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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Exodus 12 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/exodus/12.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/exodus/12.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/exodus/12-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../exodus/">Exodus</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../exodus/11.htm" title="Exodus 11">◄</a> Exodus 12 <a href="../exodus/13.htm" title="Exodus 13">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-1.htm">Exodus 12:1</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,</div>XII.<p>INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">In the land of Egypt.</span>—This section (<a href="/context/exodus/12-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,">Exodus 12:1-28</a>) 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 Passover which must have been given at different times (comp. <a href="/exodus/12-3.htm" title="Speak you to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:">Exodus 12:3</a>; <a href="/exodus/12-12.htm" title="For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.">Exodus 12:12</a>; <a href="/exodus/12-17.htm" title="And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.">Exodus 12:17</a>), some before the tenth of Abib. some on the day preceding the departure from Egypt, some on the day following. As far as <a href="/exodus/12-20.htm" title="You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall you eat unleavened bread.">Exodus 12:20</a> it is wholly legal, and would suit Leviticus as well as Exodus. From <a href="/exodus/12-20.htm" title="You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall you eat unleavened bread.">Exodus 12:20</a> it has a more historical character, since it relates the action taken by Moses.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-2.htm">Exodus 12:2</a></div><div class="verse">This month <i>shall be</i> unto you the beginning of months: it <i>shall be</i> the first month of the year to you.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">The beginning of months.</span>—Hitherto the Hebrews had commenced the year with Tisri, at or near the autumnal equinox. (See <a href="/exodus/23-16.htm" title="And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labors out of the field.">Exodus 23:16</a>.) 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 in Nisannu, at the vernal equinox. It was this month which was now made, by God’s command, the first month of the Hebrew year; but as yet it had not the name Nisan: it was called Abib (<a href="/exodus/13-4.htm" title="This day came you out in the month Abib.">Exodus 13:4</a>), the month of “greenness.” Henceforth the Hebrews had two years, a civil and a sacred one (Joseph., <span class= "ital">Ant. Jud.,</span> i. 3, § 3). The civil year began with Tisri, in the autumn, at the close of the harvest; the sacred year began with Abib (called afterwards Nisan), six months earlier. It followed that the first civil was the seventh sacred month, and <span class= "ital">vice versa.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-3.htm">Exodus 12:3</a></div><div class="verse">Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth <i>day</i> of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of <i>their</i> fathers, a lamb for an house:</div>(3) <span class= "bld">In the tenth day.</span>—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 animal was not to be killed till four days later (<a href="/exodus/12-6.htm" title="And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.">Exodus 12:6</a>).<p><span class= "bld">A lamb.</span>—The word used (<span class= "ital">seh</span>) is a vague one, applied equally to sheep and goats, of any age and of either sex. Sex and age were fixed subsequently (<a href="/exodus/12-5.htm" title="Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:">Exodus 12:5</a>), but the other ambiguity remained; and it is curious that practically only lambs seem to have been ever offered. The requirement indicates a social condition in which there was no extreme poverty. All Israelites are supposed either to possess a lamb or to be able to purchase one.<p><span class= "bld">According to the house of their fathers.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">for the house of their fathers: i.e.,</span> for their family.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-4.htm">Exodus 12:4</a></div><div class="verse">And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take <i>it</i> according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">If the household be too little for the lamb.</span>—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 members to bring up the numbers of a small one. According to Josephus (<span class= "ital">Bell. Jud.,</span> vi. 9, § 3), ten was the least number regarded as sufficient, while twenty was not considered too many.<p><span class= "bld">Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">shall ye count.</span> In determining the number for any given Paschal meal, ye shall “count men according to their eating,” admitting more or fewer, as they are likely to consume less or more.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-5.htm">Exodus 12:5</a></div><div class="verse">Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take <i>it</i> out from the sheep, or from the goats:</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Without blemish.</span>—Natural piety teaches that we must not “offer the blind, the lame, or the sick for sacrifice” (<a href="/malachi/1-8.htm" title="And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now to your governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept your person? said the LORD of hosts.">Malachi 1:8</a>). We must give to (<span class= "ital">God</span> 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 without blemish of any kind. Afterwards the requirement was made general (<a href="/context/leviticus/22-19.htm" title="You shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.">Leviticus 22:19-25</a>). It was peculiarly fitting that the Paschal offering should be without defect of any kind, as especially typifying “the Lamb of God,” who is “holy, harmless, undefiled”—a “lamb without spot.”