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.
5 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
6 tn Heb “in it.”
7 tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; the nuance of permission works well here – no one is permitted to appear before God empty (Heb “and they will not appear before me empty”).
8 tn Heb “to this month.”
9 tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”
10 tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.