Exodus 12:37-51

D. The exodus from Egypt. Legal enactments consequent on liberation

Exodus 12:37 to Exodus 13:16

37And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot, that were men [the men] beside [besides] children. 38And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle. 39And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. 40Now the sojourning [dwelling, i.e. time of dwelling] of the children of Israel, who dwelt 41[which they dwelt] in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the [end of] four hundred and thirty years, even [on] the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Jehovah went out from the land of 42Egypt. It is a night to be much observed [of solemnities] unto Jehovah for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of Jehovah to be observed of [night of solemnities unto Jehovah for] all the children of Israel in [throughout] 43their generations. And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: There shall no stranger [foreigner] eat thereof: 44But every man’s servant [every servant] that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised 45him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner [stranger] and an [a] hired servant shall not eat thereof. 46In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. 47All the congregation of Israel shall keep [sacrifice] it. 48And when a stranger [sojourner] shall sojourn with thee and will keep the [sacrifice a] passover to Jehovah, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep [sacrifice] it: and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for [but] no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. 49One law shall be to [shall there be for] him that is home-born, and unto [for] the stranger that sojourneth among you. 50Thus did all the children of Israel]; as Jehovah commanded Moses, so did they. 51And it came to pass the self-same day, that Jehovah did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies [according to their hosts].

Chap. Exodus 13:1-2 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the [every] first-born, whatsoever openeth the [any] womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 3And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage: for by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from this place [thence]: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. 4This day came [come] ye out in the month Abib. 5And it shall be, when Jehovah shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. 6Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread; and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Jehovah. 7Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven [the seven] days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters 8[borders]. And thou shalt show [tell] thy son in that day, saying, This is done [It is] because of that which Jehovah did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. 9And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine [thy] hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that Jehovah’s law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt. 10Thou shalt therefore [And thou shalt] keep this ordinance in his [its] season from year to year. 11And it shall be, when Jehovah shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee. 12That thou shalt set apart unto Jehovah all that openeth the matrix [womb], and every firstling that cometh [every first-born] of a beast [of beasts] which thou hast; the males shall be Jehovah’s. 13And every firstling [first-born] of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the first-born of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. 14And it shall be, when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand Jehovah brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: 15And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that Jehovah slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of beast: therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that openeth the matrix [womb], being 16[the] males; but all the first-born of my children I redeem. And it shall be for a token upon thine [thy] hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes; for by strength of hand Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Exodus 12:37. And the children of Israel journeyed.—On the journey see the Introduction, Keil II., p. 26, the literature above quoted, and Keil II., p. 28, Note, Knobel, p. 111 sq. About 600,000 on foot.—“רַגְלִי, as in Numbers 11:21, the infantry of an army, is added, because they went out as a warlike host (Exodus 12:41), and in the number given only the men able to bear arms, those over twenty years of age, are reckoned; הַגְּבָרִים is added because of the following לְבַד מִטַּף: ‘besides the little ones.’ טַף is used here in the wider significance of the dependent part of the family, including wife and children, as in Genesis 47:12; Numbers 32:16; Numbers 32:24, and often, those who did not travel on foot, but on beasts of burden or in wagons” (Keil). On the round number, as well as the increase of Israel in Egypt, comp, Knobel, p. 121, Keil, l. c, and the Introduction. On the fruitfulness of the land of Goshen, see Keil II., p. 29. Kurtz and Bertheau have suggested as an explanation of the great number, that we may assume that the seventy Israelites who emigrated to Egypt had several thousand men-servants and maid-servants. Keil insists that only the posterity of the seventy souls is spoken of. But compare the antithesis in Genesis 32:10 : “ one staff” and “two bands.” In Israel the faith constituted the nationality, as well as the nationality the faith, as is shown by so many examples (Rahab, Ruth, the Gibeonites, etc.), and Israel had in its religion a great attractive power.

Exodus 12:38. And a mixed multitude. עֵרֶב רַב. Vulg.: vulgus promiscuum; Luther: viel Pöbelvolk, “a great rabble”—“In typical fulfillment of the promise, Genesis 12:3, without doubt stimulated by the signs and wonders of the Lord in Egypt (comp. Exodus 9:20; Exodus 10:7; Exodus 11:3) to seek their salvation with Israel, a great multitude of mixed people joined themselves to the departing Israelites; and, according to the governing idea of the Jewish commonwealth, they could not be repelled, although these people afterwards became a snare to them. Vid. Numbers 11:4, where they are called אֲסַפְסֻף, medley” (Keil). Literally, a collection. Comp. Deuteronomy 29:11.

