# at midnight

"in the middle of the night"

# all the firstborn in the land of Egypt ... all the firstborn of cattle

Here, "firstborn" always refers to the oldest male offspring. See how you translated a similar phrase in [Exodus 11:5](../11/04.md).

# who sat on his throne

This refers to Pharaoh.

# the firstborn of the person in prison

"to the firstborn of people in prison." This refers to prisoners, in general, and not to a specific person in prison.

# There was loud lamenting in Egypt

This can be stated with a verbal form. AT: "All the Egyptians cried loudly" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-abstractnouns]])

# for there was not a house where there was not someone dead

This double negative emphasizes the positive. AT: "because someone was dead in every house" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-doublenegatives]])

# translationWords

* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/firstborn]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/names/pharaoh]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/throne]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/prison]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/cow]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/servant]]
* [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/lament]]