What Does Exodus 12:7 Mean?

And they will take some of the blood and set it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they will eat it.

Exodus 12:7 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

THE KEY

The blood marks the entrance of the house where the lamb is eaten, so the sign of deliverance and the meal belong to one dwelling.

THE MEANING

The entrance bears the sign of deliverance, and the lamb is eaten inside; the boundary and the table stay in the same scene. The verse speaks now of release from danger and nourishment held together within one home.

THE ROOT

וְנָתְנוּ

ve-natnu

GROWS FROM

נתן

To give, set, or place.

“set it on” in this verse is ve-natnu. The blood is given a place on the doorway by a verb whose root also means to give. The root holds placing and giving together, making the sign a deliberate presence at the house’s boundary.

ALSO GROWS

netinah: Giving; a gift or donation.

נְתִינָה

This branch keeps the sense of giving visible within the same root family as the blood being placed at the entrance.

mattanah: Gift.

מַתָּנָה

The shared root links the act of setting something in place with what is given; here, the blood is placed as the household’s sign.

THE PATTERN

The blood of the Passover lamb marks a boundary between destruction and the life gathered within.

And the blood will be a mark for you upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will leap over you, and the blow will not be upon you to ruin you when I strike down the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:13 · SDVThe blood on the houses is named as the visible token by which destruction passes over them.

By trust he made the passover and the pouring of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch them.

Hebrews 11:28 · SDVThe verse connects the Passover and the sprinkling of blood with protection from the destroyer.

Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even the Anointed One, our Passover, was slaughtered for us.

1 Corinthians 5:7 · SDVThe Passover lamb’s sacrifice remains an image of deliverance, now named through the anointed one.

THE THREAD

I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be the mark of a covenant between me and the earth.

Genesis 9:13 · SDV

Exodus 12:7 uses ⁨וְנָתְנוּ⁩ (ve-natnu), from ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, give, set, place), for the blood placed on the doorway. Genesis 9:13 uses that same root for the bow set in the cloud as a covenant sign; in both, a visible placement carries the sign.

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