<p><span class= "bld">A male.</span>—Males were reckoned superior to females, and were especially appropriate here, since the victim represented the firstborn male in each house.<p><span class= "bld">Of the first year</span>—i.e., not above a year old. As children are most innocent when young, so even animals were thought to be.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-6.htm">Exodus 12:6</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Ye shall keep it up.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">ye shall have it in custody:</span> separate it, <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> 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. <a href="/exodus/12-3.htm" title="Speak you to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:">Exodus 12:3</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">The whole assembly of the congregation . . . shall kill it.</span>—Every head of a family belonging to the “congregation” was to make the necessary arrangements, to have the victim ready, and to kill it on the fourteenth day, the day of the full moon, at a time described as that “between the two evenings.” There is some doubt as to the meaning of this phrase. According to Onkelos and Aben Ezra, the first evening was at sunset, the second about an hour later, when the twilight ended and the stars came out. With this view agrees the direction in <a href="/deuteronomy/16-6.htm" title="But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name in, there you shall sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt.">Deuteronomy 16:6</a> :—“Thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, <span class= "ital">at the going down of the sun.”</span> It is objected that, according to Josephus (<span class= "ital">Bell. Jud.,</span> vi. 9, § 3), the actual time of the sacrifice was “from the ninth to the eleventh hour”—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> from three o’clock to five—and that there would not have been time for the customary ceremonies during the short twilight of Palestine. The ceremonies consisted in the slaughter of the lambs at the tabernacle door, and the conveyance of the blood in basins to the altar, in order that it might be sprinkled upon it. For this operation a period of several hours’ duration would seem to have been necessary: hence the time came gradually to be extended; and when this had been done, a new interpretation of the phrase “between the evenings” grew up. The first evening was explained to begin with the decline of the sun from the zenith, and the second with the sunset; but this can scarcely have been the original idea.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-7.htm">Exodus 12:7</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall take of the blood, and strike <i>it</i> on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Strike it.</span>—With a bunch of hyssop. (See <a href="/exodus/12-22.htm" title="And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.">Exodus 12:22</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">The two side posts and on the upper door post.</span>—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 entering. The word translated “upper door post” appears to be derived from <span class= "ital">shâcaph,</span> “to look out,” and to signify properly the latticed window above the door, through which persons reconnoitred those who knocked before admitting them. Such windows are frequently represented in the early Egyptian monuments. The blood thus rendered conspicuous would show that atonement had been made for the house, <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> for its inmates.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-8.htm">Exodus 12:8</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; <i>and</i> with bitter <i>herbs</i> they shall eat it.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Roast with fire.</span>—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 and other victims, which were generally cut up and boiled (<a href="/context/1_samuel/2-14.htm" title="And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the meat hook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites that came thither.">1Samuel 2:14-15</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Unleavened bread . . . bitter herbs.</span>—As partaking of the lamb typified feeding on Christ, so the putting away of leaven and eating unleavened bread signified the putting away of all defilement and corruption ere we approach Christ to feed on Him (<a href="/1_corinthians/5-8.htm" title="Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.">1Corinthians 5:8</a>). As for the bitter herbs, they probably represented “self-denial” or “repentance”—fitting concomitants of the holy feast, where the Lamb of God is our food. At any rate, they were a protest against that animalism which turns a sacred banquet into a means of gratifying the appetite (<a href="/context/1_corinthians/11-20.htm" title="When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.">1Corinthians 11:20-22</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-9.htm">Exodus 12:9</a></div><div class="verse">Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast <i>with</i> fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">His head with his legs</span> . . . —The lamb was to be roasted whole: “not a bone of it was to be broken” (<a href="/exodus/12-46.htm" title="In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall you break a bone thereof.">Exodus 12:46</a>). 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 typify the Crucified One.<p><span class= "bld">The purtenance thereof.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">its inside.</span> The entrails were taken out, carefully cleansed, and then replaced.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-10.htm">Exodus 12:10</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Ye shall let nothing of it remain.</span>—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.)