_A.M. 2513. B.C. 1491._ This chapter gives an account of one of the most memorable ordinances, and one of the most memorable providences, of all that are recorded in the Old Testament. (1,) None of all the ordinances of the Jewish Church were more eminent than that of the passover. It consisted of... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord spake unto Moses_ Or had spoken before what is related in the foregoing chapter, if not also before the three days' darkness: but the mention of it was put off to this place, that the history of the plagues might not be interrupted. _This month shall be to you the beginning of months_ That... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the tenth day of this month_ It was necessary they should now begin to prepare the passover four days before, because otherwise it would have been difficult to get ready so many lambs in Egypt, especially as they were to depart in haste; besides, this being the first instance of the celebration... [ Continue Reading ]
_If the household be too little_ The Hebrew doctors tell us, that there were not to be fewer than ten persons, nor more than twenty, to the eating of one lamb. And at this sacred repast, men, women, and children, masters and servants, if circumcised, were entertained.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Your lamb shall be without blemish Shall be perfect_, as the Hebrew is, that is, in all its parts. This was a qualification indispensably requisite in all sacrifices: Leviticus 22:20. Even the heathen, in the worship of their false gods, were particular in this circumstance. _A male_ Because the ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall keep it up_ Keep it apart from the rest of the flock. _The whole assembly, shall kill it_ That is, any man of the whole assembly might kill it. For slaying the passover was not appropriated to the priests.... [ Continue Reading ]
_They shall take of the blood_ Which was to be sprinkled before the flesh was eaten. _Strike it on the two side-posts, and the upper door- post_ These were to be sprinkled by dipping a bunch of hyssop into the blood, Exodus 12:22; but not the threshold, lest any one should tread upon the blood, whic... [ Continue Reading ]
_Eat it not raw_ Nor half dressed; _but roast with fire_ Not only because it might be sooner roasted than boiled, and they were in haste to be gone; but because it was thus the better type of him who endured the fierceness of divine wrath for us, Lamentations 1:13. _Unleavened bread_ Partly to remin... [ Continue Reading ]
_With your loins girded_ In a travelling posture, prepared for a journey, which is also the import of the three following particulars. _Ye shall eat it in haste_ As men expecting every moment to begin their journey. Now all these ceremonies were to accompany the feast, that it might be a more lively... [ Continue Reading ]
Dreadful work was to be made this night in Egypt: all the firstborn of man and beast were this night to be slain, and judgment to be executed upon _all the gods of Egypt_ Their idol-gods. The images made of metal were, probably, melted, those of wood consumed, and those of stone broken to pieces. To... [ Continue Reading ]
_This shall be to you for a memorial_ It was to be annually observed as a feast to the Lord in their generations, to which the feast of unleavened bread was annexed. _A holy convocation_ Such solemn festivals were called _convocations_, because the people were then assembled by sound of trumpet to a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Out of the door of his house_ Of that house wherein he ate the passover: _until the morning_ That is, till toward the morning, when they would be called for to march out of Egypt; for they went forth very early in the morning. This command was peculiar to the first passover.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The destroyer_ The destroying angel: whether this was a good or an evil angel, we have not light to determine.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The people bowed the head and worshipped_ They hereby signified their submission to this institution as a law, and their thankfulness for it as a privilege.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rise up, and get you forth Pha_ raoh had told Moses he should _see his face no more_, but now he sent for him; those will seek God in their distress, who before had set him at defiance. Such a fright he was now in that he gave orders _by night_ for their discharge, fearing lest, if he delayed, he h... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Egyptians were urgent_ They were willing to make all concessions, so they would but be gone; ransoming their lives, not only by prayers, but by their most precious things. _For they said, We be all dead men_ When death comes into our houses it is seasonable for us to think of our own mortality.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The people took their dough_ Perhaps the Hebrew word here used had better be rendered _flour_, as it is 2 Samuel 13:8; for if they had time to make it into paste, it seems they would also have had time to leaven it. _Their kneading-troughs_ The word thus rendered is translated _store, Deuteronomy 2... [ Continue Reading ]
_About six hundred thousand men_ The word means strong and able men fit for wars, besides women and children, which we cannot suppose to make less than twelve hundred thousand more. What a vast increase was this to arise from seventy souls, in little more than two hundred years!... [ Continue Reading ]
_And a mixed multitude went up with them_ Some perhaps willing to leave their country, because it was laid waste by the plagues. But probably the greatest part was but a rude, unthinking mob, that followed they knew not why. It is likely, when they understood that the children of Israel were to cont... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who dwelt in Egypt_ Or sojourned. We must observe, that it is not said, _The sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years;_ but the sojourning of the children of Israel, _who dwelt in Egypt_ That is, the sojourning of the Israelitish nation, from the time that Abr... [ Continue Reading ]
This first passover night was a night of the Lord, _much to be observed;_ but the last passover night, in which Christ was betrayed, was a night of the Lord, _much more to be observed_, when a yoke heavier than that of Egypt was broken from off our necks, and a land better than that of Canaan set be... [ Continue Reading ]
Exodus 12:45 ; EXODUS 12:48. _A hired servant_ Unless he submit to be circumcised. _All the congregation of Israel must keep it_ Though it was observed in families apart, yet it is looked upon as the act of _the whole congregation._ And so the New Testament passover, the Lord's supper, ought not to... [ Continue Reading ]