Exodus 12

Ex 12:1-10.

THE

PASSOVER

INSTITUTED.

1. the Lord spake unto Moses--rather, "had spoken unto

Moses and Aaron"; for it is evident that the communication here

described must have been made to them on or before the tenth of the

month.

2. this month shall be unto you the beginning of months--the

first not only in order but in estimation. It had formerly been the

seventh according to the reckoning of the civil year, which began in

September, and continued unchanged, but it was thenceforth to stand

first in the national religious year which began in March, April.

3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel--The recent

events had prepared the Israelitish people for a crisis in their

affairs, and they seem to have yielded implicit obedience at this time

to Moses. It is observable that, amid all the hurry and bustle of such

a departure, their serious attention was to be given to a solemn act of

religion.

a lamb for an house--a kid might be taken

(Ex 12:5).

The service was to be a domestic one, for the deliverance was to be

from an evil threatened to every house in Egypt.

4. if the household be too little for the lamb, &c.--It appears

from JOSEPHUS that ten persons were required to

make up the proper paschal communion.

every man according to his eating--It is said that the quantity

eaten of the paschal lamb, by each individual, was about the size of an

olive.

5. lamb . . . without blemish--The smallest deformity

or defect made a lamb unfit for sacrifice--a type of Christ

(Heb 7:26;

1Pe 1:19).

a male of the first year--Christ in the prime of life.

6. keep it up until the fourteenth day, &c.--Being selected from

the rest of the flock, it was to be separated four days before

sacrifice; and for the same length of time was Christ under examination

and His spotless innocence declared before the world.

kill it in the evening--that is, the interval between the sun's

beginning to decline, and sunset, corresponding to our three o'clock in

the afternoon.

7. take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts,

&c.--as a sign of safety to those within. The posts must be considered

of tents, in which the Israelites generally lived, though some might be

in houses. Though the Israelites were sinners as well as the Egyptians,

God was pleased to accept the substitution of a lamb--the blood of

which, being seen sprinkled on the doorposts, procured them

mercy. It was to be on the sideposts and upper doorposts, where it

might be looked to, not on the threshold, where it might be

trodden under foot. This was an emblem of the blood of sprinkling

(Heb 12:24; 10:29).

8. roast with fire--for the sake of expedition; and this

difference was always observed between the cooking of the paschal lamb

and the other offerings

(2Ch 35:13).

unleavened bread--also for the sake of despatch

(De 16:3),

but as a kind of corruption

(Lu 12:1)

there seems to have been a typical meaning under it

(1Co 5:8).

bitter herbs--literally, "bitters"--to remind the Israelites of

their affliction in Egypt, and morally of the trials to which God's

people are subject on account of sin.

9. Eat not of it raw--that is, with any blood remaining; a

caveat against conformity to idolatrous practices. It was to be roasted

whole, not a bone to be broken, and this pointed to Christ

(Joh 19:36).

10. let nothing of it remain until the morning--which might be

applied in a superstitious manner, or allowed to putrefy, which in a

hot climate would speedily have ensued; and which was not becoming in

what had been offered to God.

Ex 12:11-14.

THE

RITE OF THE

PASSOVER.

11. thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your

feet--as prepared for a journey. The first was done by the skirts

of the loose outer cloth being drawn up and fastened in the girdle, so

as to leave the leg and knee free for motion. As to the other, the

Orientals never wear shoes indoors, and the ancient Egyptians, as

appears from the monuments, did not usually wear either shoes or

sandals. These injunctions seem to have applied chiefly to the first

celebration of the rite.

it is the Lord's passover--called by this name from the

blood-marked dwellings of the Israelites being passed over

figuratively by the destroying angel.

12. smite . . . gods of Egypt--perhaps used here for

princes and grandees. But, according to Jewish tradition, the idols of

Egypt were all on that night broken in pieces (see

Nu 33:4;

Isa 19:1).