<p><span class= "bld">That which remaineth</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> the bones and such particles of flesh as necessarily adhered to them. These were to be at once totally consumed by fire. Thus only could they be, as it were, annihilated, and so secured from profanation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-11.htm">Exodus 12:11</a></div><div class="verse">And thus shall ye eat it; <i>with</i> your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it <i>is</i> the LORD'S passover.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Thus shall ye eat it.</span>—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. The long robe (<span class= "ital">beged</span>)<span class= "ital">,</span> usually allowed to flow loosely around the person, was to be gathered together, and fastened about the loins with a girdle; sandals, not commonly worn inside the house, were to be put on the feet, and a walking-stick was to be held in one hand. The meal was to be eaten “in haste,” as liable to be interrupted at any moment by a summons to quit Egypt and set out for Canaan. Some such attitude befits Christians at all times, since they know not when the summons may come to them requiring them to quit the Egypt of this world and start for the heavenly country.<p><span class= "bld">It is the Lord’s passover.</span>—The word “passover” (<span class= "ital">pesakh</span>) is here used for the first time. It is supposed by some to be of Egyptian origin, and to signify primarily “a spreading out of wings, so as to protect. But the meaning “pass over” is still regarded by many of the best Hebraists as the primary and most proper sense, and the word itself as Semitic. It occurs in the geographic name Tiphsach (Thapsacus), borne by the place where it was usual to cross, or “pass over,” the Euphrates.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-12.htm">Exodus 12:12</a></div><div class="verse">For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I <i>am</i> the LORD.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">For I will pass through.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">go through,</span> since the word used is entirely unconnected with <span class= "ital">pesahh.</span><p><span class= "bld">Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.</span>—The translation “gods” is far preferable to that of “princes,” given in the margin. The death of all the firstborn beasts would have been felt by the Egyptians as a heavy judgment upon their gods. Some of their sacred animals were regarded as actual incarnations of deity; and if any of these perished, as is likely, the threat would have been executed to the letter. But even apart from this, as cows, sheep, goats, cats, dogs, jackals, crocodiles, hippopotami, apes, ibises, frogs, &c, were sacred, either throughout Egypt or in parts of it, a general destruction of all firstborn animals would have been felt as a blow dealt to the gods almost equally.<p><span class= "bld">I am the Lord.</span>—Heb. I, <span class= "ital">Jehovah.</span> The construction is, “I, Jehovah, will execute judgment.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-13.htm">Exodus 12:13</a></div><div class="verse">And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye <i>are</i>: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy <i>you</i>, when I smite the land of Egypt.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">The blood shall be to you for a token.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the blood shall be for a token for you: i.e.,</span> it shall be a token to Me on your behalf. (See the comment on <a href="/exodus/12-7.htm" title="And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.">Exodus 12:7</a>, and compare <a href="/exodus/12-23.htm" title="For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.">Exodus 12:23</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-14.htm">Exodus 12:14</a></div><div class="verse">And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Ye shall keep it a feast . . . by an ordinance for ever.</span>—The Passover is continued in the Eucharist (<a href="/context/1_corinthians/5-7.htm" title="Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:">1Corinthians 5:7-8</a>); 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 may be regarded as still continuing under Christianity, and as intended to continue, “even to the end of the world.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-15.htm">Exodus 12:15</a></div><div class="verse">Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Seven days.</span>—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 <a href="/genesis/29-27.htm" title="Fulfill her week, and we will give you this also for the service which you shall serve with me yet seven other years.">Genesis 29:27</a>. According to some, God established the division by an express command to our first parents in Paradise that they should keep the seventh day holy (see <a href="/genesis/2-3.htm" title="And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.">Genesis 2:3</a>); but this is greatly questioned by others, who regard <a href="/genesis/2-3.htm" title="And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.">Genesis 2:3</a> as <span class= "ital">anticipatory,</span> and think the Sabbath was not instituted until the giving of the manna (<a href="/exodus/16-23.htm" title="And he said to them, This is that which the LORD has said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath to the LORD: bake that which you will bake to day, and seethe that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.">Exodus 16:23</a>). However this may have been, it is generally allowed that the Israelites had not observed the seventh day in Egypt. where, indeed, they were held to labour continually. and that the Sabbath as an actual observance dates from the Exodus. The injunction here given, if it belongs to the time of the tenth plague, would be the first preliminary note of warning with respect to the Sabbath, raising an expectation of it, and preparing the way for it, leading up to the subsequent revelations in the wilderness of Sin and at Sinai.