2 Kings 23:21

Bible in Basic English (1941)

And the king gave orders to all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it says in this book of the law.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיְצַ֤ו הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ אֶת־כָּל־הָעָ֣ם לֵאמֹ֔ר עֲשׂ֣וּ פֶ֔סַח לַֽיהוָ֖ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֑ם כַּכָּת֕וּב עַ֛ל סֵ֥פֶר הַבְּרִ֖ית הַזֶּֽה׃

Transliteration

And-wayəṣaw the-meleḵ ʾeṯ-all-the-ʿām lēmōr: ʿăśû pesaḥ to-YHWH ʾĕlōhêḵem as-kakkāṯûḇ on sēp̄er the-bərîṯ the-this.

Grammar Details

• *wayəṣaw*: Piel waw-consecutive imperfect, 3rd masculine singular - and he commanded
• *meleḵ*: masculine singular noun - king
• *ʾeṯ*: direct object marker
• *ʿām*: masculine singular noun - people
• *lēmōr*: Qal infinitive construct - saying
• *ʿăśû*: Qal imperative, masculine plural - do/make/perform
• *pesaḥ*: masculine singular noun - Passover
• *YHWH*: divine name - LORD/Yahweh
• *ʾĕlōhêḵem*: masculine plural noun with 2nd masculine plural suffix - your God
• *kakkāṯûḇ*: Qal passive participle with prefix - as written
• *sēp̄er*: masculine singular construct noun - book/scroll of
• *bərîṯ*: feminine singular noun - covenant

Word Meanings

• *wayəṣaw*: commanded/ordered/instructed
• *meleḵ*: king/ruler
• *ʿām*: people/nation/population
• *ʿăśû*: observe/celebrate/perform
• *pesaḥ*: Passover/Passover sacrifice
• *ʾĕlōhêḵem*: your God/your deity
• *kakkāṯûḇ*: as is written/as prescribed/according to what is written
• *sēp̄er*: book/scroll/document
• *bərîṯ*: covenant/agreement/treaty

Referenced Verses

• Deut 16:1-8 : 1 Take note of the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God: for in the month of Abib the Lord your God took you out of Egypt by night. 2 The Passover offering, from your flock or your herd, is to be given to the Lord your God in the place marked out by him as the resting-place of his name. 3 Take no leavened bread with it; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread, that is, the bread of sorrow; for you came out of the land of Egypt quickly: so the memory of that day, when you came out of the land of Egypt, will be with you all your life. 4 For seven days let no leaven be used through all your land; and nothing of the flesh which is put to death in the evening of the first day is to be kept through the night till morning. 5 The Passover offering is not to be put to death in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you: 6 But in the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place of his name, there you are to put the Passover to death in the evening, at sundown, at that time of the year when you came out of Egypt. 7 It is to be cooked and taken as food in the place marked out by the Lord: and in the morning you are to go back to your tents. 8 For six days let your food be unleavened bread; and on the seventh day there is to be a holy meeting to the Lord your God; no work is to be done.
• 2 Chr 35:1-9 : 1 And Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; on the fourteenth day of the first month they put the Passover lamb to death. 2 And he gave the priests their places, making them strong for the work of the house of God. 3 And he said to the Levites, the teachers of all Israel, who were holy to the Lord, See, the holy ark is in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, made; it will no longer have to be transported on your backs: now be the servants of the Lord your God and his people Israel, 4 And make yourselves ready in your divisions, by your families, as it is ordered in the writings of David, king of Israel, and of Solomon his son; 5 And take your positions in the holy place, grouped in the families of your brothers, the children of the people, and for every division let there be a part of a family of the Levites. 6 And put the Passover lamb to death, and make yourselves holy, and make it ready for your brothers, so that the orders given by the Lord through Moses may be done. 7 And Josiah gave lambs and goats from the flock as Passover offerings for all the people who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen: these were from the king's private property. 8 And his captains freely gave an offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand, six hundred small cattle and three hundred oxen. 9 And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small cattle and five hundred oxen. 10 So everything was made ready and the priests took their places with the Levites in their divisions, as the king had said. 11 And they put the Passover lambs to death, the blood being drained out by the priests when it was given to them, and the Levites did the skinning. 12 And they took away the burned offerings, so that they might give them to be offered to the Lord for the divisions of the families of the people, as it is recorded in the book of Moses. And they did the same with the oxen. 13 And the Passover lamb was cooked over the fire, as it says in the law; and the holy offerings were cooked in pots and basins and vessels, and taken quickly to all the people. 14 And after that, they made ready for themselves and for the priests; for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burned offerings and the fat till night; so the Levites made ready what was needed for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. 15 And the sons of Asaph, the makers of melody, were in their places, as ordered by David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king's seer; and the door-keepers were stationed at every door: there was no need for them to go away from their places, for their brothers the Levites made ready for them. 16 So everything needed for the worship of the Lord was made ready that same day, for the keeping of the Passover and the offering of burned offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah had given orders. 17 And all the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread at that time for seven days. 18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; and not one of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover like the one kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all those of Judah and Israel who were present, and the people of Jerusalem. 19 In the eighteenth year of the rule of Josiah this Passover was kept.
• Exod 12:3-9 : 3 Say to all the children of Israel when they are come together, In the tenth day of this month every man is to take a lamb, by the number of their fathers' families, a lamb for every family: 4 And if the lamb is more than enough for the family, let that family and its nearest neighbour have a lamb between them, taking into account the number of persons and how much food is needed for every man. 5 Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year: you may take it from among the sheep or the goats: 6 Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark. 7 Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken. 8 And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb, cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants. 9 Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water, but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its inside parts. 10 Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is not used is to be burned with fire. 11 And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it quickly: it is the Lord's Passover. 12 For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord. 13 And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt. 14 And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as an order for ever. 15 For seven days let your food be unleavened bread; from the first day no leaven is to be seen in your houses: whoever takes bread with leaven in it, from the first till the seventh day, will be cut off from Israel. 16 And on the first day there is to be a holy meeting and on the seventh day a holy meeting; no sort of work may be done on those days but only to make ready what is necessary for everyone's food. 17 So keep the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very day I have taken your armies out of the land of Egypt: this day, then, is to be kept through all your generations by an order for ever. 18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day, let your food be unleavened bread till the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be seen in your houses: for whoever takes bread which is leavened will be cut off from the people of Israel, if he is from another country or if he is an Israelite by birth. 20 Take nothing which has leaven in it; wherever you are living let your food be unleavened cakes.
• Lev 23:5-8 : 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at nightfall, is the Lord's Passover; 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you will have a holy meeting; you may do no sort of field-work. 8 And every day for seven days you will give a burned offering to the Lord; and on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting; you may do no field-work.
• Num 9:2-5 : 2 Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its regular time. 3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you are to keep it at the regular time, and in the way ordered in the law. 4 And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel to keep the Passover. 5 So they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the waste land of Sinai: as the Lord gave orders to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
• Num 28:16-25 : 16 And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is the Lord's Passover. 17 On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a feast; for seven days let your food be unleavened cakes. 18 On the first day there is to be a holy meeting: you may do no sort of field-work: 19 And you are to give an offering made by fire, a burned offering to the Lord; two oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: 20 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil: let three tenth parts of an ephah be offered for an ox and two tenth parts for a male sheep; 21 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs; 22 And one he-goat for a sin-offering to take away your sin. 23 These are to be offered in addition to the morning burned offering, which is a regular burned offering at all times. 24 In this way, every day for seven days, give the food of the offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord: it is to be offered in addition to the regular burned offering, and its drink offering. 25 Then on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting; you may do no field-work.