What Does Exodus 12:22 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
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
Blood is brought into contact with the house’s opening, and the household stays behind that marked threshold until morning.
THE MEANING
You stand inside a marked boundary while danger moves through the night: blood touches the lintel and sideposts, and you do not cross out until morning. Safety here has a shape and a span of time, an opening marked, a household held within, dawn still ahead.
THE ROOT
וְהִגַּעְתֶּם
vehiggaʿtem
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
Touch, reach, or bring into contact.
“strike” in this verse is vehiggaʿtem. The Hebrew action brings the blood into contact with the lintel and posts. The same root also gives נֶגַע (negaʿ), meaning a blow, affliction, or plague, so contact and affliction echo at the very boundary where the household’s danger is marked.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaʿ: To touch, reach, or make contact.
נָגַע
This is the action at the lintel: the blood is brought into contact with the house’s boundary.
negaʿ: A blow, affliction, or plague.
נֶגַע
This branch makes the root’s echo with the night’s danger audible: the mark is placed where affliction threatens the household.
פֶּתַח
petaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
To open; an opening or entrance.
The word for the house’s door is פֶּתַח (petaḥ), an opening, from the root פתח (p-t-ḥ), to open. The opening is both where the blood is applied and the boundary the household does not cross until morning.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
The verb reveals the doorway as an opening, the point between the protected interior and what lies beyond.
maphtēaḥ: A key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
A key is what opens an entrance; this branch keeps the doorway’s function, access across a boundary, inside the root.
petaḥ: An opening or entrance.
פֶּתַח
The same word names the place from which no one is to go out until morning.
THE PATTERN
A marked boundary or guarded opening gives protection a visible, inhabitable form.
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.Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.THE THREAD
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.Genesis uses פֶּתַח (petaḥ, opening or door) for the place where sin crouches. Here the same word names the opening marked with blood, where the household remains until morning; the shared root makes the doorway the point where danger meets a boundary of protection.
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