<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall put away leaven out of your houses.</span>—There was to be no compromise, nothing resembling half measures. Leaven, taken as typical of corruption, was to be wholly put away, not allowed by any householder to lurk anywhere within his house—a solemn warning that we are to make no compromise with sin.<p><span class= "bld">That soul shall be cut off from Israel.</span>—See the Note on <a href="/genesis/17-14.htm" title="And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.">Genesis 17:14</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-16.htm">Exodus 12:16</a></div><div class="verse">And in the first day <i>there shall be</i> an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save <i>that</i> which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">In the first day there shall be an holy convocation.</span>—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 (<a href="/leviticus/23-6.htm" title="And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.">Leviticus 23:6</a>), there was to be a “holy convocation,” <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> a general gathering of the people to the door of the sanctuary for sacrifice, worship, and perhaps instruction. (Comp. <a href="/nehemiah/8-1.htm" title="And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.">Nehemiah 8:1</a>.) The term “convocation” implies that the people were summoned to attend; and the actual summons appears to have been made by the blowing of the silver trumpets (<a href="/numbers/10-2.htm" title="Make you two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shall you make them: that you may use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.">Numbers 10:2</a>). On the seventh day, the twenty-first of Abib, was to be another similar meeting. “No manner of work” was to be done on either of these two days; or rather, as explained in <a href="/context/leviticus/23-7.htm" title="In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:7-8</a>, “no servile work.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-17.htm">Exodus 12:17</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall observe <i>the feast of</i> unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">In this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.</span>—On the application of the word “<span class= "ital">a</span>rmies” to the people of Israel, see above (<a href="/exodus/6-26.htm" title="These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom the LORD said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.">Exodus 6:26</a>). The expression “have I brought” indicates either that these directions were not given until after the Exodus, or at any rate that they were not reduced to writing until then.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-18.htm">Exodus 12:18</a></div><div class="verse">In the first <i>month</i>, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">In the first month.</span>—The Hebrew omits “month” by a not unusual ellipse. (Comp. <a href="/ezekiel/1-1.htm" title="Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.">Ezekiel 1:1</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">At even.</span>—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 <a href="/context/leviticus/23-5.htm" title="In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover.">Leviticus 23:5-6</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-19.htm">Exodus 12:19</a></div><div class="verse">Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">A stranger</span>—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” (<a href="/exodus/12-37.htm" title="And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.">Exodus 12:37</a>) were of this class—persons who had joined themselves to the nation during the sojourn in Egypt, or even earlier. (See Note on <a href="/genesis/17-13.htm" title="He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.">Genesis 17:13</a>.) When the “exclusiveness” of the Hebrews is made a charge against them, justice requires us to remember that from the first it was open to those who were not of Hebrew blood to share in the Hebrew privileges by accepting the covenant of circumcision, and joining themselves to the nation. It was in this way that the Kenites. and even the Gibeonites, became reckoned to Israel.<p><span class= "bld">Born in the land.</span>—Hob., <span class= "ital">natives of the land: i.e.,</span> of Canaan. Canaan was regarded as belonging to Abraham and his descendants from the time of the first promise (<a href="/genesis/12-7.htm" title="And the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, To your seed will I give this land: and there built he an altar to the LORD, who appeared to him.">Genesis 12:7</a>). Thenceforth it was their true home: they were its expatriated inhabitants.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-21.htm">Exodus 12:21</a></div><div class="verse">Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.</div>THE FIRST PASSOVER KEPT.</span><p>(21) <span class= "bld">Moses called for all the elders.</span>—He had been directed to “speak unto all the congregation” (<a href="/exodus/12-3.htm" title="Speak you to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:">Exodus 12:3</a>), but understood the direction as allowing him to do so <span class= "ital">mediately,</span> through the elders.<p><span class= "bld">Draw out.</span>—Some understand this intransitively—“Withdraw, and take,” <span class= "ital">i.e., go,</span> and take; others transitively—“Withdraw a lamb from the flock.”<p><span class= "bld">According to your families</span>—i.e., with reference to the number of your families, but not necessarily one for each. (See <a href="/exodus/12-4.htm" title="And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.">Exodus 12:4</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-22.htm">Exodus 12:22</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip <i>it</i> in the blood that <i>is</i> in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that <i>is</i> in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">A bunch of hyssop.