Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

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
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew