Exodus 12:12

12:12 I will pass through ¹  the land of Egypt in the same ²  night, and I will attack ³  all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of humans and of animals, ⁴  and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. ⁵  I am the Lord.

Exodus 12:23

12:23 For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees ⁶  the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer ⁷  to enter your houses to strike you. ⁸ 

Exodus 12:29

The Deliverance from Egypt

12:29 ⁹ It happened ¹⁰  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

Job 34:20

34:20 In a moment they die, in the middle of the night, ¹¹ 

people ¹²  are shaken ¹³  and they pass away.

The mighty are removed effortlessly. ¹⁴ 

Amos 4:10

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹⁵ 

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses ¹⁶  rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 5:17

5:17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing,

for I will pass through ¹⁷  your midst,” says the Lord.

Matthew 25:6

25:6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is here! Come out to meet him.’ ¹⁸ 

[12:12]  ¹ tn The verb וְעָבַרְתִּי (vÿ’avarti) is a Qal perfect with vav (ו) consecutive, announcing the future action of God in bringing judgment on the land. The word means “pass over, across, through.” This verb provides a contextual motive for the name “Passover.”

[12:12]  ² tn Heb “this night.”

[12:12]  ³ tn The verb נָכָה (nakhah) means “to strike, smite, attack”; it does not always mean “to kill,” but that is obviously its outcome in this context. This is also its use in 2:12, describing how Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

[12:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “from man and to beast.”

[12:12]  ⁵ tn The phrase אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים (’e’eseh shÿfatim) is “I will do judgments.” The statement clearly includes what had begun in Exod 6:1. But the statement that God would judge the gods of Egypt is appropriately introduced here (see also Num 33:4) because with the judgment on Pharaoh and the deliverance from bondage, Yahweh would truly show himself to be the one true God. Thus, “I am Yahweh” is fitting here (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 312).

[12:23]  ⁶ tn The first of the two clauses begun with perfects and vav consecutives may be subordinated to form a temporal clause: “and he will see…and he will pass over,” becomes “when he sees…he will pass over.”

[12:23]  ⁷ tn Here the form is the Hiphil participle with the definite article. Gesenius says this is now to be explained as “the destroyer” although some take it to mean “destruction” (GKC 406 §126.m, n. 1).

[12:23]  ⁸ tn “you” has been supplied.

[12:29]  ⁹ sn The next section records the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and so becomes the turning point of the book. Verses 28 and 29 could be included in the exposition of the previous section as the culmination of that part. The message might highlight God’s requirement for deliverance from bondage through the application of the blood of the sacrifice, God’s instruction for the memorial of deliverance through the purging of corruption, and the compliance of those who believed the message. But these verses also form the beginning of this next section (and so could be used transitionally). This unit includes the judgment on Egypt (29-30), the exodus from Egypt (31-39) and the historical summation and report (40-42).

[12:29]  ¹⁰ tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), often translated “and it came to pass.” Here it could be left untranslated: “In the middle of the night Yahweh attacked.” The word order of the next and main clause furthers the emphasis by means of the vav disjunctive on the divine name preceding the verb. The combination of these initial and disjunctive elements helps to convey the suddenness of the attack, while its thoroughness is stressed by the repetition of “firstborn” in the rest of the verse, the merism (“from the firstborn of Pharaoh…to the firstborn of the captive”), and the mention of cattle.

[34:20]  ¹¹ tn Dhorme transposes “in the middle of the night” with “they pass away” to get a smoother reading. But the MT emphasizes the suddenness by putting both temporal ideas first. E. F. Sutcliffe leaves the order as it stands in the text, but adds a verb “they expire” after “in the middle of the night” (“Notes on Job, textual and exegetical,” Bib 30 [1949]: 79ff.).

[34:20]  ¹² tn R. Gordis (Job, 389) thinks “people” here mean the people who count, the upper class.

[34:20]  ¹³ tn The verb means “to be violently agitated.” There is no problem with the word in this context, but commentators have made suggestions for improving the idea. The proposal that has the most to commend it, if one were inclined to choose a new word, is the change to יִגְוָעוּ (yigva’u, “they expire”; so Ball, Holscher, Fohrer, and others).

[34:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “not by hand.” This means without having to use force.

[4:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”

[4:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”

[5:17]  ¹⁷ sn The expression pass through your midst alludes to Exod 12:12, where the Lord announced he would “pass through” Egypt and bring death to the Egyptian firstborn.

[25:6]  ¹⁸ tc ‡ Most witnesses have αὐτοῦ (autou, “[with] him”) after ἀπάντησιν (apanthsin, “meeting”), a reading which makes explicit what is already implied in the shorter text (as found in א B 700). The translation likewise adds “him” for clarity’s sake even though the word is not considered part of the original text. NA²⁷ has αὐτοῦ in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.