</span>—The “hyssop” (<span class= "ital">êzob</span>) of the Old Testament is probably the caper plant, called now <span class= "ital">asaf,</span> or <span class= "ital">asuf,</span> by the Arabs, which grows plentifully in the Sinaitic region (Stanley: <span class= "ital">Sinai and Palestine,</span> p. 21), and is well adapted for the purpose here spoken of. It was regarded as having purifying properties (<a href="/leviticus/14-4.htm" title="Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:">Leviticus 14:4</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/14-49.htm" title="And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:">Leviticus 14:49-52</a>; <a href="/numbers/19-6.htm" title="And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer.">Numbers 19:6</a>; <a href="/psalms/51-7.htm" title="Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.">Psalm 51:7</a>), and was therefore suitable for sprinkling the blood of expiation.<p><span class= "bld">In the bason.</span>—The word translated “bason” has another meaning also, viz., “threshold;” and this meaning was preferred in the present place both by the LXX. and by Jerome. Whichever translation we adopt, there is a difficulty in the occurrence of the article, since neither the threshold nor any bason had been mentioned previously. Perhaps Moses assumed that whenever a victim was offered, the blood had to be caught in a bason, and therefore spoke of “<span class= "ital">the</span> bason” as something familiar to his hearers in this connection. If the lamb had been sacrificed <span class= "ital">on the threshold,</span> it would scarcely have been necessary to put the blood on the lintel and doorposts also.<p><span class= "bld">None of you shall go out.</span>—Moses seems to have given this command by his own authority, without any positive Divine direction. He understood that the Atoning blood was the sole protection from the destroying angel, and that outside the portal sprinkled with it was no safety.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-23.htm">Exodus 12:23</a></div><div class="verse">For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite <i>you</i>.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">The destroyer.</span>—The “plague” of <a href="/exodus/12-13.htm" title="And the blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.">Exodus 12:13</a> is here called “the destroyer” (<span class= "greekheb">τὸν ὀλεθρεύοντα</span>, LXX.), as again in <a href="/hebrews/12-28.htm" title="Why we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:">Hebrews 12:28</a>. Jehovah seems to have employed an angel, or “angels” (Ps. 79:48) as His agents to effect the actual slaying of the firstborn. (Comp. <a href="/2_samuel/24-16.htm" title="And when the angel stretched out his hand on Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite.">2Samuel 24:16</a>; <a href="/1_chronicles/21-15.htm" title="And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.">1Chronicles 21:15</a>; <a href="/2_kings/19-35.htm" title="And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.">2Kings 19:35</a>.) There is no struggle or opposition (as Bishop Lowth and Redslob think) between Jehovah and” the destroyer,” who is simply His minister (<a href="/hebrews/1-14.htm" title="Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?">Hebrews 1:14</a>), bidden to enter some houses and to “pass over” others.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-24.htm">Exodus 12:24</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">This thing.</span>—Not the sprinkling of the blood, which was never repeated after the first occasion, but the sacrifice of the lamb, commanded in <a href="/exodus/12-21.htm" title="Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.">Exodus 12:21</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-27.htm">Exodus 12:27</a></div><div class="verse">That ye shall say, It <i>is</i> the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">This is a passover-sacrifice to Jehovah.</span> 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 as would be apt to call forth feelings of gratitude and devotion.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-29.htm">Exodus 12:29</a></div><div class="verse">And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that <i>was</i> in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.</div>THE TENTH PLAGUE.</span><p>(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 <span class= "ital">erpa suten sa</span>—the heir to his throne, was taken; and so in all other families. Nobles, priests, tradesmen, artisans, peasants, fishermen—all alike suffered. In the hyperbolic language of the narrator, “there was not a house where there was not one dead.” And the deaths took place “at midnight,” in the weirdest hour, at the most silent time, in the deepest darkness. So it had been prophesied (<a href="/exodus/11-4.htm" title="And Moses said, Thus said the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the middle of Egypt:">Exodus 11:4</a>); but the particular night had not been announced. As several days had elapsed since the announcement, the Egyptians may have been wrapt in fancied security. Suddenly the calamity fell upon them and “there was a great cry.” Death did not come, as upon the host of Sennacherib, noiselessly, unperceivedly, but <span class= "ital">“</span>with observation.” Those who were seized woke up and aroused their relatives. There was a cry for help, a general alarm, a short, sharp struggle and then a death.