14. for a memorial, &c.--The close analogy traceable in all

points between the Jewish and Christian passovers is seen also in the

circumstance that both festivals were instituted before the events they

were to commemorate had transpired.

Ex 12:15-51.

UNLEAVENED

BREAD.

15. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread, &c.--This was to

commemorate another circumstance in the departure of the Israelites,

who were urged to leave so hurriedly that their dough was unleavened

(Ex 12:39),

and they had to eat unleavened cakes

(De 16:3).

The greatest care was always taken by the Jews to free their houses

from leaven--the owner searching every corner of his dwelling with a

lighted candle. A figurative allusion to this is made

(1Co 5:7).

The exclusion of leaven for seven days would not be attended with

inconvenience in the East, where the usual leaven is dough kept till it

becomes sour, and it is kept from one day to another for the purpose of

preserving leaven in readiness. Thus even were there none in all the

country, it could be got within twenty-four hours

[HARMER].

that soul shall be cut off--excommunicated from the community

and privileges of the chosen people.

16. there shall be an holy convocation--literally,

calling of the people, which was done by sound of trumpets

(Nu 10:2),

a sacred assembly--for these days were to be regarded as

Sabbaths--excepting only that meat might be cooked on them

(Ex 16:23).

17. ye shall observe, &c.--The seven days of this feast were to

commence the day after the passover. It was a distinct festival

following that feast; but although this feast was instituted like the

passover before the departure, the observance of it did not take

place till after.

19. stranger--No foreigner could partake of the passover, unless

circumcised; the "stranger" specified as admissible to the privilege

must, therefore, be considered a Gentile proselyte.

21-25. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, &c.--Here

are given special directions for the observance.

22. hyssop--a small red moss [HASSELQUIST];

the caper-plant [ROYLE]. It was used in the

sprinkling, being well adapted for such purposes, as it grows in

bushes--putting out plenty of suckers from a single root. And it is

remarkable that it was ordained in the arrangements of an all-wise

Providence that the Roman soldiers should undesignedly, on their part,

make use of this symbolical plant to Christ when, as our Passover, He

was sacrificed for us

[Joh 19:29].

none . . . shall go out at the door of his house until the

morning--This regulation was peculiar to the first celebration, and

intended, as some think, to prevent any suspicion attaching to them of

being agents in the impending destruction of the Egyptians; there is an

allusion to it

(Isa 26:20).

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.

27, 28. the people bowed the head, and worshipped--All the

preceding directions were communicated through the elders, and the

Israelites, being deeply solemnized by the influence of past and

prospective events, gave prompt and faithful obedience.

29. at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of

Egypt--At the moment when the Israelites were observing the newly

instituted feast in the singular manner described, the threatened

calamity overtook the Egyptians. It is more easy to imagine than

describe the confusion and terror of that people suddenly roused from

sleep and enveloped in darkness--none could assist their neighbors when

the groans of the dying and the wild shrieks of mourners were heard

everywhere around. The hope of every family was destroyed at a stroke.

This judgment, terrible though it was, evinced the equity of divine

retribution. For eighty years the Egyptians had caused the male

children of the Israelites to be cast into the river

[Ex 1:16],

and now all their own first-born fell under the stroke of the

destroying angel. They were made, in the justice of God, to feel

something of what they had made His people feel. Many a time have the

hands of sinners made the snares in which they have themselves been

entangled, and fallen into the pit which they have dug for the

righteous

[Pr 28:10].

"Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth"

[Ps 58:11].

30. there was not a house where there was not one dead--Perhaps

this statement is not to be taken absolutely. The Scriptures frequently

use the words "all," "none," in a comparative sense--and so in this

case. There would be many a house in which there would be no child,

and many in which the first-born might be already dead. What is to be

understood is, that almost every house in Egypt had a death in it.

31. called for Moses and Aaron--a striking fulfilment of the

words of Moses

(Ex 11:8),

and showing that they were spoken under divine suggestion.