Exodus 12:39. Vid. Exodus 12:34. It does not mean that, they had no time to leaven their dough, but that they had no time to prepare themselves other provisions besides. The deliverance came upon them like a storm; they were even thrust out of Egypt.

Exodus 12:40. Vid. the Introduction, Keil II., p. 30. Knobel, p. 121.

Exodus 12:41. On the self-same day. Knobel says very strangely, that the meaning is that Jacob entered Egypt on the same day, the 14th of Abib. Keil understands the day before designated, Exodus 12:11-14. We assume that “day” here denotes “time” in the more general sense.

Exodus 12:42. Keil renders: night of preservation. Knobel: a festival. Both ideas are involved in שָׁמַר, and evidently the text aims to express the antithesis indicated in our translation [Lange renders: festliche Wacht, “festive vigil.”—TR.]

Exodus 12:43-45. The ordinance of the Passover.—חֻקָּה, i q.חֹק, law, statute. As Israel now begins to become a people and a popular congregation, the main features of their legal constitution are at once defined. It all starts with the Passover as the religious communion of the people, for which now circumcision is prescribed as a prerequisite. As circumcision constitutes the incipient boundary-line and separation between Israel and the life of secular people, so the paschal communion is the characteristic feature of the completed separation. First, the congregation is instituted; then follows the preliminary institution of the priesthood in the sanctification of the first-born; then the first, trace of the fixed line of distinction, in the ordinance of the feast of unleavened bread; then the first provision for the permanent sacrificial service, in Jehovah’s claiming for Himself the first-born of beasts, Exodus 13:12, while a distinction is at the same time made between clean and unclean beasts, Exodus 12:13; and finally the intimation is made that the natural sacerdotal duty of the first born shall be redeemed and transferred to a positive priesthood. The circumstance that Israel thereby came into a new relation to foreigners, “that a crowd of strangers joined themselves to the departing Israelites” (Keil), can only be regarded as one of the occasions for that fixing of the first features of the law which was here quite in place. No stranger.—What is said of the בֶּן־נֵכָר, or non-Israelite, in general, is more particularly said of the sojourner (תּוֹשָׁב) and of the hireling, day-laborer (שָׁכִיר). The latter, if not an Israelite, is a גֵּר who resides a longer or shorter time among the Israelites. Yet the exclusion is not absolute, except as regards the uncircumcised; every servant, on the other hand, who submits to circumcision (for no one could be circumcised by force, although circumcision was within the option of all) assumes the privileges and obligations of the communion. Thus, therefore, the distinction of classes, as related to the communion of the people of God, is here excluded.

Exodus 12:46. In one house shall it be eaten.—A new enforcement of the law that the communion, as such, must be maintained. The significance of the words: “Thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad,” the mediæval Church had little conception of.

Exodus 12:50-51. The next to the last verse declares that this became a fixed custom in Israel; and the last one recurs again to the identity of the festive day with the day of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

Exodus 13:1. Sanctify unto me every first-born.—“The sanctification of the first-born is closely connected with the Passover. The Passover effects (?) the exemption of the first-born of Israel, and the exemption has as its aim their sanctification” (Keil). But the thing meant is sanctification in the narrower sense, the preparation of the sacerdotal order and of the offerings; for the general sanctification comprised the whole people. Here we have to do with sanctification for the specific service of Jehovah. It is assumed that the first-born are representatives and sureties of the whole race, and that therefore, without the intervention of grace and forbearance, the first-born of Israel also would have been slain. Accordingly, the phrase: “it is mine,” refers certainly not only to the fact that Jehovah created the first-born, as Kurtz maintains, but still more to the right of possession which this gracious favor establishes. Keil denies this. It refers, he says, according to Numbers 3:13; Numbers 8:17, to the fact that Jehovah, on the day when he slew the first-born of Egypt, sanctified the first-born of Israel, and therefore spared them. An ultra-Calvinistic disposition of things, which seems to ground the exemption on Jehovah’s caprice. While the sanctification cannot be dissociated from the exemption, as little can the exemption be dissociated from the creation. The election of Israel is indeed the prerequisite of the exemption of the Israelitish first-born; but this exemption again, as an act of grace, is a condition of the special sanctification of the first-born.

