“The verb ‘pass over’ has a deeper meaning here than the idea of stepping or leaping over something to avoid contact. It is not the common Hebrew verb, a-bhar, or ga-bhar, which is frequently used in that sense. The word used here is pasah, from which comes the noun pesah, which is translated Passover. These words have no connection with any other Hebrew word, but they do resemble the Egyptian word pesh, which means ‘to spread wings over’ in order to protect. Arthur W. Pink, in his book Gleanings in Exodus, sheds further light on this. Quoting from Urquhart, he states:” “‘The word is used . . . in this sense in Isa. 31:5: ‘As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it; and passing over (pasoach, participle of pasach) He will preserve it’. The word has, consequently, the very meaning of the Egyptian term for ‘spreading the wings over’, and ‘protecting’; and pesach, the Lord’s Passover, means such sheltering and protection as is found under the outstretched wings of the Almighty. Does this not give a new fulness to those words . . . ‘O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! . . . How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen does gather her brood under her wings’ (Luke 13:34)? . . .”

(Ceil and Moishe Rosen, Christ in the Passover: Why is this Night Different?, Chicago: Moody Press, 1978, 22)