Exodus 12:25

Summary

The verse announces that once the people enter the land Yehovah will give them, they are obligated to continue observing the ritual just described (the Passover). It frames this future observance as the fulfillment of a divine promise already spoken.

Key words

• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain from the previous instructions; it introduces the temporal clause "and it will be when...".
• ta.Vo.'u ("you will come", H0935G) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, marking a future/ongoing action tied to the conditional particle ki ("that/if", H3588A) that precedes it.
• yi.Ten ("he will give", H5414G) — qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular, describing Yehovah's future action of giving the land; imperfect aspect leaves the act as not-yet-completed at the time of speaking.
• di.Ber ("he said", H1696I) — piel perfect, indicating a completed act of speaking; the piel stem intensifies the verbal action compared to a simple qal "to speak."
• she.mar.Tem ("you will keep", H8104G) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural, continuing the sequence begun by ha.Yah; it expresses the obligation that follows once the land is entered.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on ha.Yah ("and it will be", H1961), a formula that sets up a temporal/conditional clause using ki ("that/if", H3588A) plus the imperfect ta.Vo.'u ("you will come", H0935G). This construction—ha.Yah ki + imperfect—establishes a future circumstance ("when you come into the land") rather than a simple statement of fact, since the imperfect aspect of ta.Vo.'u marks the entry as not yet realized.

The land itself is qualified by a relative clause: 'a.Sher yi.Ten Yehovah la.Khem ("which Yehovah will give to you"), where yi.Ten (H5414G) is likewise imperfect, keeping the giving of the land in the domain of future/unfulfilled action from the standpoint of the speaker. This is followed by a second relative clause, ka.'a.Sher di.Ber ("just as he said"), where the verb shifts to the piel perfect di.Ber (H1696I)—a completed act of prior speech, contrasting grammatically with the imperfects around it: the entering and giving are pending, but the speaking has already happened.

The main clause resumes with the narrative vav on she.mar.Tem ("and you will keep", H8104G), a qal sequential perfect that continues the chain begun by ha.Yah, expressing what will follow once the conditions of the temporal clause are met. The object is ha.'a.vo.Dah ha.Zot ("this service", H5656G + H2063), marked by the direct object particle 'et (H0853), referring back to the ritual instructions given earlier in the chapter.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the conditional/temporal ki clause with ἐὰν ("if"), shifting the nuance slightly toward a conditional sense compared to the Hebrew's temporal-conditional ha.Yah ki construction. The Vulgate uses cumque ("and when"), aligning more closely with a temporal reading. Where the Hebrew has ka.'a.Sher di.Ber ("just as he said"), the Vulgate reads ut pollicitus est ("as he promised"), introducing the notion of promise not explicitly present in the Hebrew verb di.Ber ("he said/spoke", H1696I).