<p>The visitation is ordinarily ascribed to God Himself (<a href="/exodus/4-23.htm" title="And I say to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, even your firstborn.">Exodus 4:23</a>; <a href="/exodus/11-4.htm" title="And Moses said, Thus said the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the middle of Egypt:">Exodus 11:4</a>; <a href="/exodus/12-12.htm" title="For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.">Exodus 12:12</a>; <a href="/exodus/12-27.htm" title="That you shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.">Exodus 12:27</a>; <a href="/exodus/12-29.htm" title="And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.">Exodus 12:29</a>; <a href="/exodus/13-15.htm" title="And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that opens the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.">Exodus 13:15</a>, &c), but in <a href="/exodus/12-23.htm" title="For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.">Exodus 12:23</a> to “the destroyer.” It has been already shown that this expression points to angelic agency. That agency, however, does not exclude a further natural one. As in 2 Samuel 24 the seventy thousand whom the destroying angel killed (<a href="/exodus/12-16.htm" title="And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.">Exodus 12:16</a>) are said to have been slain by a pestilence (<a href="/exodus/12-15.htm" title="Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.">Exodus 12:15</a>), so it may have been here. Pestilence often rages in Egypt in the spring of the year, and carries off thousands in a very short space. As with so many of the other plagues, God may here too have employed a natural agency. None the less would the plague have been miraculous—(1) in its intensity; (2) in its coming at the time prophesied, viz., midnight; (3) in its selection of victims, viz., the firstborn males only, and all of them; (4) in its avoidance of the Israelites; and (5) in its extension, as prophesied, to the firstborn of animals.<p>(29) <span class= "bld">All the firstborn.</span>—The Hebrew word used applies only to males.<p><span class= "bld">The firstborn of Pharaoh.</span>—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 lifetime. This had been the case with Lameses II., probably the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled (<a href="/exodus/2-15.htm" title="Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelled in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.">Exodus 2:15</a>); but the practice was not common. In any case, however, the eldest son of the reigning monarch occupied a most important position, and his loss would be felt as a national calamity.<p><span class= "bld">The firstborn of the captive.</span>—The variation of phrase between this verse and <a href="/exodus/11-5.htm" title="And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.">Exodus 11:5</a> is curious, but appears not to be of any significance. The writer simply means, in both places, “all, from the highest to the lowest.”<p><span class= "bld">All the firstborn of cattle.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">of beasts,</span> as in <a href="/exodus/11-5.htm" title="And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.">Exodus 11:5</a>. (On the reasons for beasts being included in the calamity, see the Note on that passage.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-30.htm">Exodus 12:30</a></div><div class="verse">And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for <i>there was</i> not a house where <i>there was</i> not one dead.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">A</span> <span class= "bld">great cry.</span>—See the comment on <a href="/exodus/11-6.htm" title="And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.">Exodus 11:6</a>. 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” (<a href="/exodus/11-6.htm" title="And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.">Exodus 11:6</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Not a house where there was not one dead.</span> This cannot have been literally true. In half the families a daughter would have “opened the womb;” in others, the firstborn son would have been absent, or dead previously. To judge Scripture fairly, we must make allowance for the hyperbole of Oriental thought and expression, which causes the substitution of universal terms for general ones, and the absence of qualifying clauses. The meaning is that in the great majority of houses there was one dead. This may, well have been so, if we include the dependants and the <span class= "ital">animals.</span> Pet animals—dogs, cats, gazelles, and monkeys—abounded in Egyptian homes.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-31.htm">Exodus 12:31</a></div><div class="verse">And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, <i>and</i> get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.</div>THE DISMISSAL OF THE ISRAELITES.</span><p>(31) <span class= "bld">He called for Moses and Aaron.</span>—This does not mean that Pharaoh summoned them to his presence, but only that he sent a message to them. (See above, <a href="/exodus/11-8.htm" title="And all these your servants shall come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, Get you out, and all the people that follow you: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.">Exodus 11:8</a>.) The messengers were undoubtedly chief officials; they “bowed themselves down” before Moses, who was now recognised as “very great” (<a href="/exodus/11-3.htm" title="And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.">Exodus 11:3</a>), and delivered their master’s message, which granted in express terms all that Moses had ever demanded. Pharaoh’s spirit was, for the time, thoroughly broken.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-32.htm">Exodus 12:32</a></div><div class="verse">Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">And bless me also.</span>—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 (<a href="/exodus/5-4.htm" title="And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you to your burdens.">Exodus 5:4</a>), thwarted, and finally driven from his presence under the threat of death (<a href="/exodus/10-28.htm" title="And Pharaoh said to him, Get you from me, take heed to yourself, see my face no more; for in that day you see my face you shall die.">Exodus 10:28</a>). Those with whom were the issues of life and death must, he felt, have the power to bless or curse effectually.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-33.htm">Exodus 12:33</a></div><div class="verse">And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We <i>be</i> all dead <i>men</i>.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">The Egyptians were urgent.