Exodus12
New International Version
1The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
2“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.
3Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
4If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.
5The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
6Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
7Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
8That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
9Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs.
10Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.
11This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
12“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
13The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
14“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.
15For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
16On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
17“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
18In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
19For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.
20Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
21Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.
23When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
25When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
26And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’
27then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
28The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
29At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.
30Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
31During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.
32Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
33The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!”
34So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.
35The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.
36The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
38Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
39With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
40Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.
41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.
42Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.
43The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it.
44Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him,
45but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
46“It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.
47The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48“A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it.
49The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”
50All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
51And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Exodus 12.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The beginning of the year changed, The passover instituted. (1–20). The people instructed how to observe the passover. (21–28). The death of the first-born of the Egyptians, The Israelites urged to leave the land of Egypt. (29–36). The Israelites' first journey to Succoth. (37–42). Ordinance respecting the passover. (43–51).
vv1-20
The Lord makes all things new to those whom he delivers from the bondage of Satan, and takes to himself to be his people. The time when he does this is to them the beginning of a new life. God appointed that, on the night wherein they were to go out of Egypt, each family should kill a lamb, or that two or three families, if small, should kill one lamb. This lamb was to be eaten in the manner here directed, and the blood to be sprinkled on the door-posts, to mark the houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. The angel of the Lord, when destroying the first-born of the Egyptians, would pass over the houses marked by the blood of the lamb: hence the name of this holy feast or ordinance. The passover was to be kept every year, both as a remembrance of Israel's preservation and deliverance out of Egypt, and as a remarkable type of Christ. Their safety and deliverance were not a reward of their own righteousness, but the gift of mercy. Of this they were reminded, and by this ordinance they were taught, that all blessings came to them through the shedding and sprinkling of blood. Observe, 1. The paschal lamb was typical. Christ is our passover, 1Co 5:7. Christ is the Lamb of God, Joh 1:29; often in the Revelation he is called the Lamb. It was to be in its prime; Christ offered up himself in the midst of his days, not when a babe at Bethlehem. It was to be without blemish; the Lord Jesus was a Lamb without spot: the judge who condemned Christ declared him innocent. It was to be set apart four days before, denoting the marking out of the Lord Jesus to be a Saviour, both in the purpose and in the promise. It was to be slain, and roasted with fire, denoting the painful sufferings of the Lord Jesus, even unto death, the death of the cross. The wrath of God is as fire, and Christ was made a curse for us. Not a bone of it must be broken, which was fulfilled in Christ, Joh 19:33, denoting the unbroken strength of the Lord Jesus. 2. The sprinkling of the blood was typical. The blood of the lamb must be sprinkled, denoting the applying of the merits of Christ's death to our souls; we must receive the atonement, Ro 5:11. Faith is the bunch of hyssop, by which we apply the promises, and the benefits of the blood of Christ laid up in them, to ourselves. It was to be sprinkled on the door-posts, denoting the open profession we are to make of faith in Christ. It was not to be sprinkled upon the threshold; which cautions us to take heed of trampling under foot the blood of the covenant. It is precious blood, and must be precious to us. The blood, thus sprinkled, was a means of preserving the Israelites from the destroying angel, who had nothing to do where the blood was. The blood of Christ is the believer's protection from the wrath of God, the curse of the law, and the damnation of hell, Ro 8:1. 3. The solemn eating of the lamb was typical of our gospel duty to Christ. The paschal lamb was not to be looked upon only, but to be fed upon. So we must by faith make Christ our own; and we must receive spiritual strength and nourishment from him, as from our food, see Joh 6:53, 55. It was all to be eaten; those who by faith feed upon Christ, must feed upon a whole Christ; they must take Christ and his yoke, Christ and his cross, as well as Christ and his crown. It was to be eaten at once, not put by till morning. To-day Christ is offered, and is to be accepted while it is called to-day, before we sleep the sleep of death. It was to be eaten with bitter herbs, in remembrance of the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt; we must feed upon Christ with sorrow and brokenness of heart, in remembrance of sin. Christ will be sweet to us, if sin be bitter. It was to be eaten standing, with their staves in their hands, as being ready to depart. When we feed upon Christ by faith, we must forsake the rule and the dominion of sin; sit loose to the world, and every thing in it; forsake all for Christ, and reckon it no bad bargain, Heb 13:13, 14. 4. The feast of unleavened bread was typical of the Christian life, 1Co 5:7, 8. Having received Christ Jesus the Lord, we must continually delight ourselves in Christ Jesus. No manner of work must be done, that is, no care admitted and indulged, which does not agree with, or would lessen this holy joy. The Jews were very strict as to the passover, so that no leaven should be found in their houses. It must be a feast kept in charity, without the leaven of malice; and in sincerity, without the leaven of hypocrisy. It was by an ordinance for ever; so long as we live we must continue feeding upon Christ, rejoicing in him always, with thankful mention of the great things he has done for us.
