Exodus 12:26
◄  Exodus 12:26  ►
New International Version (©2011)
And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?'

New Living Translation (©2007)
Then your children will ask, 'What does this ceremony mean?'

English Standard Version (©2001)
And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"And when your children say to you, 'What does this rite mean to you?'

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
When your children ask you, 'What does this ritual mean to you?'

International Standard Version (©2012)
And when your children say to you, 'What does this ritual mean?'

NET Bible (©2006)
When your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?'--

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
When your children ask you what this ceremony means to you,

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean you by this service?

American King James Version
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean you by this service?

American Standard Version
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when your children shall say to you: What is the meaning of this service?

Darby Bible Translation
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean ye by this service?

English Revised Version
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?

Webster's Bible Translation
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean you by this service?

World English Bible
It will happen, when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this service?'

Young's Literal Translation
and it hath come to pass when your sons say unto you, What is this service ye have?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:21-28 That night, when the first-born were to be destroyed, no Israelite must stir out of doors till called to march out of Egypt. Their safety was owing to the blood of sprinkling. If they put themselves from under the protection of that, it was at their peril. They must stay within, to wait for the salvation of the Lord; it is good to do so. In after-times they should carefully teach their children the meaning of this service. It is good for children to ask about the things of God; they that ask for the way will find it. The keeping of this solemnity every year was, 1. To look backward, that they might remember what great things God had done for them and their fathers. Old mercies, to ourselves, or to our fathers, must not be forgotten, that God may be praised, and our faith in him encouraged. 2. It was designed to look forward, as an earnest of the great sacrifice of the Lamb of God in the fulness of time. Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; his death was our life.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - When your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service. Apparently, Moses adds these injunctions by his own sole authority. He assumes that curiosity will be aroused by the strange and peculiar features of the Paschal ceremony, and that each generation in succession will wish to know its meaning and origin.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service? Of killing and roasting a lamb, and eating it with bitter herbs, and of abstaining from leavened bread.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. when your children shall say, … What mean ye by this service—Independently of some observances which were not afterwards repeated, the usages practised at this yearly commemorative feast were so peculiar that the curiosity of the young would be stimulated, and thus parents had an excellent opportunity, which they were enjoined to embrace, for instructing each rising generation in the origin and leading facts of the national faith.

Exodus 12:26 Parallel Commentaries

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The Feast of Unleavened Bread
…25And it shall come to pass, when you be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he has promised, that you shall keep this service. 26And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean you by this service? 27That you shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.

Exodus 10:2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD."
Exodus 12:25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
Exodus 13:8 On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'
Exodus 13:14 "In days to come, when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 32:7 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.
Joshua 4:6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?'
Psalm 44:1 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil. We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
Psalm 78:4 We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
Psalm 78:6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.