A plural noun meaning watches, vigils, or times of watchful observation, appearing twice in Exodus 12:42 in the Passover narrative. The text declares that the night of the Exodus was 'a night of vigils to the LORD,' when he kept watch over Israel, and therefore it is 'a night of vigils for all the people of Israel throughout their generations.' The term emphasizes not sleep but wakefulness, not rest but alertness—a night when God watched over his people and they, in turn, are to keep vigil in remembrance. The multilingual glosses ('watching,' 'vigilias,' 'veillant') uniformly convey the sense of staying awake, keeping watch.