egypt pressed hard on the people, to hurry them out of the land, because they said, “We are all dead.”
34The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their clothes on their shoulders.
35The sons of Israel did as Moses said. They asked the Egyptians for silver objects, gold objects, and clothing.
36God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they let them have what they asked. So they stripped Egypt.
37The sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides the little ones.
38A mixed crowd also went up with them, and flocks and herds, a very heavy stock of livestock.
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Erev rav is a mixed crowd, people who are not counted as the sons of Israel. The mix is printed. No list of nations is added.
39They baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of Made without yeast, so the bread stays flat. bread, because it had not leavened. They had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and they had not prepared provisions for themselves.
40The time the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
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Leningrad counts the four hundred and thirty years as the time they lived in Egypt. The Samaritan and the Greek add the land of Canaan to that stay. Those words are not printed.
41At the end of four hundred and thirty years, on this very day, all God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary.’s companies went out of the land of Egypt.
42It is a night of watching for God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This night is God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary.’s, a watching for all the sons of Israel through their generations.
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- Translation
Shimmurim is a keeping watch. “A night of watching” is printed. A vigil feast is not added.
43God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the A rule that is meant to last. of the The meal that remembers the night Yahweh passed over Israel’s houses in Egypt.. No foreigner’s son shall eat of it.
44Any slave a man has bought with silver, you shall circumcise him, and then he may eat of it.
45A A person living among them who is not one of the people. and a hired man shall not eat of it.
46It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the meat outside the house, and you shall not break a bone of it.
47The whole congregation of Israel shall do it.
48If a A person living in a land that is not their own. stays with you and would make a The meal that remembers the night Yahweh passed over Israel’s houses in Egypt. to God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary., every male of his shall be Marked by cutting off the foreskin, the sign of the covenant for males., and then he may come near to do it, and he shall be like a native of the land. No Not marked by cutting off the foreskin, the sign of the covenant for males. man shall eat of it.
49One instruction shall be for the native and for the A person living in a land that is not their own. who sojourns among you.”
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Torah here is an instruction, one rule for both. It is not printed as a title of the five books.
50All the sons of Israel did so. As God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
51On this very day God’s own name. The Hebrew writes YHWH. See the glossary. brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their companies.