Exodus 12:2

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, х ro'sh (H7218)] - head, or chief; the first, not only in order, but in estimation. It had been formerly 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 ecclesiastical year of the Israelites, which began in March, April. The establishment of this new calendar was worthy of the wisdom and goodness of God, as it was calculated to inspire sentiments of thankfulness to Him by the presentation of first-fruits, and consequently to withdraw the minds of the people from the worship of the Egyptian deities, to which-especially the great luminaries-many of the Israelites had shown themselves exceedingly prone.