What Does Leviticus 23:5 Mean?
On the fourteenth day of the first month, between the evenings, is the LORD's passing over.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover.THE KEY
Passover sits at the head of the year and between the evenings: deliverance is given both a beginning and a threshold.
THE MEANING
Deliverance takes a place in the calendar: the LORD’s Passover is set on the fourteenth day of the first month, at evening. The Hebrew calls the first month rishon, from rosh, “head,” and places Passover in bein ha’arbayim, “between the evenings”, at the head of the cycle and at a threshold in the day.
THE ROOT
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
To pass over, spare.
The name of the observance and the verb for passing over share one root. English separates the named occasion from the action inside it; Hebrew holds them together.
ALSO GROWS
pāsaḥ: To pass over, spare.
פָּסַח
The verb form makes the name active: passing over is the action the observance names.
pesaḥ: Passover; the appointed observance or its offering.
פֶּסַח
The noun names the occasion through the same root as the sparing action.
רִאשׁוֹן
rishon
GROWS FROM
ראשׁ
Head, chief.
“First” carries the image of a head or beginning. Passover stands at the head of the year’s appointed cycle, giving deliverance a marked beginning.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head; chief.
רֹאשׁ
The shared root makes the first month the year’s “head,” not merely a numbered month.
reshith: Beginning; firstfruits.
רֵאשִׁית
This branch links the first month with a beginning, where the Passover is placed.
בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם
bein ha’arbayim
GROWS FROM
ערב
Evening, dusk.
The Hebrew phrase is literally “between the evenings.” It locates the observance in an interval at dusk, making the time a threshold rather than an undifferentiated nightfall.
ALSO GROWS
erev: Evening; dusk.
עֶרֶב
This is the evening word at the center of the verse’s appointed time.
arbayim: Evenings; the dual form used in “between the evenings.”
עֲרָבַיִם
The form preserves an interval within evening, sharpening the verse’s sense of a threshold.
THE PATTERN
The deliverance named by Passover is anchored to an appointed time and made recurring.
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.Guard the month of Abib, and make the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.And he said to them, I have longed with longing to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.THE THREAD
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.Leviticus names the appointed observance as pesaḥ; Exodus uses the same root as a verb: “I will pass over you.” The shared root binds the day to the sparing action its name carries.
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