Exodus 12:22

Summary

The verse instructs the Israelites to take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in blood collected in a basin, and apply that blood to the lintel and two doorposts of the house entrance. It then commands that no one leave the house through the doorway until morning.

Key words

• 'a.gu.Dat ("a bunch of", H0092) — construct form directly linked to 'e.Zov, forming the phrase "a bunch of hyssop"; the plant serves as the applicator.
• te.val.Tem ("you will dip [it]", H2881) — qal sequential perfect, second person plural, continuing the chain of commands begun with le.kach.Tem ("you will take", H3947G).
• hi.ga'.Tem ("you will make touch", H5060) — hiphil (causative) stem: the subject causes the hyssop/blood to touch the lintel and doorposts, rather than simply "touching" in a basic sense.
• mash.kOf ("lintels", H4947) and me.zu.Zot ("doorposts", H4201) — the two architectural elements marked with blood, the second governed by the dual construct she.Tei ("[the] two", H8147), specifying exactly two doorposts.
• te.tze.'U ("you will go out", H3318G) — qal imperfect, expressing an ongoing prohibition ("you shall not go out"), contrasted with the preceding perfects that describe completed sequential actions.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs — le.kach.Tem, te.val.Tem, hi.ga'.Tem — each carrying the narrative vav that links them as consecutive steps: take, dip, apply. This verbal chain marks these as commands to be executed in this specific order, a feature the English and Spanish translations preserve through simple sequencing but without the grammatical marker of the vav itself.

The causative (hiphil) form of hi.ga'.Tem ("you will make touch", H5060) indicates that the subject actively brings the blood-soaked hyssop into contact with the lintel and doorposts, rather than describing incidental contact. The object of this action is doubly specified: first ha.mash.kOf ("the lintel", H4947), then she.Tei ha.me.zu.Zot ("the two doorposts", H4201), using the dual-marked construct to indicate exactly two doorposts, matching typical door construction.

The final clause shifts from the sequential-perfect chain to an imperfect verb, te.tze.'U ("you will go out", H3318G), negated by lo' ("not", H3808). This grammatical shift marks a change from a series of one-time actions to an ongoing prohibition covering the night period specified by 'ad Bo.ker ("until morning", H5704 + H1242). The phrase 'ish mi.pe.tach- bei.To ("anyone from the door of his house", H0376I + H6607 + H1004B) specifies that the restriction applies individually to each person's own house entrance.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the double designation of the doorposts differently: where the Hebrew specifies ha.mash.kOf ("the lintel") and she.Tei ha.me.zu.Zot ("the two doorposts") as separate architectural terms, the LXX groups them under general phrases like "τῆς φλιᾶς" (the doorpost) and "ἀμφοτέρων" (both), without a separate lexical term matching mash.kOf as clearly as the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly uses "superliminare" (lintel) and "utrumque postem" (each post), preserving the two-part structure but with Latin architectural vocabulary distinct from the Hebrew construct phrase.