What Does “Passover” Mean?

Why is Passover called “Passover”? The traditional, most popular explanation is that during the tenth plague, when God was going through the land of Egypt, killing the firstborn of every family, he “passed over” the houses of the Israelites, thus sparing the lives of their firstborn.

Indeed, the Hebrew word for “Passover”, pesaḥ, comes from the verb pāsaḥ, which is often rendered “pass over” in English. Both terms occur in the biblical narrative of the Passover story:

Exodus 12:13, 23, 26–27 ESV The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over [pāsaḥ] you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. ... For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over [pāsaḥ] the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. ... And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover [pesaḥ], for he passed over [pāsaḥ] the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’

Many translations render pāsaḥ as “pass over”. This gives the impression that when God came to an Israelite house and saw the blood of the lamb applied to its doorpost and lintel, he “skipped over” that house and went on to the next house. However, pāsaḥ does not mean “to pass over” in this context.

The Hebrew verb pāsaḥ could also mean “to hover”, as it does in 1 Kings 18:21:

1 Kings 18:21 ESV And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping [pāsaḥ] between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

The Hebrew word for “limping” here is the verb pāsaḥ. The Hebrew word for “between” here is the preposition ʿal, which actually means “over”. Hence, in this context, pāsaḥ should mean “to hover”, and a better translation of Elijah’s question would be: “Until when will you keep hovering over these two opinions?”

In Isaiah 31:5, the Lord’s saving work regarding Jerusalem is likened to flying birds:

Like birds flying, so YHWH of hosts will shield Jerusalem;
shielding and rescuing,
hovering [pāsaḥ] and extricating.

Notice that the Hebrew word rendered “hovering” here is the verb pāsaḥ. In this verse, the verb pāsaḥ is used in parallel with other verbs related to salvation—both passive (protection) and active (deliverance):

This shows that when pāsaḥ takes on the meaning “to hover”, it may contain the nuance of protection. Just as a bird hovers protectively over its nest and its young, so also the Lord hovers protectively over Jerusalem.

Every time the verb pāsaḥ occurs in the Book of Exodus (12:13, 23, 27), it is followed by the preposition ʿal, “over”. Hence, the best way to understand the meaning of pāsaḥ in those passages is not that the Lord simply “skipped over” the houses of the Israelites when he saw the blood of the lamb, but that he “hovered (protectively) over” them.

Interestingly, this understanding is reflected in the Septuagint, the common Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible made in the third and second centuries BCE. In the Septuagint’s translation of Exodus 12, the Hebrew verb pāsaḥ is rendered by the Greek verb skepazō, meaning “to protect”.