Exodus 12:22

12:22 Take a branch of hyssop, ¹  dip it in the blood that is in the basin, ²  and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin. Not one of you is to go out ³  the door of his house until morning.

Exodus 30:18

30:18 “You are also to make a large bronze ⁴  basin with a bronze stand ⁵  for washing. You are to put it between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it, ⁶ 

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¹ sn The hyssop is a small bush that grows throughout the Sinai, probably the aromatic herb Origanum Maru L., or Origanum Aegyptiacum. The plant also grew out of the walls in Jerusalem (1 Kgs 4:33). See L. Baldensperger and G. M. Crowfoot, “Hyssop,” PEQ 63 (1931): 89-98. A piece of hyssop was also useful to the priests because it worked well for sprinkling.

² tn The Greek and the Vulgate translate סַף (saf, “basin”) as “threshold.” W. C. Kaiser reports how early traditions grew up about the killing of the lamb on the threshold (“Exodus,” EBC 2:376).

³ tn Heb “and you, you shall not go out, a man from the door of his house.” This construction puts stress on prohibiting absolutely everyone from going out.

⁴ sn The metal for this object was obtained from the women from their mirrors (see Exod 38:8).

⁵ tn Heb “and its stand bronze.”

⁶ tn The form is the adverb “there” with the directive qamets-he ( ָה).