Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Hello,

I am reading Exodus 12:11 and I am confused by the last three words.  The 
rest of the passage is clear enough - this is how you eat the meal, with your 
loins girded up, scandals on you feet, and your staff in your hand, and you 
eat it in haste.  It seems like you could put the sof pasuq on *behipazon* 
and the sentance would be just fine.  The last three words seem like, if not 
a complete non sequitur, at least disjointed.   The first part of the verse 
indicates that those eating the *pesakh * meal should be ready to move on out 
at a moments notice.

Then they are advised to stay in doors the entire night because Yahweh will 
visit the latest and worst plague unpon the animals, humans, and gods of 
Egypt.  So there is no real reason to have the staff in hand since one will 
be going anywhere for some time, not before sunrise.

Ending the verse telling the Isrealites to be ready to move at anytime during 
the meal are three words -

*pesakh khu layahweh*  

As an ending for 12:11 it does not flow.  There is no logical connection 
between being ready to move at a moments notice and that fact that the pesakh 
is Yahweh's.  Grammatically, there is no connection either.  There is no 
*because* for *for*.  Even the cantilation marks do not seem to fit.  If this 
were some sort of dependent clause, shouldn't there be some sort of 
disjunctive mark, like an atnakh or segol or something.  It does not work as 
a link to the next verse either.

Even the phrase itself seems odd, is the *pesakh* every anything other than 
Yahwehs?

BTW, What is root of *pesakh*?


--
Jack Tladatsi