XII. INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER. (1) IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. — This section (Exodus 12:1) has the appearance of having been written independently of the previous narrative — earlier, probably, and as a part of the Law rather than of the history. It throws together instructions on the subject of the P... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BEGINNING OF MONTHS. — Hitherto the Hebrews had commenced the year with Tisri, at or near the autumnal equinox. (See Exodus 23:16.) In thus doing, they followed neither the Egyptian nor the Babylonian custom. The Egyptians began the year in June, with the first rise of the Nile; the Babylonians... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE TENTH DAY. — It is evident that this direction must have been given before the tenth day had arrived, probably some days before. The object of the direction was to allow ample time for the careful inspection of the animal, so that its entire freedom from all blemish might be ascertained. The... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THE HOUSEHOLD BE TOO LITTLE FOR THE LAMB. — There would be cases where the family would not be large enough to consume an entire lamb at a sitting. Where this was so, men were to club with their neighbours, either two small families joining together, or a large family drafting off some of its mem... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHOUT BLEMISH. — Natural piety teaches that we must not “offer the blind, the lame, or the sick for sacrifice” (Malachi 1:8). We must give to (_God_ of our best. The Law emphasized this teaching, and here, on the first occasion when a sacrifice was formally appointed, required it to be absolutely... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL KEEP IT UP. — Heb., _ye shall have it in custody:_ separate it, _i.e.,_ from the flock, and keep it in or near your house for four days. During this time it could be carefully and thoroughly inspected. (Comp. Exodus 12:3.) THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY OF THE CONGREGATION... SHALL KILL IT. — Every hea... [ Continue Reading ]
STRIKE IT. — With a bunch of hyssop. (See Exodus 12:22.) THE TWO SIDE POSTS AND ON THE UPPER DOOR POST. — The idea seems to have been that the destroying influence, whatever it was, would enter the house by the door. The sight of the bloody stains above the door and on either side would prevent its... [ Continue Reading ]
ROAST WITH FIRE. — Roasting is the simplest, the easiest, and the most primitive mode of cooking meat. It was also the only mode open to all the Hebrews, since the generality would not possess cauldrons large enough to receive an entire lamb. Further, the requirement put a difference between this an... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS HEAD WITH HIS LEGS... — The lamb was to be roasted whole: “not a bone of it was to be broken” (Exodus 12:46). Justin Martyr says that it was prepared for roasting by means of two wooden spits, one perpendicular and the other transverse, which extended it on a sort of cross, and made it aptly typ... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL LET NOTHING OF IT REMAIN. — That there might be neither profanation nor superstitious use of what was left. (Comp. the requirement of the Church of England with respect to the Eucharistic elements.) THAT WHICH REMAINETH — _i.e.,_ the bones and such particles of flesh as necessarily adhered... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SHALL YE EAT IT. — The injunctions which follow are not repeated in any later part of the Law, and were not generally regarded as binding at any Passover after the first. They all had reference to the impending departure of the Israelites, who were to eat the Passover prepared as for a journey.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WILL PASS THROUGH. — Rather, _go through,_ since the word used is entirely unconnected with _pesahh._ AGAINST ALL THE GODS OF EGYPT I WILL EXECUTE JUDGMENT. — The translation “gods” is far preferable to that of “princes,” given in the margin. The death of all the firstborn beasts would have b... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BLOOD SHALL BE TO YOU FOR A TOKEN. — Rather, _the blood shall be for a token for you: i.e.,_ it shall be a token to Me on your behalf. (See the comment on Exodus 12:7, and compare Exodus 12:23.)... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL KEEP IT A FEAST... BY AN ORDINANCE FOR EVER. — The Passover is continued in the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 5:7); and the Easter celebration, which the Church makes binding on all her members, exactly corresponds in time to the Paschal ceremony, and takes its place. In this way the Passover ma... