Exodus 12:30-33

12:30 Pharaoh got up ¹  in the night, ²  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ³  in which there was not someone dead. 12:31 Pharaoh ⁴  summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out ⁵  from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! ⁶  12:32 Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.” ⁷ 

12:33 The Egyptians were urging ⁸  the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, ⁹  for they were saying, “We are all dead!”

[12:30]  ¹ tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.

[12:30]  ² tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

[12:30]  ³ sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.

[12:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:31]  ⁵ tn The urgency in Pharaoh’s words is caught by the abrupt use of the imperatives – “get up, go” (קוּמוּ צְּאוּ, qumu tsÿ’u), and “go, serve” (וּלְכוּ עִבְדוּ, ulÿkhu ’ivdu) and “take” and “leave/go” (וָלֵכוּ…קְחוּ, qÿkhu...valekhu).

[12:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “as you have said.” The same phrase also occurs in the following verse.

[12:32]  ⁷ tn The form is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive (וּבֵרַכְתֶּם, uverakhtem); coming in the sequence of imperatives this perfect tense would be volitional – probably a request rather than a command.

[12:33]  ⁸ tn The verb used here (חָזַק, khazaq) is the same verb used for Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. It conveys the idea of their being resolved or insistent in this – they were not going to change.

[12:33]  ⁹ tn The phrase uses two construct infinitives in a hendiadys, the first infinitive becoming the modifier.