Keluaran 12:26-27

12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ¹  – 12:27 then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice ²  of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck ³  Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low ⁴  to the ground,

Keluaran 13:8

13:8 You are to tell your son ⁵  on that day, ⁶  ‘It is ⁷  because of what ⁸  the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Keluaran 13:14

13:14 ⁹ In the future, ¹⁰  when your son asks you ¹¹  ‘What is this?’ ¹²  you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand ¹³  the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery. ¹⁴ 

[12:26]  ¹ tn Heb “what is this service to you?”

[12:27]  ² sn This expression “the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover” occurs only here. The word זֶבַח (zevakh) means “slaughtering” and so a blood sacrifice. The fact that this word is used in Lev 3 for the peace offering has linked the Passover as a kind of peace offering, and both the Passover and the peace offerings were eaten as communal meals.

[12:27]  ³ tn The verb means “to strike, smite, plague”; it is the same verb that has been used throughout this section (נָגַף, nagaf). Here the construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause.

[12:27]  ⁴ tn The two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “and the people bowed down and they worshiped.” The words are synonymous, and so one is taken as the adverb for the other.

[13:8]  ⁵ tn The form is the Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence forward: “and you will declare to your son.”

[13:8]  sn A very important part of the teaching here is the manner in which the memory of the deliverance will be retained in Israel – they were to teach their children the reasons for the feast, as a binding law forever. This will remind the nation of its duties to Yahweh in gratitude for the great deliverance.

[13:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “day, saying.” “Tell…saying” is redundant, so “saying” has not been included in the translation here.

[13:8]  ⁷ tn “it is” has been supplied.

[13:8]  ⁸ tn The text uses זֶה (zeh), which Gesenius classifies as the use of the pronoun to introduce a relative clause after the preposition (GKC 447 §138.h) – but he thinks the form is corrupt. B. S. Childs, however, sees no reason to posit a corruption in this form (Exodus [OTL], 184).

[13:14]  ⁹ sn As with v. 8, the Law now requires that the children be instructed on the meaning of this observance. It is a memorial of the deliverance from bondage and the killing of the firstborn in Egypt.

[13:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “tomorrow.”

[13:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it will be when your son will ask you.”

[13:14]  ¹² tn The question is cryptic; it simply says, “What is this?” but certainly refers to the custom just mentioned. It asks, “What does this mean?” or “Why do we do this?”

[13:14]  ¹³ tn The expression is “with strength of hand,” making “hand” the genitive of specification. In translation “strength” becomes the modifier, because “hand” specifies where the strength was. But of course the whole expression is anthropomorphic for the power of God.

[13:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house of slaves.”