</span>—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 with their “jewels” and “raiment” (<a href="/exodus/12-35.htm" title="And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:">Exodus 12:35</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-34.htm">Exodus 12:34</a></div><div class="verse">And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.</div>(34) <span class= "bld">Kneadingtroughs.</span>—Light, portable wooden bowls, such as are now used by the Arabs.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-35.htm">Exodus 12:35</a></div><div class="verse">And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:</div>(35) <span class= "bld">They borrowed.</span>—See the comment on <a href="/exodus/3-22.htm" title="But every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojournes in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and you shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters; and you shall spoil the Egyptians.">Exodus 3:22</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-36.htm">Exodus 12:36</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them <i>such things as they required</i>. And they spoiled the Egyptians.</div>(36) <span class= "bld">They lent.</span>—Rather, “they, <span class= "ital">gave.</span>” It is that the Egyptians neither expected nor wished the Israelites to return.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-37.htm">Exodus 12:37</a></div><div class="verse">And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot <i>that were</i> men, beside children.</div>THE DEPARTURE OF ISRAEL, THEIR NUMBERS, AND THE TIME OF THE EGYPTIAN SOJOURN.</span><p>(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” (<span class= "ital">gëbârim</span>) was six hundred thousand. This latter statement is evidently a rough one, but it is confirmed, and even enlarged, by the more accurate estimate of Numbers 1, 2, which goes into particulars with respect to the several tribes, and makes the exact amount of the adult male population, exclusive of the Levites, to be 625,540 (<a href="/numbers/2-32.htm" title="These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.">Numbers 2:32</a>). It would follow that the nation, at the time of its departure, was one of above two millions of souls.<p>Two difficulties are raised with respect to this estimate:—(1) Could the Israelites possibly have increased during their sojourn in Egypt from the “seventy souls” who went down with Jacob to two millions? (2) Is it conceivable that such a multitude, with their flocks and herds, could have quitted Egypt on one day, and marched in a body through the narrow <span class= "ital">wadys</span> of the Sinaitic region to the plain in front of Sinai? Could even that plain have contained them? With regard to the first point, before it can be decided we must ascertain what are the exact data. What is to be taken as the original number of those who “went down into Egypt?” what as the duration of the sojourn? It has been already shown (see the comment on <a href="/exodus/1-5.htm" title="And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.">Exodus 1:5</a>) that the descendants of Jacob who entered Egypt were probably a hundred and thirty-two rather than seventy; that they were accompanied by their wives and husbands; that they took with them also their “households,” which were very numerous (see Note on <a href="/genesis/17-13.htm" title="He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.">Genesis 17:13</a>); and that the entire number is fairly estimated at “several thousands.” Let us then place it at 3,000.<p>The duration of the sojourn in Egypt, stated in the Hebrew text at 430 years, is reduced by the LXX. and Samaritan Versions to half the time: <span class= "ital">i.e.,</span> to 215 years. If we accept Mr. Malthus’s statement, that in the absence of artificial checks population will double itself every twenty years, we shall find that 3,000 persons might, in the space of two centuries, increase to above 3,000,000; so that even the 215 years of the Greek and Samaritan Versions would admit of such a multiplication as that required. But as there is no sufficient reason for preferring the Versions to the Original, or the period of 215 to that of 430 years, we are entitled to regard the latter term as the real duration of the sojourn, in which case a doubling of the population every forty-five years would have produced the result indicated. Such a result under the circumstances, in the rich soil of Egypt, in the extensive territory granted to the Israelites, and with God’s special blessing on the people, is in no way surprising.<p>The difficulty of handling so vast a body, and marching them from Goshen to the Red Sea, and from the Red Sea to Sinai, remains, and, no doubt, is considerable. But we must remember that as far as Marah the country was perfectly open, and allowed of any extension of the line of march on either flank. After this, the <span class= "ital">wadys</span> were entered, and the real difficulties of the journey began. Probably the host spread itself out, and proceeded to the rendezvous in front of the Ras Sufsafeh by several routes, of which Moses traces only the one which he himself followed. The plain Er-Rahah, according to the calculations of the best engineers, would have contained the entire multitude; but it is unnecessary to suppose that all were at any one time present in it. The whole Sinaitic district was probably occupied by the flocks and herds, and the herdsmen who tended them. Many of the tents may have been pitched in the Wady-ed-Deir and the Seil Leja. All that the narrative requires is that the <span class= "ital">main body</span> of the people should have been encamped in front of Sinai, have heard the Decalogue delivered, and consented to the covenant.<p>(37) <span class= "bld">From Rameses to Succoth.</span>—The difference between the Raamses of <a href="/exodus/1-11.htm" title="Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.">Exodus 1:11</a> 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 superseded Tanis, of which it was a suburb. (See Note on <a href="/exodus/1-11.htm" title="Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.">Exodus 1:11</a>.) Succoth has been identified by Dr. Brugsch with an Egyptian town called Thukot; but it is probably a Semitic word, signifying “tents” or “booths.” The district south-east of Tanis is one in which clusters of “booths” have been at all times common. Some one of these—situated, perhaps, near the modern Tel-Dafneh, fifteen miles south-east of Tanis—was the first halt of the Israelites.