פסח

פסח¹ Passover

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: pesaḥ, pausal pāsaḥ^[1][2]
• Samaritan reading tradition: afsa, fsa^[3][2]

Forms

פֶּסַח (pesaḥ) noun, masculine, plural פְּסָחִים^[1][4] Pausal פָּסַח; plural פְּסָחִים, only in Chronicles (2 Chronicles 30:17, 35:7–9).^[2][5]

Etymology

The name of the feast is usually derived from פָּסַח (pāsaḥ, “to pass over, spare”), after Exodus 12:13, where God “passes over” the houses marked with blood;^[5][6][7] but HALOT calls any connection between the noun and the verb uncertain and disputed,^[2] and Gesenius–Buhl finds the usual explanation, “feast of sparing”, without linguistic grounds.^[8] Other proposals reported by BDB and Gesenius–Buhl are Zimmern's comparison with Akkadian pašāḫu (“to soothe, placate (a deity)”) and Schwally's sacrificial dance, from the sense “to limp”.^[5][8] Wiktionary compares Akkadian passahu (“to soothe, make soft”) and Arabic فَسَخَ (fasaḵa, “to annul”).^[4]

The same noun appears in Egyptian and Jewish Aramaic as פִּסְחָא (pisḥā) and in Syriac as ܦܨܚܐ (peṣḥā).^[2][9] HALOT traces the rite itself to an old apotropaic spring ritual of herdsmen, later tied to the Exodus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is a term of the Pentateuch's laws and of the reform narratives, never of poetry: 26 of its 49 occurrences are in Genesis–Kings and 19 in Chronicles and Ezra.^[1] The Priestly instructions of Exodus 12 give the meal bə-ḥippāzôn pesaḥ hûʾ la-YHWH, “in haste: it is the LORD's Passover” (Exodus 12:11), and the older account in the same chapter calls it zeḇaḥ pesaḥ, the Passover sacrifice (Exodus 12:27).^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

In the Bible pesaḥ is both the feast on the fourteenth of the first month and the animal slaughtered and eaten that night: one “keeps” (ʿāśâ) the Passover, “slaughters” (šāḥaṭ) it and “eats” it, and the plural in Chronicles means the lambs or animals for the offering.^[2][5] The Septuagint gives it as Ancient Greek πάσχα (páskha), from the Aramaic form, and in Chronicles transliterates the Hebrew as φασεκ;^[1][2][10] Latin took pascha, the word for both Passover and Easter, and the Vulgate also has phase.^[2][11] The Dead Sea Scrolls use the word 68 times, twelve each in the calendar texts 4Q320 and 4Q321.^[12] The Mishnah explains the name by God's passing over the houses in Egypt (Pesaḥim 10:5),^[13] and Menahem ben Saruq listed this pesaḥ under a sense of the verb close to compassion, apart from the lame.^[14] English Passover was coined by Tyndale in 1530 from the verb phrase pass over.^[15] In Modern Hebrew פֶּסַח (pésakh) is the festival.^[4]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the Passover laws of Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 9 and Deuteronomy 16, and Josiah's Passover in 2 Kings 23.^[2][1]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – the Passovers of Hezekiah and Josiah in 2 Chronicles 30 and 35, with the plural pəsāḥîm.^[2][1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek πάσχα (páskha) and φασεκ.^[16][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 68 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls, many in calendar texts.^[17][12]
• c. 200 AD – the Mishnah's explanation of the name (Pesaḥim 10:5).^[18][13]
• 10th century – Menahem ben Saruq's Maḥberet.^[19][14]
• 1530 – Tyndale coins English Passover.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. the Passover, the spring festival of the fourteenth of the first month.^[2][5]
2. the Passover sacrifice, the animal slaughtered and eaten at the feast.^[2][5]
3. (plural, late) Passover lambs; the animals for the Passover offerings.^[2]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew פֶּסַח (pésakh)^[4]
• Aramaic פִּסְחָא (pisḥā), whence Greek πάσχα (páskha), Latin pascha and English Pasch^[2][11]
• English Passover, a calque by Tyndale^[15]

פסח² lame

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: pissēaḥ, plural pisḥîm^[1][20]
• Samaritan reading tradition: fēsi^[3][20]

Forms

פִּסֵּחַ (p̄issēᵃḥ) adjective^[1] Plural פִּסְחִים.^[20][21]

Etymology

The adjective is formed on the root of פָּסַח (pāsaḥ, “to limp”) with the qattil pattern of bodily defects.^[20][22] The root is compared with Akkadian pessû (“lame, limping”),^[20][23] and Klein and HALOT also with Arabic فَسَخَ (fasaḵa, “to dislocate”);^[22][24] Gesenius–Buhl points out that the Akkadian word speaks against the Arabic one, whose third consonant does not match.^[25]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Holiness Code excludes from the priesthood ʾîš ʿiwwēr ʾô p̄issēaḥ, “a man who is blind or lame” (Leviticus 21:18), and Deuteronomy forbids a lame animal as a sacrifice (Deuteronomy 15:21).^[1][20]