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVEN DAYS. — The division of time into periods of seven days each was unknown to the more ancient Egyptians, but is thought to have existed in Babylonia as early as B.C. 2000. That it was recognised in the family of Abraham appears from Genesis 29:27. According to some, God established the division... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE FIRST DAY THERE SHALL BE AN HOLY CONVOCATION. — The Passover was to be kept on the fourteenth day of Abib, at even. The seven following days were to be “days of unleavened bread.” On the first of these, the fifteenth of Abib (Leviticus 23:6), there was to be a “holy convocation,” _i.e.,_ a ge... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THIS SELFSAME DAY HAVE I BROUGHT YOUR ARMIES OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT. — On the application of the word “_a_rmies” to the people of Israel, see above (Exodus 6:26). The expression “have I brought” indicates either that these directions were not given until after the Exodus, or at any rate that th... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE FIRST MONTH. — The Hebrew omits “month” by a not unusual ellipse. (Comp. Ezekiel 1:1.) AT EVEN. — The evening intended is not that with which the fourteenth day began, but that with which it closed, the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth day. (See Leviticus 23:5.)... [ Continue Reading ]
A STRANGER — i.e., a foreigner in blood, who has been adopted into the nation, received circumcision, and become a full proselyte. It is not improbable that many of the “six hundred thousand” reckoned to “Israel” (Exodus 12:37) were of this class — persons who had joined themselves to the nation dur... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FIRST PASSOVER KEPT. (21) MOSES CALLED FOR ALL THE ELDERS. — He had been directed to “speak unto all the congregation” (Exodus 12:3), but understood the direction as allowing him to do so _mediately,_ through the elders. DRAW OUT. — Some understand this intransitively — “Withdraw, and take,” _... [ Continue Reading ]
A BUNCH OF HYSSOP. — The “hyssop” (_êzob_) of the Old Testament is probably the caper plant, called now _asaf,_ or _asuf,_ by the Arabs, which grows plentifully in the Sinaitic region (Stanley: _Sinai and Palestine,_ p. 21), and is well adapted for the purpose here spoken of. It was regarded as havi... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DESTROYER. — The “plague” of Exodus 12:13 is here called “the destroyer” (τὸν ὀλεθρεύοντα, LXX.), as again in Hebrews 12:28. Jehovah seems to have employed an angel, or “angels” (Ps. 79:48) as His agents to effect the actual slaying of the firstborn. (Comp. 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:15; 2... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS THING. — Not the sprinkling of the blood, which was never repeated after the first occasion, but the sacrifice of the lamb, commanded in Exodus 12:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS THE SACRIFICE OF THE LORD’S PASSOVER. — Heb., _This is a passover-sacrifice to Jehovah._ The emphatic word is “Passover;” and it was the meaning of this term which was especially to be explained. The explanation would involve an historical account of the circumstances of the institution, such... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE FIRSTBORN. — The Hebrew word used applies only to males. THE FIRSTBORN OF PHARAOH. — The law of primogeniture prevailed in Egypt, as elsewhere generally. The Pharaoh’s eldest son was recognised as “hereditary crown prince,” and sometimes associated in the kingdom during his father’s lifetim... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TENTH PLAGUE. (29, 30) The nature of the tenth plague is indubitable, but as to the exact agency which was employed there may be different views. In every family in which the firstborn child had been a male, that child was stricken with death. Pharaoh’s firstborn son — the _erpa suten sa_ — the... [ Continue Reading ]
