12: 2 This month shall be unto you 85the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
85Implying that Egyptian months had begun in Autumn.
12: 3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the 86tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a 87lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household:
86In BC 1615 it would have been April 27 (possibly 28); the Spring Equinox was April 04 (Julian calendar).
87Or, kid
12: 4 and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next unto 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.
12: 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old: ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:
12: 6 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 88between the two evenings.
88This expression is used eleven times: ch. 12:6; 10:12; 29:39, 41; 30:8; Lv 23:5; Nu 9:3, 5, 11; 28:4, 8. The Sadducees say between sunset and starlight; the Pharisees say mid-afternoon; some others say from one sunset to the next (as in Lv 23:32). Or, at twilight ( from Anglo-Saxon two lights).
12: 7 And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it.
12: 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
12: 9 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.
12: 10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
12: 11 And thus shall ye eat it: 89with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is Jehovah’s passover.
89Implying imminent departure without delay.
12: 12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that 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 judgments: I am Jehovah.
12: 13 And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you 90to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
90Or, for a destroyer,
12: 14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to Jehovah: throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
12: 15 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.
12: 16 And in the 91first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the 92seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every soul must eat, that only may be done by you.
91The 1st day was the day of the Exodus. Cf. vs. 17.
92The 7th day was the third day’s journey in the wilderness, or desert, as was originally requested of Pharaoh. Cf. ch. 5:3.
12: 17 And ye shall observe the feast of 93unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance for ever.
93Hb. matzos,
12: 18 In the first month, 94on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.
94Beginning on the day before the Exodus. Compare footnote on vs. 22 with Lv 23:6.
12: 19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a sojourner, or one that is born in the land.
12: 20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
12: 21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, 95Draw out, and take you 96lambs according to your families, and kill the passover.
95Or, Go forth,
96Or, kids Hb. ןאצ tzon, small cattle of a flock: of sheep and/or goats.
12: 22 And ye 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 of the door of his house 97until the morning.
97Egyptians apparently reckoned sunrise as the beginning of the day. Thus, the Exodus began on Abib (Nisan) 15, as per Nu 33:3. (Sunrise reckoning is seen also in Mt 28:1.)
12: 23 For Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
12: 24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.
12: 25 And it shall come to pass, when ye are come to the land which Jehovah will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
12: 26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
12: 27 that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s passover, 98who 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.
98Or, for that he passed over
12: 28 And the children of Israel went and did so; as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
12: 29 And it came to pass at midnight, that Jehovah 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 was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
12: 30 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 99there was not a house where there was not one dead.
99The plagues are recalled in a 15th century B.C. inscription of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut: I have restored that which was ruins, I have raised up that which was unfinished, Since the Asiatics [Hyksos] were in the midst of Avaris of the Northland, And the barbarians [Israelites] were in the midst of them, Overthrowing that which was made… So James H. Breasted, “Ancient Records of Egypt;” Vol. 2, para. 303. [The Israelites would have been viewed by the Egyptians as terrorist barbarians because of the destruction of the plagues. Note: them would be parallel to Avaris, not Northland.]
12: 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said.
12: 32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.
12: 33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, 100We shall all be dead men.
100Or, Lest we all be dead.
12: 34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
12: 35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:
12: 36 and Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And they 101despoiled the Egyptians.
101Israel was thus compensated for their houses. Perhaps also for back pay as slave labor.
12: 37 And the children of Israel journeyed from 102Rameses to 103Sukkoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, besides children.
102Meaning Born of the Sun. The famous later name for Hatwaret, or, Avaris, the Hyksos capital.
103Meaning Booths, About 30 km distant.
12: 38 And 104a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
104So the 15th Dynasty was not entirely popular.
12: 39 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 105could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victuals.
105Implying there could not have been a day’s delay.
12: 40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt 106in Egypt, was four hundred thirty years.
1064QExodc reads in the land of Egypt, SeptB reads in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, Sam. reads in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, Ga 3:17 begins the 430 years with Abraham and the covenant. He may have left Haran and gone to Egypt the same year; compare Ge 12.
12: 41 And it came to pass at the end of four hundred thirty years, even 107the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt.
107Nisan 15, in early Spring and at a full moon, would have been a most logical time for Abram to begin his sojourn.
12: 42 It is 108a night to be much observed unto Jehovah for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: 109this is that night of Jehovah, to be much observed of all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
108Or, a night of watching unto Jehovah
109Or, this same night is a night of watching unto Jehovah for all the children of Israel
12: 43 And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: there shall no foreigner eat thereof;
12: 44 but every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
12: 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof.
12: 46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.
12: 47 All the congregation of Israel shall 110keep it.
110Hb. do it.
12: 48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with you, and will keep the passover to Jehovah, 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: but no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
12: 49 One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
12: 50 Thus did all the children of Israel; as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
12: 51 And it came to pass the selfsame day, that Jehovah did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.