Semantic evolution

HALOT divides the uses into people and animals.^[20] People: the blind and the lame of Jebusite Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6–8), Mephibosheth, lame in both feet (2 Samuel 9:13), and Job, who was “feet to the lame” (Job 29:15); in the prophets the lame will leap like a deer (Isaiah 35:6) and come home among the returning exiles (Jeremiah 31:8).^[20][1] Animals: a lame victim is unfit for the altar (Deuteronomy 15:21, Malachi 1:8, 13).^[20] The Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek χωλός (khōlós).^[1] The Scrolls use it 16 times, including the Damascus Document, the Rule of the Congregation (1QSa) and the War Scroll (1QM).^[12] The rabbis asked whether Leviticus 21:18 meant lame in one foot or in both,^[21] and in Modern Hebrew פִּסֵּחַ (piséakh) is “lame”.^[4]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the priestly and sacrificial laws (Leviticus 21:18, Deuteronomy 15:21) and the stories of David (2 Samuel 5, 9, 19).^[20][1]
• Prophets – the lame leap like a deer (Isaiah 35:6).^[20]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek χωλός (khōlós).^[16][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 16 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[17][12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. lame, limping, of a person.^[20][26]
2. lame, of an animal, and so unfit for sacrifice.^[20]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew פִּסֵּחַ (piséakh)^[4]

פסח³ to pass over, spare; to limp

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: pāsaḥ, first person pāsaḥtî^[1][24]
• Samaritan reading tradition: fā̊sa, fā̊sātti^[3]

Forms

פָּסַח (p̄āsaḥ) verb^[1] Qal perfect פָּסַח, וּפָסַחְתִּי, infinitive absolute פָּסֹחַ, participle פֹּסְחִים; niphal imperfect יִפָּסֵחַ; piel imperfect וַיְפַסְּחוּ.^[24]

Etymology

HALOT treats “to limp” and “to pass by, spare” as one verb, and compares Arabic فَسَخَ (fasaḵa, “to dislocate, put out of joint”) and Akkadian pessû (“lame”);^[24] Kopf compared instead Arabic فَسَحَ (fasaḥa, “to be distant”).^[24] BDB lists “to pass over” and “to limp” under separate headwords, and Gesenius–Buhl doubts the sense “to pass over” altogether, taking Exodus 12 as “to hop over something and leave it untouched” and Isaiah 31:5 as denominative from פֶּסַח (pesaḥ), “to keep the Passover”.^[27][25] Klein gives a single root, “to limp, be lame, spring or pass over”.^[22] Other explanations of the Exodus passage listed by HALOT and CAL are Keel's “to leap, hop” and “to protect, squat down on”, which Irwin finds in Isaiah 31:5.^[24][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Three of the four uses of “to pass over” are in the Exodus 12 account: û-p̄āsaḥtî ʿălēḵem, “and I will pass over you”, when God sees the blood on the doorposts (Exodus 12:13).^[1][24] The sense “to limp” is first in the story of Mephibosheth, who fell as a child way-yippāsēaḥ, “and became lame” (2 Samuel 4:4).^[1][24]

Semantic evolution

The four passages of sparing are Exodus 12:13, 23, 27, where the LORD passes over the Israelite houses, and Isaiah 31:5, where he will protect Jerusalem, pāsōaḥ wə-himlîṭ, “sparing and rescuing”.^[24][28] The Septuagint read this as protection: Ancient Greek σκεπάζω (skepázō, “to cover, shelter”) in Exodus 12:13 and 27, παρέρχομαι (parérkhomai, “to pass by”) in 12:23.^[1] The limping sense has three uses: the niphal of Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 4:4), Elijah's taunt ʿad-māṯay ʾattem pōsəḥîm ʿal-šətê has-səʿippîm, “how long will you limp between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21), and the piel of the prophets of Baal, who “limped about the altar”, which HALOT takes as a hobbling cultic dance (1 Kings 18:26).^[24][27] In the 10th century Menahem ben Saruq kept the two senses apart, glossing the Passover passages by “compassion” and listing the lame separately.^[19][14] In Rabbinic Hebrew the qal is “to leap over, spare” and the niphal “to become lame”,^[13][24] and Modern Hebrew פָּסַח (pasákh) keeps the verb.^[4]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the LORD passes over the houses (Exodus 12:13, 23, 27); Mephibosheth becomes lame (2 Samuel 4:4); Elijah's taunt (1 Kings 18:21, 26).^[24][1]
• Prophets – Isaiah 31:5, the LORD spares Jerusalem.^[24]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders Exodus 12:13 with Ancient Greek σκεπάζω (skepázō).^[16][1]
• c. 200 AD – the Mishnah links the verb to the name of the Passover (Pesaḥim 10:5).^[18][13]
• 10th century – Menahem ben Saruq glosses the Passover verb by compassion.^[19][14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (qal, with עַל) to pass over, pass by and so spare; to protect.^[24][28]
2. (qal) to be lame, to limp; figuratively, to waver between two opinions.^[24]
3. (niphal) to become lame.^[24]
4. (piel) to limp about, perform a hobbling cultic dance.^[24]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew פָּסַח (pasákh)^[4]