Exodus 12:22

And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop,.... Which some take to be "mint", others "origanum" or "marjoram", as Kimchi (s), others "rosemary", as Piscator, Rivet, and many more; and indeed this seems to

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. Then Moses called ... Here are given special directions for the observance.

A bunch of hyssop; so the Hebrew word is rightly rendered, as appears from . The door of his house, i.e. of the house wherein he did eat the passover, which ofttimes was his neighbour’ s house: see . Until the morning; till the beginning of the morning after midnight, and after the slaughter of the Egyptians’ first-born; which may reconcile those scriptures that seem to contradict one another, while some affirm they went out of Egypt by night, and others by day, for they went out in the morning very early when it was yet dark, as it is expressed in a like case, .

Exodus 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip [it] in the blood that [is] in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that [is] in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.Ver. 22. A bunch of hyssop.] A herb of a purging property. See 1 Corinthians 6:11. The blood that is in the bason.] The remembrance of Christ’ s bloody passion must be kept fresh in our hearts. Strike the lintel.] Profess Christ crucified; honour him by a holy conversation; mind trim in your outgoings and incomings. None of you shall go out.] Be not "of those that withdraw to perdition, but of them that believe to the salvation of the soul." Mingle no more with the Egyptians. Tam recens mihi nunc Christus, ac si hac hora fudisset sanguinem. - Luth.

(22) A bunch of hyssop.—The “hyssop” (êzob) of the Old Testament is probably the caper plant, called now asaf, or asuf, by the Arabs, which grows plentifully in the Sinaitic region (Stanley: Sinai and Palestine, p. 21), and is well adapted for the purpose here spoken of. It was regarded as having purifying properties (Leviticus 14:4; Leviticus 14:49-52; Numbers 19:6; Psalms 51:7), and was therefore suitable for sprinkling the blood of expiation. In the bason.—The word translated “bason” has another meaning also, viz., “threshold;” and this meaning was preferred in the present place both by the LXX. and by Jerome. Whichever translation we adopt, there is a difficulty in the occurrence of the article, since neither the threshold nor any bason had been mentioned previously. Perhaps Moses assumed that whenever a victim was offered, the blood had to be caught in a bason, and therefore spoke of “the bason” as something familiar to his hearers in this connection. If the lamb had been sacrificed on the threshold, it would scarcely have been necessary to put the blood on the lintel and doorposts also. None of you shall go out.—Moses seems to have given this command by his own authority, without any positive Divine direction. He understood that the Atoning blood was the sole protection from the destroying angel, and that outside the portal sprinkled with it was no safety.

Verse 22. A bunch of hyssop] The original word אזוב ezob has been variously translated musk, rosemary, polypody of the wall, mint, origanum, marjoram, and HYSSOP: the latter seems to be the most proper. Parkhurst says it is named from its detersive and cleansing qualities, whence it was used in sprinkling the blood of the paschal lamb, in cleansing the leprosy, Leviticus 14:4; Leviticus 14:6; Leviticus 14:51-52; in composing the water of purification, Numbers 19:6, and sprinkling it, Numbers 19:18. It was a type of the purifying virtue of the bitter sufferings of Christ. And it is plain, from Psalms 51:7, that the psalmist understood its meaning. Among botanists hyssop is described as "a genus of the gymnospermia (naked-seeded) order, belonging to the didynamia class of plants. It has under-shrubby, low, bushy stalks, growing a foot and a half high, small, spear-shaped, close-sitting, opposite leaves, with several smaller ones rising from the same joint; and all the stalks and branches terminated by erect whorled spikes of flowers of different colours, in the varieties of the plant. The leaves have an aromatic smell, and a warm pungent taste. The leaves of this plant are particularly recommended in humoral asthmas, and other disorders of the breast and lungs, and greatly promote expectoration." Its medicinal qualities were probably the reason why this plant was so particularly recommended in the Scriptures.

22. hyssop] A small plant, growing out of walls (1 Kings 4:33), a wisp of which was well adapted for sprinkling, and is accordingly prescribed to be used in various purificatory rites (Leviticus 14:4; Leviticus 14:6; Leviticus 14:49-51, Numbers 19:6; Numbers 19:18 [Hebrews 9:19]: cf. Psalms 51:7). What plant the ‘hyssop’ is, is, however, disputed; but it is in any case not our hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis, Linn.), which is not a native of Palestine. Saadiah (10 cent.) rendered by ṣ ?a‘tar, i.e. some species of satureia, or (as Kimchi explains) origanum, marjoram; so also Abul-Walid, Maimonides, Kimchi; and this explanation is adopted by Ges., Di., and others. The Pesh. zupha also means the same plant (Lφw, Aram. Pflanzennamen, No. 93)1[129]. Post (DB. s.v.) thinks that the particular species meant is the Origanum Maru, Linn. This grows in clefts of rocks, in chinks of old walls, and on the terrace walls throughout Palestine: it has straight, slender, leafy stalks, with small heads, several of the stalks growing from one root, so that a bunch or wisp suitable for sprinkling a liquid with could readily be broken off. Tristram (NHB. 456 ff.) argues in favour of the Caper (Capparis spinosa), a bright green creeper, which climbs out of fissures of rocks in the Sinaitic valleys, and hangs in abundance from the walls of Jerusalem, and the stalks of which, bearing from three to five blossoms each, would likewise be suitable for the same purpose; but the former interpretation has very strong support in ancient tradition, and there appears to be no sufficient reason for deserting it1[130]. [129] In the Talm. (Shabb. 109b), also, the Heb. ’ηzτb is identified with the Arab. sumsaḳ ?, or marjoram. [130] The Arab. ’aṣ ?af, which Tristram (NHB. 457) quotes in support of the caper, does not correspond phonetically to the Heb. ’ηzτb. In support of marjoram, see esp. Lφw’s learned discussion in the Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Academy (phil. and hist. Classe), 1909, Abh. III. John 19:29 ὑσσώπῳπεριθέντες (where Matthew 27:48 = Mark 15:36 have περιθεὶςκαλάμῳ) does not seem to have any bearing on the question which plant is meant. Different traditions may have been current; or the term ‘reed’ may have been used widely to denote the stalk of either marjoram, which may reach to 3 ft. (Lφw, p. 16), or the caper.strike the lintel … with, &c.] rather, apply some of the blood to (lit. make it draw near to or touch, as Exodus 4:25) the lintel &c. and none of you, &c.] So as to enjoy the protection of the house sprinkled with the blood. A direction not contained in vv. 1–13. door] Heb. entrance (lit. opening). So v. 23, Exodus 26:36, and often.

A bunch of hyssop - The species here designated does not appear to be the plant now bearing the name.

22, 23. Hyssop — This has not been mentioned before. The hyssop included several species of herb, but that used in Egypt was, according to Kimchi and Maimonides, wild marjoram, an aromatic plant and