Exodus 13:3. Remember this day. “In Exodus 13:3-10, the ordinance respecting the seven days’ feast of unleavened bread (Exodus 12:15-20), is made known by Moses to the people on the day of the exodus at the station Succoth” (Keil). We have already above (on Exodus 12:8) pointed out the incorrectness of this view. It is all the more incorrect, if, with Keil and others, we find in the leaven a symbol of sinfulness. The leaven which the Jews had heretofore had was connected with the leaven of Egypt, and was thus fitted to serve as a symbol of the fact that they were connected with the sinfulness of Egypt, and that this connection must be broken off. If now they had not been, driven out so hastily, they would have had time to produce for themselves a pure and specifically Jewish leaven, and this perhaps seemed the more desirable thing, as the unleavened bread was not very palatable. But for this there was no time. With this understanding of the case, we render the last clause of Exodus 13:3, “so that nothing leavened was eaten.” [This translation, however, is hardly possible. Tr.]. The house of servants. Servants of private persons they were not, it is true, but all Egypt was made for them by Pharaoh one house of slaves.

Exodus 13:4-5. The urgency in the enforcement of this feast is doubtless owing to the fact that there was no pleasure in eating the unleavened bread. Hence the festival is represented as chiefly a service rendered to God. The meals accompanying thank-offerings preserved the equilibrium.

Exodus 13:6. On the seventh day. In the line of the feast-days the seventh day is specially mentioned as the festive termination; on it work ceased, and the people assembled together.

Exodus 13:9. For a sign upon thy hand. According to Spencer, allusion is made to the heathen custom of branding marks on the forehead or hand of soldiers and slaves. Keil, referring to Deuteronomy 6:8; Deuteronomy 11:18, assumes that we are probably to understand bracelets or frontlets. But in the passages quoted a much more general inculcation of Moses’ words is meant. Inasmuch as the Jews were to observe several great festivals, it is not to be assumed that they were to be required to wear the signs only on the feast of unleavened bread; all the less, as the day was so definitely fixed. We therefore regard the expression both here and in Deuteronomy as symbolic, but suggested by a proverbial phrase borrowed from the nations of antiquity. Our language has a similar proverbial, but less elegant, expression. That the Pharisaic Jews afterwards actually made themselves such phylacteries grew out of their slavery to the letter of the law. See more in detail in Keil, II. p. 37.

Exodus 13:12. Every first-born of beasts. First, the text recurs to the common statute respecting the first-born of men and beasts; hence: “all that openeth the womb.” According to Keil, the term הֶעֱבִיר, to set apart, offer, is used to point, a contrast to the Canaanitish custom of consecrating the first-born to Moloch; he quotes Leviticus 18:21. But the verb seems to express a more original and general separation of what is offered from what is not offered; or it means to let depart. The males. With this matter, therefore, the female first-born have nothing to do. The first-born son is the head of the young house, the heir of the old house. As the heir of the old house he also assumes its guilt; as the head of the young house he must represent it. More particular specifications concerning the first-born male clean beast are given in Exodus 22:29 (30), Deuteronomy 15:21.

Exodus 13:13. The germ of the distinction between clean and unclean beasts. The substitution of a sheep or kid for the ass is a proof that the unclean beast signifies not the evil, but the profane, that which is not fitted to serve as a religious symbol.

Exodus 13:14. When thy son asketh thee. Even in the theocracy the ceremonial worship is to be not a dumb one, repressing, or even suppressing, questions and instruction, but is to be spiritualized by questions and instruction.

Exodus 13:15. All the first-born of my children. Keil opposes the view, very prevalent of old, that the sanctification of the first-born is to be derived from the destination of the first-born to be priests. But he afterwards (II., p. 36) himself brings forwards reasons which refute his own view, founded on that of Outram and Vitringa, especially by citing Numbers 4:3. Nothing can be clearer than Num 3:12.

Exodus 13:16. Also in reference to the phylacteries we hold to the symbolical interpretation of the Caraites in opposition to the literal one of the Talmudists; so Keil II., p. 37.

Footnotes:

[13][The reference is to the Corpus-Christi festival, characterized by the public processions which are held in honor of the host. Tr.]