What Does Exodus 12:27 Mean in the King James?
That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
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 name of the Passover and the act of passing over share one Hebrew root, so the name itself holds the movement that separates a spared house from a struck one.
THE MEANING
You meet deliverance as one house is preserved while the Egyptians are struck; the violence remains attached to the rescue. The people’s lowered heads and bowing place a bodily response at the close: preservation is received, not seized.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that deliverance is always painless: this verse names both a spared house and Egyptians being struck.
THE ROOT
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
pāsaḥ
To pass over or leap across; in another biblical use, to limp or halt.
“Passover / passed over” in this verse is pesaḥ. English separates the feast-name from the act, but both grow from פסח (pāsaḥ, “pass over / limp”). Elsewhere the same root describes limping between two sides, so the protective crossing shares a word-seed with divided, uneven movement.
ALSO GROWS
pesaḥ: The name of the Passover feast and sacrifice.
פֶּסַח
The noun repeats the verb: the name carries the act of passing over the houses.
pōsəḥîm: Moving unevenly, or limping between two sides.
פֹּסְחִים
In 1 Kings 18:21, this root describes people wavering between two choices, linking the spared crossing here with an unsettled passage elsewhere.
הִצִּיל
hiṣṣîl
GROWS FROM
נצל
nāṣal
To snatch away, rescue, or strip away.
The word rendered “delivered” is הִצִּיל (hiṣṣîl, “he rescued / snatched away”), from נצל (nāṣal, “snatch away / rescue / strip”). The same root is rendered “spoiled” when Israel takes Egypt’s goods nearby, so rescue here is a removal whose displacement remains visible.
ALSO GROWS
nāṣal: To rescue someone by pulling them out of danger’s grasp.
נָצַל
It makes “delivered our houses” concrete: the houses are taken out of the danger surrounding them.
wayənatsəlû: They stripped or plundered the Egyptians (Exodus 12:36).
וַיְנַצְּלוּ
The same root names Israel’s rescue and Egypt’s stripping, placing removal on both sides of the departure.
THE PATTERN
A marked threshold can hold deliverance and judgment in the same scene, while the act of passing over becomes a pattern of preservation.
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.As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:THE THREAD
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.The word translated “halt” is פֹּסְחִים (pōsəḥîm, “limping”), from פסח (pāsaḥ, “pass over / limp”), the same root as “passed over” here. English makes a spared crossing and an indecisive limp sound unrelated, while Hebrew gives them the same word-seed.
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