See Exodus 12.12-42, especially verses 21-30. It is implied that Moses showed his trust in God, and therefore his belief in Israel’s future, by obeying God’s instructions. Here, as usual, faith is forward-looking and is expressed in active obedience to God.
The clause so that the Angel of Death would not kill the first-born sons of the Israelites is related only to order the blood to be sprinkled on the doors, not to establish the Passover.
The word for establish suggests the beginning of something which continues to the writer’s time. This applies strictly only to the Passover, not to the sprinkling of blood on the doors.
Passover has a glossary note in some translations, including Good News Bible fourth edition.
The initial statement of this verse, namely, It was faith that made him establish the Passover, may need to be somewhat restructured and amplified; for example, “Because Moses trusted God, he instituted the Passover Festival,” “… he caused the people to celebrate the festival for remembering the angel’s passing over,” or “… the festival called ‘the passing over of the angel.’ ”
If it is necessary to expand the reference to the Passover, it may be best to end the sentence after the reference to the Passover Festival and to begin a new sentence as “He also ordered blood to be sprinkled on the doors” or “He also ordered the people to sprinkle blood on their doors.” In this way the purpose of sprinkling the doors, namely, to avoid death from the angel, is made quite specific.
The Angel of Death (New English Bible and New American Bible “destroying angel”) is literally “the Destroyer” (Revised Standard Version). The first readers would probably understand Exodus 12 to speak of an angel, but some modern readers will need to be given this information. The phrase the Angel of Death may be rendered as “the angel who brings death,” “the angel who causes people to die,” or “the angel who kills.” The fundamental difficulty is that people’s ideas about supernatural beings vary so much from one culture to another. The main elements in “the Destroyer,” here as in Exodus 12, are (a) a supernatural power, (b) sent by God, (c) to destroy God’s enemies (in this case the Egyptians). There is also (d) a suggestion of military activity. To convey this in translation raises problems. In Western cultures, angels are often thought of as sweet, peaceful, and usually feminine. Non-Western cultures may lack the idea of a secondary supernatural power completely under the control of the one God. It may be better to avoid the traditional term for “angel,” which in any case is not in the Greek text, and expand “the Destroyer” to something like “a spirit sent by God to destroy his enemies.” The Greek has “the destroyer,” which assumes that this figure was well known to the original readers. “A destroyer,” expanded if necessary, may be better for modern readers.
On the doors is made explicit on the basis of Exodus 12, and of the Israelites expands the Greek “of them,” for the sake of clarity. Revised Standard Version‘s literal translation does not make it clear that “the first-born” and “them” are the same group of people. Good News Translation makes the meaning plain.
The first-born sons of the Israelites may be expressed as “the first sons in the families of the Israelites,” or more specifically “the first-born son in each of the families of the Israelites.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .