Exodus 12:2-10

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:2

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months - It is supposed that God now changed the commencement of the Jewish year. The month to which this verse refers, the month Abib, answers to a part of our March and April; whereas it is supposed that previously to this the year began with Tisri, which answers to a part of our September; for in this month the Jews suppose God created the world, when the earth appeared at once with all its fruits in perfection. From this circumstance the Jews... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:3

In the tenth day of this month - In after times they began their preparation on the thirteenth day or day before the Passover, which was not celebrated till the fourteenth day, see Exodus 12:6 ; : but on the present occasion, as this was their first passover, they probably required more time to get ready in; as a state of very great confusion must have prevailed at this time. Mr. Ainsworth remarks that on this day the Israelites did afterwards go through Jordan into the land of Canaan; ... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:4

If the household be too little - That is, if there be not persons enough in one family to eat a whole lamb, then two families must join together. The rabbins allow that there should be at least ten persons to one paschal lamb, and not more than twenty. Take it, according to the number of the souls - The persons who were to eat of it were to be first ascertained, and then the lamb was to be slain and dressed for that number. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:5

Without blemish - Having no natural imperfection, no disease, no deficiency or redundancy of parts. On this point the rabbins have trifled most egregiously, reckoning fifty blemishes that render a lamb or kid, or any animal, improper to be sacrificed: five in the ear, three in the eyelid, eight in the eye, three in the nose, six in the mouth, etc., etc. A male of the first year - That is, any age in the first year between eight days and twelve months. From the sheep, or from the goats... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:6

Ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day - The lamb or kid was to be taken from the flock on the tenth day, and kept up and fed by itself till the fourteenth day, when it was to be sacrificed. This was never commanded nor practiced afterwards. The rabbins mark four things that were required in the first passover that were never required afterwards: The eating of the lamb in their houses dispersed through Goshen. The taking the lamb on the tenth day. The striking of its blood on... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:7

Take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts - This was to be done by dipping a bunch of hyssop into the blood, and thus sprinkling it upon the posts, etc.; see Exodus 12:22 . That this sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb was an emblem of the sacrifice and atonement made by the death of Jesus Christ, is most clearly intimated in the sacred writings, 1 Peter 1:2 ; Hebrews 9:13 , Hebrews 9:14 ; Hebrews 8:10 . It is remarkable that no blood was to be sprinkled on the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:8

They shall eat the flesh - roast with fire - As it was the ordinary custom of the Jews to boil their flesh, some think that the command given here was in opposition to the custom of the Egyptians, who ate raw flesh in honor of Osiris. The Ethiopians are to this day remarkable for eating raw flesh, as is the case with most savage nations. Unleavened bread - מצות matstsoth , from מצה matsah , to squeeze or compress, because the bread prepared without leaven or yeast was generally... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:9

With the purtenance thereof - All the intestines, for these were abused by the heathens to purposes of divination; and when roasted in the manner here directed they could not be thus used. The command also implies that the lamb was to be roasted whole; neither the head or legs were to be separated, nor the intestines removed. I suppose that these last simply included the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, etc., and not the intestinal canal. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:10

Ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning - Merely to prevent putrefaction; for it was not meet that a thing offered to God should be subjected to corruption, which in such hot countries it must speedily undergo. Thus the body of our blessed Lord saw no corruption, Psalm 16:10 ; Acts 2:27 , because, like the paschal lamb, it was a sacrifice offered to God. It appears that from the Jewish passover the heathens borrowed their sacrifice termed Propter Viam . It was their... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:3

Verse 3 3.Speak ye unto all. A question is asked on this passage, why, when one Lamb alone was offered in sacrifice for the reconciliation of the Church, and God was propitiated by the blood of one Christ alone, He should have commanded a lamb to be slain in every house, as if there were to be a special sacrifice for every one apart? The reply is easy; because, although all were protected from destruction by the same blood, and the general rite united them altogether into fellowship in the same... read more

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:2

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:3

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:4

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:5

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:6

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:7

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:8

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:9

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:10

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 12:3

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