12:22 Take a branch of hyssop,60 dip it in the blood that is in the basin,61 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 out62 the door of his house until morning.
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.
61
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).
62
tnHeb “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.