21
The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ham·me·leḵ ’eṯ- way·ṣaw kāl- hā·‘ām lê·mōr ‘ă·śū p̄e·saḥ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem kak·kā·ṯūḇ ‘al haz·zeh sê·p̄er hab·bə·rîṯ
Word by word15 · parsed
√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
√ tsâvâh — (intensively) to constitute, enjoinConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
tsâvâh: to constitute, enjoin (Piel) The verb of covenant charge, the same stem used of God charging Moses. A king enjoining Passover is doing something formally odd: the feast was already commanded from Sinai. The decree is therefore not legislation but restoration, the civil arm putting behind an ordinance that had never been repealed and had simply stopped being obeyed exactly.
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine singular
√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalImperativemasculine plural
ʻâsâh: to do or make (Qal imperative, m. pl.) Plural, addressed to all the people, not to the priesthood. The Passover in Exodus 12 is a household rite before it is a temple rite, and Josiah's imperative reaches every house. Both following verses report the outcome in the passive of this same verb, so that v. 21 to v. 23 form a single command-and-completion unit sealed by one root.
√ peçach — a pretermission, iNounmasculine singular
peçach: a pretermission, a passing over Strong's glosses the noun by its causal event, the passing-over of the destroyer, so the feast is named for an act of divine restraint rather than for deliverance in the abstract. Note the absence of the article: a Passover, an occurrence of the thing, which is exactly Ellicott's rendering, "Hold a passover"; the definite "this Passover" appears only in v. 23, after the event has become historic. Pulpit locates the governing statutes precisely, Exodus 12:3 to 20 and 13:5 to 10 for the ordinance itself, Deuteronomy 16:1 to 8 "with much less fullness," and infers that the scroll Hilkiah found "must, therefore, certainly have contained Exodus."
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural constructsecond person masculine plural
√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)Preposition-k, ArticleVerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine singular
kâthab: to grave, to write, to inscribe A passive participle, so no writer is named in the clause itself; the authority is the writtenness of the thing. This is the hinge of the entire Josianic reform as Kings tells it: a found text becomes the measure of a living practice. Cambridge draws the consequence, that "whatever may have come to be the manner of celebration from long usage" must now yield to "the authoritative book, recently brought to light."
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatArticlePronounmasculine singular
zeh: this (masculine demonstrative) Grammatically decisive: masculine, hence attached to the masculine sêpher. The covenant is not "this covenant" as opposed to some other; the scroll is "this scroll" as opposed to whatever else the priests had been using.
√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct
√ bᵉrîyth — a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh)ArticleNounfeminine singular
bᵉrîyth: a compact, a covenant Strong's derives the noun from the rite of passing between severed flesh. The book that names the covenant is the book that commands the Passover, and both hang on blood and on a passing-through. Benson reads the feast the same way, as "a token of their being dedicated to him who brought them out, and of their communion with him."