A pretermission , i.e. exemption ; used only techically of the Jewish Passover (the festival or the victim)
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The Hebrew noun pesaḥ names the Passover sacrifice and the observance centered on the LORD's deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Exodus uses it for the meal eaten in haste, the sacrifice whose blood marked Israelite homes, and the answer parents were to give children who asked about the rite.
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Full entry for פֶּסַח (H6453) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun pesaḥ names the Passover sacrifice and the observance centered on the LORD's deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Exodus uses it for the meal eaten in haste, the sacrifice whose blood marked Israelite homes, and the answer parents were to give children who asked about the rite.
The BSB source-word alignment has 49 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include The Passover (23), Passover (7), the Passover lamb (3), the Passover lambs (2), the Passover sacrifice (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 12:11. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Chronicles (19), Numbers (11), Exodus (6), Deuteronomy (4).
The Hebrew noun pesaḥ names the Passover sacrifice and the observance centered on the Lord's deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Exodus uses it for the meal eaten in haste, the sacrifice whose blood marked Israelite homes, and the answer parents were to give children who asked about the rite. Numbers makes provision for people who were ceremonially unclean or away on a journey, while still treating deliberate neglect seriously.
Deuteronomy joins the observance to remembering that the Lord brought Israel out by night. Joshua records Passover after entry into the land, and Chronicles and Ezra describe renewed observance after seasons of covenant disorder and exile. The noun does not reduce salvation to ritual performance, make every participant's heart faithful, or authorize contempt for Jewish observance.
Responsible teaching keeps sacrifice, festival, memory, covenant membership, and later canonical fulfillment related without collapsing them. It honors the Exodus setting, the cost of oppression, the seriousness of worship, and the Lord's initiative in rescue.
Pesaḥ moves from the first Exodus meal and its household explanation into covenant provision, annual remembrance, life in the land, reform, and restored worship after exile.
This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
The first meal is eaten in readiness for departure while the Lord acts against Egyptian oppression and brings His people out.
You are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
The commanded family explanation identifies the sacrifice with remembered judgment and protection, not with an unexplained religious custom.
“Tell the Israelites: ‘When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a journey, he may still observe the Passover to the Lord.
A second-month provision makes room for circumstances of impurity or travel while preserving the observance's covenant seriousness.
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, because in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
Deuteronomy grounds the annual observance in the Lord's historical act of bringing Israel out of Egypt by night.
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover.
Israel keeps Passover in the land just before eating its produce and the cessation of wilderness manna.
A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, provide atonement for everyone
Hezekiah's reform holds written requirements, acknowledged irregularity, intercession, and the Lord's goodness together without treating disorder as irrelevant.
All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves.
Returned exiles celebrate after temple restoration, with purified ministers preparing the sacrifice for the gathered community and themselves.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Divine exemption from judgment marked by sacrificial blood on doorposts; Israel's foundational redemptive act
Divine exemption from judgment marked by sacrificial blood on doorposts; Israel's foundational redemptive act
a pretermission, i.e. exemption; used only techically of the Jewish Passover (the festival or the victim) BDB: passover Usage: passover (offering).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Greek words that correspond to or develop the meaning of this Hebrew word in the New Testament.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Pesaḥ names a sacrifice and observance that teaches Israel to remember the Lord's deliverance in history. Exodus does not present a generic spring festival or a private spiritual technique. Households eat in readiness while judgment falls, blood marks the houses, and later children receive an explanation of what the Lord did. Numbers shows that the covenant command includes a concrete provision for people blocked by impurity or distance, yet the same chapter warns against willful neglect.
Deuteronomy keeps memory centered on the Lord's act, and Joshua locates observance at the transition from manna to the land's produce. Chronicles records both disorder and reform, including Hezekiah's intercession for participants whose preparation did not match the written standard. Ezra places Passover within restored worship after exile. Christian teaching may trace canonical fulfillment to Christ, but it must not erase Israel's Exodus, demean Jewish people, imitate ritual details carelessly, or imply that a meal mechanically saves.
The word invites truthful remembrance, grateful obedience, patient instruction, and humble attention to God's mercy.
Exod.12.11
Pesaḥ is a masculine Hebrew noun used for the Passover sacrifice and for the observance associated with it. Context distinguishes the animal, the meal, the festival action, and calendar references without separating them from the Exodus event.
The New Testament uses the related Greek noun pascha for Passover and places Jesus' death within Passover chronology. Paul calls Christ our Passover sacrifice in First Corinthians 5, a canonical claim that should deepen rather than erase the Exodus setting and Jewish covenant memory.