Israel . Some codices, with Samaritan Pentateuch, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, Septuagint, and Syriac, read "of the sons of Israel". kill. Hebrew. shahat. See App-43 . in the evening . Hebrew between the two evenings, or, according to Lightfoot, between the decline of the sun (after noon) and its setting. read more
"And if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next to his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man's eating ye shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old: ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats; and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at even.""According to every man's eating, ye... read more
"And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and upon the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with... read more
Exodus 12:6. And ye shall keep it up, &c.— Keep it up apart from the flock. And the whole assembly shall kill it, i.e. any person of the whole assembly of Israel shall have liberty to kill it: the slaying of the passover was not appropriated to the priesthood, as the offering of the blood was. See Leviticus 2:5. It was to be killed in the evening; according to the Hebrew, between the two evenings. The first evening with the Hebrews, or, as we call it, afternoon, was calculated from the time... read more
Exodus 12:7. They shall take of the blood, &c.— It appears, from Exo 12:22 that this ceremony was to be performed by dipping a bunch of hyssop into the blood of the lamb. It was peculiar to this first passover: and the reason of it is given in the 23rd verse. In after-times, when the children of Israel were settled, the passover was to be sacrificed only in the appointed place of public worship, when the blood was sprinkled by the priest on the altar, Deuteronomy 5:7. Leviticus 17:6. 2... read more
6. keep it up until the fourteenth day, c.—Being selected from the rest of the flock, it was to be separated four days before sacrifice and for the same length of time was Christ under examination and His spotless innocence declared before the world. kill it in the evening—that is, the interval between the sun's beginning to decline, and sunset, corresponding to our three o'clock in the afternoon. read more
7. take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts, c.—as a sign of safety to those within. The posts must be considered of tents, in which the Israelites generally lived, though some might be in houses. Though the Israelites were sinners as well as the Egyptians, God was pleased to accept the substitution of a lamb—the blood of which, being seen sprinkled on the doorposts, procured them mercy. It was to be on the sideposts and upper doorposts, where it might be looked to, not on the... read more
Directions for the Passover 12:1-14The Jews called their first month Abib (Exodus 12:2). After the Babylonian captivity they renamed it Nisan (Nehemiah 2:1; Esther 3:7). It corresponds to our March-April. Abib means "ear-month" referring to the month when the grain was in the ear."The reference to the Passover month as the ’lead month,’ ’the first of the year’s months’ is best understood as a double entendre. On the one hand, the statement may be connected with an annual calendar, but on the... read more
C. God’s redemption of His people 12:1-13:16Scholars differ in their opinions as to when Israel actually became a nation. Many have made a strong case for commencing national existence with the institution of the Passover, which this section records. The proper translation of the Hebrew word pasah is really "hover over" rather than "pass over." [Note: Meredith G. Kline, "The Feast of Cover-over," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 37:4 (December 1994):497-510.] ". . . properly... read more
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Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Exodus 12:1-36
The Passover (12:1-36)Until now the Israelites had escaped the judgment of the plagues without having to do anything, but now their safety depended on their carrying out God’s commands. Redemption involves faith and obedience.Each family would be delivered from judgment only by killing a sacrificial animal as substitute for it, and sprinkling the animal’s blood on the door of the house where the family lived. The sprinkled blood indicated to those outside that a substitutionary sacrifice had... read more