Exodus 12:21-30
elders <02205> [elders.]
<03947> [and take.]
lamb <06629> [lamb. or, kid.]
Passover animals <06453> [the passover.]
That is, the lamb which was called the {paschal,} or passover lamb; the animal sacrificed obtaining the name of the institution. St. Paul copies the expression in 1 Co 5:7.
branch <092> [a bunch.]
hyssop <0231> [hyssop.]
The word {aizov,} which has been variously rendered, most probably denotes Hyssop; whence are derived the Chaldee {aizova,} Syriac {zupha,} Arabic {zupha,} Ethiopic {azab,} and {hushopa,} Greek [`ussopos,] hussopos <\\See definition 5301\\>,] Latin {hyssopus,} German {usop,} and our hyssop, a name retained, with little variation, in all the western languages. It is a plant of the gymnospermia (naked seeded) order, belonging to the didynamia class. It has bushy stalks, growing a foot and a half high; small spear-shaped, close-sitting, and opposite leaves, with several smaller ones rising from the same joint; and all the stalks and branches terminated by erect whorled spikes of flowers, of different colours in the varieties of the plant. The leaves have an aromatic smell, and a warm, pungent taste. Its detersive, cleansing, and medicinal qualities were probably the reason why it was so particularly recommended in Scripture.
apply <05060> [strike.]
<0376> [and none.]
pass <05674> [will pass through.]
will ... permit <05414> [and will not.]
enter <0935> [when.]
said <01696> [according.]
children <01121> [your children.]
sacrifice <02077> [It is the sacrifice.]
households <06915> [bowed.]
midnight <02677> [at midnight.]
Lord attacked <03068 05221> [the Lord smote.]
The infliction of this judgment on the Egyptians was most equitable; because, after their nation had been preserved by one of the Israelitish family, they had, contrary to all right, and in defiance of original stipulation, enslaved the people to whom they had been so much indebted, had murdered their offspring, and made their bondage intolerable. See Bryant, p. 160.
[the first-born of Pharaoh.]
prison <01004> [dungeon. Heb. house of the pit.]
great cry <01419 06818> [and there was a great cry.]
No people were more remarkable and frantic in their mournings than the Egyptians. When a relative died, every one left the house, and the women, with their hair loose, and their bosoms bare, ran wild about the street. The men also, with their apparel equally disordered, kept them company; all shrieking, howling, and beating themselves. What a scene of horror and distress must now have presented itself, when there was not a family in Egypt where there was not one dead!
