The Institution of the Passover
1#sn Chapter 12 details the culmination of the ten plagues on Egypt and the beginning of the actual deliverance from bondage. Moreover, the celebration of this festival of Passover was to become a central
The Institution of the Passover
1#sn Chapter 12 details the culmination of the ten plagues on Egypt and the beginning of the actual deliverance from bondage. Moreover, the celebration of this festival of Passover was to become a central part of the holy calendar of Israel. The contents of this chapter have significance for NT studies as well, since the Passover was a type of the death of Jesus. The structure of this section before the crossing of the sea is as follows: the institution of the Passover (12:1-28), the night of farewell and departure (12:29-42), slaves and strangers (12:43-51), and the laws of the firstborn (13:1-16). In this immediate section there is the institution of the Passover itself (12:1-13), then the Unleavened Bread (12:14-20), and then the report of the response of the people (12:21-28). The Lord said#tn Heb “and Yahweh said.” to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,#tn Heb “saying.” 2 “This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year.#sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 294-95) shows that the intent of the passage was not to make this month in the spring the New Year – that was in the autumn. Rather, when counting months this was supposed to be remembered first, for it was the great festival of freedom from Egypt. He observes how some scholars have unnecessarily tried to date one New Year earlier than the other. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel, ‘In the tenth day of this month they each#tn Heb “and they will take for them a man a lamb.” This is clearly a distributive, or individualizing, use of “man.” must take a lamb#tn The שֶּׂה (seh) is a single head from the flock, or smaller cattle, which would include both sheep and goats. for themselves according to their families#tn Heb “according to the house of their fathers.” The expression “house of the father” is a common expression for a family. sn The Passover was to be a domestic institution. Each lamb was to be shared by family members. – a lamb for each household.#tn Heb “house” (also at the beginning of the following verse). 4 If any household is too small#sn Later Judaism ruled that “too small” meant fewer than ten (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 88). for a lamb,#tn The clause uses the comparative min (מִן) construction: יִמְעַט הַבַּיִת מִהְיֹת מִשֶּׂה (yim’at habbayit mihyot miseh, “the house is small from being from a lamb,” or “too small for a lamb”). It clearly means that if there were not enough people in the household to have a lamb by themselves, they should join with another family. For the use of the comparative, see GKC 430 §133.c. the man#tn Heb “he and his neighbor”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity. and his next-door neighbor#tn Heb “who is near to his house.” are to take#tn The construction uses a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive after a conditional clause: “if the household is too small…then he and his neighbor will take.” a lamb according to the number of people – you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat.#tn Heb “[every] man according to his eating.”sn The reference is normally taken to mean whatever each person could eat. B. Jacob (Exodus, 299) suggests, however, that the reference may not be to each individual person’s appetite, but to each family. Each man who is the head of a household was to determine how much his family could eat, and this in turn would determine how many families shared the lamb. 5 Your lamb must be#tn The construction has: “[The] lamb…will be to you.” This may be interpreted as a possessive use of the lamed, meaning, “[the] lamb…you have” (your lamb) for the Passover. In the context instructing the people to take an animal for this festival, the idea is that the one they select, their animal, must meet these qualifications. 