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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus 12:11 - 12
  • Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 08:22:36 +0200

Dear Jack,

I'm not sure where the problem is. This whole passage, while not strictly poetry, is written in a kind of dramatic, fast-paced, prose. "Eat it quickly, (FOR) it is Yahweh's Pesah". This is a special night; wonderful things are a-foot; God is going to reveal Himself.

As for the root PSX, it means "to skip". A "piseax" is a lame person, someone who "skips". The connection is in verse 13 - Yahweh will "skip over" the Israelites' houses.

Yigal
----- Original Message ----- From: <tladatsi AT charter.net>
To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 7:55 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Exodus 12:11 - 12


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
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