Exodus 12

The chapter moves from divine instruction regarding the ritual to the historical execution of the plague and the subsequent departure, concluding with legal codification for future observance.

• The Lord promises that when He sees the blood, He will pass over the houses and not allow the plague to destroy the inhabitants (v. 13, 23).

• Each man must take a lamb according to his house (v. 3)
• Keep the lamb until the fourteenth day and kill it in the evening (v. 6)
• Eat the flesh roasted with fire, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs (v. 8)
• Keep the feast of unleavened bread for seven days (v. 15)
• None shall go out of the door of his house until morning (v. 22)

• Whosoever eateth leavened bread shall be cut off from Israel (v. 15, 19)

• The Passover occurred within the context of the struggle between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt (v. 12).
• The firstborn of Egypt held a status of prestige and power; striking them was a direct judgment upon the entire socio-religious structure of Egypt.

• Eating with loins girded and staff in hand was a posture of immediate readiness for travel, contrary to the typical leisure associated with a feast.
• The use of hyssop (a small plant) for applying blood was a common ritual practice for purification.

• This chapter concludes the sequence of plagues and initiates the narrative of the exodus itself.
• The structure functions as a bridge between the narrative of the ten plagues and the subsequent journey to the Red Sea.

• The event is explicitly referred to in the New Testament as a type of Christ (1 Cor 5:7).
• The requirement that 'no bone of it must be broken' (v. 46) is later cited by John as fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus (John 19:36).
• Matthew Henry observes that the paschal lamb, being without blemish, points forward to the character of Christ, whom the New Testament explicitly identifies as the true Passover Lamb, demonstrating that the efficacy of the ordinance was not in the lamb itself but in the divine provision of substitutionary atonement.

• 1 Corinthians 5:7 (Christ our Passover)
• John 1:29 (Lamb of God)
• John 19:36 (Fulfillment of the unbroken bone)

• מֹשֶׁה (Mosheh, H4872): The lawgiver through whom the covenantal instructions were delivered.
• תָּמִים (tamim, H8549): 'Without blemish,' meaning entire, whole, or morally perfect; used to describe the ritual fitness of the sacrifice.
• שָׁחַט (shachat, H7819): To slaughter for sacrifice.
• דָּם (dam, H1818): Blood, the necessary sign of the substitutionary death.
• חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh, H2320): 'Month' or 'new moon,' indicating the lunar calculation of the Hebrew calendar.

• The specific distinction that the blood was for the Lord to see (v. 13), ensuring protection for those inside the house.
• The requirement that the lamb be chosen on the tenth day but not killed until the fourteenth, creating a period of inspection (v. 3, 6).

• The phrase 'four hundred and thirty years' (v. 40) is debated among scholars regarding whether it includes the entire sojourn from Abraham's arrival in Canaan or only the time in Egypt, given the tension with the genealogy of Moses.