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-38.htm">Exodus 12:38</a></div><div class="verse">And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, <i>even</i> very much cattle.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">A mixed multitude went up also with them.</span>—Nothing is told us of the component elements of this “mixed multitude.” We hear of them as “murmuring” in <a href="/numbers/11-4.htm" title="And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?">Numbers 11:4</a>, so that they seem to have remained with Israel. Some may have been Egyptians, impressed by the recent miracles; some foreigners held to servitude, like the Israelites, and glad to escape from their masters. It is noticeable that the Egyptian writers, in their perverted accounts of the Exodus, made a multitude of foreigners (Hyksôs) take part with the Hebrews.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-39.htm">Exodus 12:39</a></div><div class="verse">And 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.</div>(39) <span class= "bld">Unleavened cakes.</span>—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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-40.htm">Exodus 12:40</a></div><div class="verse">Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, <i>was</i> four hundred and thirty years.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">The sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">which they sojourned in Egypt</span><p><span class= "bld">Was four hundred and thirty years.</span>—Comp. the prophecy:—“Thy seed shall be a stranger in <span class= "ital">a land</span> that is not theirs [Egypt, not Canaan], and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them <span class= "ital">four hundred years</span> and also <span class= "ital">that nation</span> whom they shall serve will I judge” (<a href="/context/genesis/15-13.htm" title="And he said to Abram, Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;">Genesis 15:13-14</a>). The genealogy of Joshua (<a href="/context/1_chronicles/7-22.htm" title="And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him.">1Chronicles 7:22-27</a>), which places him in the eleventh generation from Jacob, accords well with this term of years. The other genealogies are more or less abbreviated.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-41.htm">Exodus 12:41</a></div><div class="verse">And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">The selfsame day . . . all the hosts . . . went out.</span>—<span class= "ital">All started, i.e.,</span> 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 halt, Succoth.<p><span class= "bld"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-43.htm">Exodus 12:43</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This <i>is</i> the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:</div>FURTHER DIRECTIONS RESPECTING THE PASSOVER.</span><p>(43-51) <span class= "bld">This is the ordinance.</span>—These directions, together with those which follow with respect to the sanctification of the firstborn (<a href="/context/exodus/13-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Exodus 13:1-16</a>), seem to have been given to Moses <span class= "ital">at Succoth,</span> and were consequently recorded at this point of the narrative. They comprise three principal points:—(1) The exclusion of all uncircumcised persons from the Passover (<a href="/exodus/12-43.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:">Exodus 12:43</a>); (2) the admission of all full proselytes (<a href="/context/exodus/12-48.htm" title="And when a stranger shall sojourn with you, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.">Exodus 12:48-49</a>); and (3) the injunction that no bone of the lamb should be broken (<a href="/exodus/12-46.htm" title="In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall you break a bone thereof.">Exodus 12:46</a>).<p>(43) <span class= "bld">No stranger.</span>—Comp, <a href="/exodus/12-48.htm" title="And when a stranger shall sojourn with you, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.">Exodus 12:48</a> 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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-44.htm">Exodus 12:44</a></div><div class="verse">But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">Every man’s servant.</span>—Slaves born in the house were required to be circumcised on the eighth day, like Israelites (<a href="/genesis/17-13.htm" title="He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.">Genesis 17:13</a>). Bought slaves were allowed their choice. It is noticeable that the circumcised slave was to be admitted to full religious equality with his master.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-45.htm">Exodus 12:45</a></div><div class="verse">A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">An hired servant.</span>—It is assumed that the hired servant will be a foreigner; otherwise, of course, he would participate.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-46.htm">Exodus 12:46</a></div><div class="verse">In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.</div>(46) <span class= "bld">Neither shall ye break a bone thereof.</span>—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 <a href="/context/john/19-33.htm" title="But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs:">John 19:33-36</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/exodus/12-51.htm">Exodus 12:51</a></div><div class="verse">And it came to pass the selfsame day, <i>that</i> the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.</div>(51) 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.<p><span class= "bld">By their armies.</span>—See Note 2 on <a href="/exodus/13-18.htm" title="But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.">Exodus 13:18</a>.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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