Exodus 12:43

Summary

Yehovah speaks to Moses and Aaron, declaring a fixed rule (chuqqat, H2708) for the Passover (ha-Pasach, H6453): no one classified as ben-nekhar ("son of foreignness", H1121I + H5236) may eat of it. The verse frames what follows as an authoritative regulation attached to the Passover rite.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative form, marking a new divine speech-act introduced by the narrative vav.
• chuqqat ("statute of", H2708) — feminine singular construct; grammatically bound to ha-Pasach, producing "statute of the Passover" rather than a standalone noun.
• ben-nekhar ("son of foreignness", H1121I + H5236) — a construct chain; ben ("son of") governs nekhar ("foreignness"), together functioning as a category label rather than a literal kinship term.
• lo'-yokhal ("he will not eat", H3808 + H0398) — negation plus qal imperfect, expressing a prohibition with ongoing/future force ("shall not eat," not merely "did not").
• bo ("in it / of it", H9003 + H9033) — preposition with pronominal suffix, referring back to ha-Pasach, specifying the object from which eating is barred.

What the text says

The verse opens with the standard narrative formula va-yomer Yehovah 'el-Mosheh ve-'Aharon ("and Yehovah said to Moses and Aaron"), introducing direct speech addressed to both figures together, joined by the conjunction ve (H9002). The demonstrative zot ("this", H2063) points forward to the content that follows, syntactically presenting it as a defined unit: "this [is] the chuqqat of ha-Pasach." The construct relationship between chuqqat (H2708) and ha-Pasach (H6453) ties the noun "statute" directly to "the Passover," so the phrase functions as a title for the regulation about to be stated, rather than a general comment.

The prohibition itself is built from the construct chain kol-ben-nekhar ("any son of foreignness", H3605 + H1121I + H5236), where ben ("son of") is used idiomatically to form a category-noun ("foreigner") rather than indicating literal descent. The negated imperfect lo'-yokhal (H3808 + H0398) expresses a durative or generalized prohibition — not a one-time refusal but a standing rule — and the final bo (H9003 + H9033), "in it," a preposition plus suffix referring back to ha-Pasach, marks the substance (the Passover meal) from which this category of person is excluded.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chuqqat ha-Pasach as ὁ νόμος τοῦ πάσχα ("the law of the Passover"), using νόμος ("law") where the Hebrew has chuqqat ("statute of"). The Vulgate uses religio Phase ("the religious rite of the Passover"), a different lexical choice again for chuqqat. Both versions render ben-nekhar ("son of foreignness") with a single term — ἀλλογενής (LXX) and alienigena (Vulgate) — collapsing the Hebrew construct chain into one word for "foreigner."