A GREAT CRY. — See the comment on Exodus 11:6. The combination of public calamity, private grief, and shocked religious fanaticism might well produce a cry “such as there was none like it, neither shall be like it any more” (Exodus 11:6). NOT A HOUSE WHERE THERE WAS NOT ONE DEAD. This cannot have be... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DISMISSAL OF THE ISRAELITES. (31) HE CALLED FOR MOSES AND AARON. — This does not mean that Pharaoh summoned them to his presence, but only that he sent a message to them. (See above, Exodus 11:8.) The messengers were undoubtedly chief officials; they “bowed themselves down” before Moses, who wa... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BLESS ME ALSO. — Here Pharaoh’s humiliation reaches its extreme point. He is reduced by the terrible calamity of the last plague not only to grant all the demands made of him freely, and without restriction, but to crave the favour of a blessing from those whom he had despised, rebuked (Exodus 5... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EGYPTIANS WERE URGENT. — Not only Pharaoh, but the Egyptian nation generally was anxious for the immediate departure of the Israelites, and expedited it in every way. This must greatly have facilitated their all setting forth at once. It also accounts for the readiness of the Egyptians to part w... [ Continue Reading ]
KNEADINGTROUGHS. — Light, portable wooden bowls, such as are now used by the Arabs.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BORROWED. — See the comment on Exodus 3:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY LENT. — Rather, “they, _gave._” It is that the Egyptians neither expected nor wished the Israelites to return.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DEPARTURE OF ISRAEL, THEIR NUMBERS, AND THE TIME OF THE EGYPTIAN SOJOURN. (37-41) The two principal statements of this passage are — (1) that the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt lasted four hundred and thirty years; and (2) that at the time of the departure the number of the “men” (_gëbârim_... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM RAMESES TO SUCCOTH. — The difference between the Raamses of Exodus 1:11 and the Rameses of this passage is merely one of “pointing;” nor is there the least ground for supposing that a different place is intended. Pi-Ramesu was the main capital of the kings of the nineteenth dynasty, having supe... [ Continue Reading ]
A MIXED MULTITUDE WENT UP ALSO WITH THEM. — Nothing is told us of the component elements of this “mixed multitude.” We hear of them as “murmuring” in Numbers 11:4, so that they seem to have remained with Israel. Some may have been Egyptians, impressed by the recent miracles; some foreigners held to... [ Continue Reading ]
UNLEAVENED CAKES. — Such are commonly eaten by the Arabs, who make them by mixing flour with water, and attaching round pieces of the dough to the insides of their ovens after they have heated them.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SOJOURNING OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHO DWELT IN EGYPT. — Heb., _which they sojourned in Egypt_ WAS FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS. — Comp. the prophecy: — “Thy seed shall be a stranger in _a land_ that is not theirs [Egypt, not Canaan], and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them _four... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SELFSAME DAY... ALL THE HOSTS... WENT OUT. — _All started, i.e.,_ on one and the same day — the fifteenth of the month Abib. Some would start during the night, some in the morning, others at different periods of the day. They had different distances to traverse in order to reach the appointed ha... [ Continue Reading ]
NO STRANGER. — Comp, Exodus 12:48 for limitations. If a stranger wished to join, and would accept circumcision for himself and the males of his family, he might partake in the rite.... [ Continue Reading ]
FURTHER DIRECTIONS RESPECTING THE PASSOVER. (43-51) THIS IS THE ORDINANCE. — These directions, together with those which follow with respect to the sanctification of the firstborn (Exodus 13:1), seem to have been given to Moses _at Succoth,_ and were consequently recorded at this point of the narra... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY MAN’S SERVANT. — Slaves born in the house were required to be circumcised on the eighth day, like Israelites (Genesis 17:13). Bought slaves were allowed their choice. It is noticeable that the circumcised slave was to be admitted to full religious equality with his master.... [ Continue Reading ]
AN HIRED SERVANT. — It is assumed that the hired servant will be a foreigner; otherwise, of course, he would participate.... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALL YE BREAK A BONE THEREOF. — In the case of all other victims, the limbs were to be separated from the body. Here the victim was to be roasted whole, and to remain whole, as a symbol of unity, and a type of Him through whom men are brought into unity with each other and with God. (See Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
This last verse of the chapter would more appropriately commence Exodus 13, with which it is to be united. Translate — “And it came to pass, on the self same day that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies, that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,” &c. BY TH... [ Continue Reading ]