Mazmur 121:5-6

121:5 The Lord is your protector;

the Lord is the shade at your right hand.

121:6 The sun will not harm you by day,

or the moon by night. ¹ 

Keluaran 12:29-30

The Deliverance from Egypt

12:29 ² It happened ³  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 12:30 Pharaoh got up ⁴  in the night, ⁵  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ⁶  in which there was not someone dead.

Keluaran 12:2

12:2 “This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year. ⁷ 

Kisah Para Rasul 19:35

19:35 After the city secretary ⁸  quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, what person ⁹  is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the keeper ¹⁰  of the temple of the great Artemis ¹¹  and of her image that fell from heaven? ¹² 

[121:6]  ¹ sn One hardly thinks of the moon’s rays as being physically harmful, like those of the sun. The reference to the moon may simply lend poetic balance to the verse, but it is likely that the verse reflects an ancient, primitive belief that the moon could have an adverse effect on the mind (note the English expression “moonstruck,” which reflects such a belief). Another possibility is that the sun and moon stand by metonymy for harmful forces characteristic of the day and night, respectively.

[12:29]  ² sn The next section records the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and so becomes the turning point of the book. Verses 28 and 29 could be included in the exposition of the previous section as the culmination of that part. The message might highlight God’s requirement for deliverance from bondage through the application of the blood of the sacrifice, God’s instruction for the memorial of deliverance through the purging of corruption, and the compliance of those who believed the message. But these verses also form the beginning of this next section (and so could be used transitionally). This unit includes the judgment on Egypt (29-30), the exodus from Egypt (31-39) and the historical summation and report (40-42).

[12:29]  ³ tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), often translated “and it came to pass.” Here it could be left untranslated: “In the middle of the night Yahweh attacked.” The word order of the next and main clause furthers the emphasis by means of the vav disjunctive on the divine name preceding the verb. The combination of these initial and disjunctive elements helps to convey the suddenness of the attack, while its thoroughness is stressed by the repetition of “firstborn” in the rest of the verse, the merism (“from the firstborn of Pharaoh…to the firstborn of the captive”), and the mention of cattle.

[12:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.

[12:30]  ⁵ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

[12:30]  ⁶ sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.

[12:2]  ⁷ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 294-95) shows that the intent of the passage was not to make this month in the spring the New Year – that was in the autumn. Rather, when counting months this was supposed to be remembered first, for it was the great festival of freedom from Egypt. He observes how some scholars have unnecessarily tried to date one New Year earlier than the other.

[19:35]  ⁸ tn Or “clerk.” The “scribe” (γραμματεύς, grammateu") was the keeper of the city’s records.

[19:35]  ⁹ tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo").

[19:35]  ¹⁰ tn See BDAG 670 s.v. νεωκόρος. The city is described as the “warden” or “guardian” of the goddess and her temple.

[19:35]  ¹¹ sn Artemis was a Greek goddess worshiped particularly in Asia Minor, whose temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was located just outside the city of Ephesus.

[19:35]  ¹² tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[19:35]  sn The expression fell from heaven adds a note of apologetic about the heavenly origin of the goddess. The city’s identity and well-being was wrapped up with this connection, in their view. Many interpreters view her image that fell from heaven as a stone meteorite regarded as a sacred object.