32. also take your flocks, &c.--All the terms the king had

formerly insisted on were now departed from; his pride had been

effectually humbled. Appalling judgments in such rapid succession

showed plainly that the hand of God was against him. His own family

bereavement had so crushed him to the earth that he not only showed

impatience to rid his kingdom of such formidable neighbors, but even

begged an interest in their prayers.

34. people took . . . their kneading-troughs--Having

lived so long in Egypt, they must have been in the habit of using the

utensils common in that country. The Egyptian kneading-trough was a

bowl of wicker or rush work, and it admitted of being hastily wrapped

up with the dough in it and slung over the shoulder in their

hykes or loose upper garments.

35. children of Israel borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of

silver--When the Orientals go to their sacred festivals, they

always put on their best jewels. The Israelites themselves

thought they were only going three days' journey to hold a feast unto

the Lord, and in these circumstances it would be easy for them to

borrow what was necessary for a sacred festival. But

borrow conveys a wrong meaning. The word rendered borrow

signifies properly to ask, demand, require. The Israelites had

been kept in great poverty, having received little or no wages. They

now insisted on full remuneration for all their labor, and it was paid

in light and valuable articles adapted for convenient carriage.

36. the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the

Egyptians--Such a dread of them was inspired into the universal

minds of the Egyptians, that whatever they asked was readily given.

spoiled the Egyptians--The accumulated earnings of many years

being paid them at this moment, the Israelites were suddenly enriched,

according to the promise made to Abraham

(Ge 15:14),

and they left the country like a victorious army laden with spoil

(Ps 105:37;

Eze 39:10).

37. The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses--now generally

identified with the ancient Heroopolis, and fixed at the modern

Abu-Keisheid. This position agrees with the statement that the

scene of the miraculous judgments against Pharaoh was "in the field of

Zoan"

[Ps 78:12, 43].

And it is probable that, in expectation of their departure, which the

king on one pretext or another delayed, the Israelites had been

assembled there as a general rendezvous. In journeying from Rameses to

Palestine, there was a choice of two routes--the one along the shores

of the Mediterranean to El-Arish, the other more circuitous round the

head of the Red Sea and the desert of Sinai. The latter Moses was

directed to take

(Ex 13:17).

to Succoth--that is, booths, probably nothing more than a place

of temporary encampment. The Hebrew word signifies a covering or

shelter formed by the boughs of trees; and hence, in memory of this

lodgment, the Israelites kept the feast of tabernacles yearly in this

manner.

six hundred thousand . . . men--It appears from

Nu 1:3

that the enumeration is of men above twenty years of age. Assuming,

what is now ascertained by statistical tables, that the number of males

above that age is as nearly as possible the half of the total number of

males, the whole male population of Israel, on this computation, would

amount to 1,200,000; and adding an equal number for women and children,

the aggregate number of Israelites who left Egypt would be

2,400,000.

38. a mixed multitude went with them--literally, "a great

rabble" (see also

Nu 11:4;

De 29:11);

slaves, persons in the lowest grades of society, partly natives and

partly foreigners, bound close to them as companions in misery, and

gladly availing themselves of the opportunity to escape in the crowd.

(Compare

Zec 8:23).

40. the sojourning of the children of Israel . . . four

hundred and thirty years--The Septuagint renders it thus:

"The sojourning of the children and of their fathers, which they

sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt." These

additions are important, for the period of sojourn in Egypt did not

exceed two hundred fifteen years; but if we reckon from the time that

Abraham entered Canaan and the promise was made in which the sojourn of

his posterity in Egypt was announced, this makes up the time to four

hundred thirty years.

41. even the selfsame day--implying an exact and literal

fulfilment of the predicted period.

49. One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the

stranger--This regulation displays the liberal spirit of the Hebrew

institutions. Any foreigner might obtain admission to the privileges of

the nation on complying with their sacred ordinances. In the Mosaic

equally as in the Christian dispensation, privilege and duty were

inseparably conjoined.