vv21-28
That night, when the first-born were to be destroyed, no Israelite must stir out of doors till called to march out of Egypt. Their safety was owing to the blood of sprinkling. If they put themselves from under the protection of that, it was at their peril. They must stay within, to wait for the salvation of the Lord; it is good to do so. In after-times they should carefully teach their children the meaning of this service. It is good for children to ask about the things of God; they that ask for the way will find it. The keeping of this solemnity every year was, 1. To look backward, that they might remember what great things God had done for them and their fathers. Old mercies, to ourselves, or to our fathers, must not be forgotten, that God may be praised, and our faith in him encouraged. 2. It was designed to look forward, as an earnest of the great sacrifice of the Lamb of God in the fulness of time. Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; his death was our life.
vv29-36
The Egyptians had been for three days and nights kept in anxiety and horror by the darkness; now their rest is broken by a far more terrible calamity. The plague struck their first-born, the joy and hope of their families. They had slain the Hebrews' children, now God slew theirs. It reached from the throne to the dungeon: prince and peasant stand upon the same level before God's judgments. The destroying angel entered every dwelling unmarked with blood, as the messenger of woe. He did his dreadful errand, leaving not a house in which there was not one dead. Imagine then the cry that rang through the land of Egypt, the long, loud shriek of agony that burst from every dwelling. It will be thus in that dreadful hour when the Son of man shall visit sinners with the last judgment. God's sons, his first-born, were now released. Men had better come to God's terms at first, for he will never come to theirs. Now Pharaoh's pride is abased, and he yields. God's word will stand; we get nothing by disputing, or delaying to submit. In this terror the Egyptians would purchase the favour and the speedy departure of Israel. Thus the Lord took care that their hard-earned wages should be paid, and the people provided for their journey.
Key Words
מֹשֶׁה: Mosheh, the Israelite lawgiver
אַהֲרוֹן: Aharon, the brother of Moses
אֶרֶץ: the earth (at large, or partitively a land)
מִצְרַיִם: Mitsrajim, i.e. Upper and Lower Egypt
זֶה: the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or that
חֹדֶשׁ: the new moon; by implication, a month
רֹאשׁ: the head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itc.)
רִאשׁוֹן: first, in place, time or rank (as adjective or noun)
שָׁנֶה: a year (as a revolution of time)
כֹּל: properly, the whole; hence, all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense)
Cross References
Exodus 12Explicitly names Christ as our Passover Lamb, sacrificed for us; the ultimate fulfillment of the type.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
Christ is identified explicitly as our Passover sacrificed for us, fulfilling the type of the lamb.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
Explicitly cites the prohibition against breaking a bone of the Passover lamb as fulfilled in Christ.
Supported by JFB
John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Identifies Christ as a Lamb without blemish or spot, echoing the physical requirements of the passover.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
By faith Moses kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest the destroyer touch them.
Supported by JFB
By faith Moses kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood to escape the destroyer.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin
Hyssop is used both for sprinkling the Passover blood and delivering vinegar to Christ on the cross.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Confirms the exact duration of four hundred and thirty years from the covenant to the Law.
The foundational prophecy of Israel's servitude and ultimate deliverance after four hundred years.
The Roman soldiers did not break Jesus' legs, fulfilling the unbroken bone Passover pattern.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Cautions against trampling the blood underfoot; the paschal blood was placed on posts, never the threshold.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Confirms that when the firstborn were smitten, the Lord also executed judgments upon Egypt's gods.
Supported by JFB
Paul links unleavened bread to the Christian life, casting out the leaven of malice and wickedness.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The sprinkling of the lamb's blood typifies the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Contrasts and compares the blood of sprinkling on the doorposts with the blood of Jesus.
Supported by JFB
Fulfills the prophecy given to Abraham concerning his seed's affliction and ultimate release.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Confirms the 430-year span between the promise to Abraham and the giving of the Law.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Reiterates the command to observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to Yahweh.
Describes Gentiles as strangers and foreigners excluded from the commonwealth of Israel before Christ.
Establishes circumcision for household servants, qualifying them to partake in the covenant feast.
Repeats the ordinance that no bone of the Passover lamb shall be broken.
Matches the 'without blemish' requirement to Christ, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.
Supported by JFB
Unleavened bread is called the bread of affliction, recalling the haste of their departure from Egypt.
Supported by JFB
The prohibition on breaking a bone is explicitly fulfilled at the crucifixion of Jesus.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Christ commands disciples to let their loins be girded, echoing the readiness required at the Passover.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Direct parallel regarding the blood acting as a protective sign when the Lord passes over.
Supported by John Calvin, JFB
Fulfillment of Moses' warning that the Lord would go out at midnight to smite the firstborn.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Celebrates Israel leaving with silver and gold, and there being not one feeble person.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Fulfills the promise that Israel would come out of their servitude with great substance.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Stephen recounts the deliverance after they had spent the appointed years in Egypt.
Shows ultimate fulfillment of spiritual equality where there is no Jew, Greek, or stranger in Christ.
Echoes the breaking down of barriers between circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, and Scythian.
Provides the specific protocol for strangers who wish to keep the Passover.
Confirms there is one law and custom for both the Israelite and the resident stranger.
Specifies that the blood must be applied using a bunch of hyssop dipped in the basin.
Supported by John Calvin