What Does Exodus 12:13 Mean in the King James?
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The blood is the sign that is seen, while the same Hebrew verb for “pass over” elsewhere describes the LORD preserving a city.
THE MEANING
You are placed at a threshold where danger and protection occupy the same scene: the blood marks the house, the LORD sees it, and the blow does not fall on that household. The plague strikes the land, while the marked house is spared. Deliverance is pictured as a concrete distinction at the threshold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that danger is indiscriminate is unsettled here: the verse depicts a house marked out from the blow moving through the land.
THE ROOT
וּפָסַחְתִּי
ūpāsaḥtî
GROWS FROM
פ־ס־ח
To pass over; in context, to spare.
“pass over” in this verse is ūpāsaḥtî. The verb is the action behind פֶּסַח (pesaḥ, Passover). In Isaiah 31:5, the same verb appears beside defending and preserving, giving its use here a protective shade as it passes over the marked threshold.
ALSO GROWS
pesaḥ: Passover; the name of the festival
פֶּסַח
The festival name grows from the same root as the act of passing over and sparing.
pāsōaḥ: Passing over
פָּסֹחַ
In Isaiah 31:5, this form appears alongside defending and preserving Jerusalem, showing the protective sense the verb can carry.
נֶגֶף
negef
GROWS FROM
נ־ג־ף
To strike, stumble, or collide.
Beneath “plague” is נֶגֶף (negef, a blow or striking), retaining the impact of a blow. Its root also gives the verb for striking and the word for plague, keeping devastation and its force in one family.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaf: To strike or collide
נָגַף
The verb makes the impact within “plague” more visible.
maggēfāh: Plague or defeat
מַגֵּפָה
This noun from the same root shows how the sense of a blow extends to a devastating event.
וְרָאִיתִי
werāʾîtî
GROWS FROM
ר־א־ה
To see, look, or perceive.
“see” in this verse is werāʾîtî. The verse places seeing directly before sparing: the sign is visible, and the LORD sees it. The root’s branches for appearance and seer keep that visibility central to the scene.
ALSO GROWS
marʾeh: Appearance or vision
מַרְאֶה
This branch emphasizes what can be seen, as the blood is seen on the house.
roʾeh: Seer; one who sees
רֹאֶה
This branch places the act of seeing in the foreground of the verse’s protection.
THE PATTERN
A visible mark distinguishes those spared as destructive force passes through.
Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.THE THREAD
As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.The same root פ־ס־ח (p-s-ḥ, pass over or spare) appears here beside defending and preserving Jerusalem. That shared word brings the protective sense of Exodus’s “pass over” into view.
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