12:14 This day will become 1 a memorial 2 for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival 3 to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance. 4
1 tn Heb “and this day will be.”
2 tn The expression “will be for a memorial” means “will become a memorial.”
3 tn The verb וְחַגֹּתֶם (vÿkhaggotem), a perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive to continue the instruction, is followed by the cognate accusative חַג (khag), for emphasis. As the wording implies and the later legislation required, this would involve a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Yahweh.
4 tn Two expressions show that this celebration was to be kept perpetually: the line has “for your generations, [as] a statute forever.” “Generations” means successive generations (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, perpetual” – no end in sight.