Exodus 12:7

Nine plagues have struck Egypt, and each time Pharaoh has refused to let Israel go (Exodus 7–11). The people have lived for generations in hard bondage, their lives made bitter by their masters (Exodus 1:11–14). Into this the LORD speaks, and what he says in this chapter (Exodus 12) leads straight to the last plague and to Israel’s going out. He is keeping the word he gave Abraham long before (Genesis 15:13–14) and the promise he made through Moses to bring his people out from under their burdens (Exodus 6:6).

“The LORD” stands for Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of God, which Strong’s explains as the self-existent or Eternal One. The verb for “spake”, ʼâmar, is the everyday Hebrew word for saying, telling or commanding, and the weight of these instructions comes from the One who gives them. Salvation here begins with God. He speaks first, and Israel’s part is to hear and obey.

He speaks to Moses and to ʼAhărôwn, Aaron, Moses’ brother, who would later serve as Israel’s first high priest. Both men carry the word to the people. People ask whether God speaks only through such leaders. At this moment he chose Moses and Aaron to carry his word to Israel, as he would later give the law through Moses at Sinai (Exodus 19). Through the whole of Scripture he speaks in many ways, by prophets, dreams and visions, and in these last days by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–2).

The place matters too. God gives these words “in the land of Egypt”, while his people are still in the house of bondage. Their deliverance is set in motion in Pharaoh’s own country, before they have taken a step toward freedom, and the God who rules there is the LORD.

“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months.” The word for month, chôdesh, means the new moon, and so the month that begins with it. “Beginning” is rôʼsh, the ordinary word for head, so this month is the head of the months. “First” is riʼshôwn, meaning first or former, and the second half of the verse says the same thing again in plain terms: “it shall be the first month of the year to you.” This month, later called Abib or Nisan, falls in the spring.

God sets Israel’s year by their redemption. From now on every feast is counted from the month in which he brought them out, and the law repeats the command to observe the month of Abib and keep the passover in it (Deuteronomy 16:1). The words “unto you” and “to you” mark this as Israel’s own calendar, given to them by God, with their deliverance at its head. Israel also kept a civil year that began in the autumn, with the month of Tishri, for farming and the business of the nation, while the year that began with this month governed the sacred feasts.

A new beginning is something God gives again and again. Through Isaiah he tells his people to remember the former things no longer, because he will do a new thing (Isaiah 43:18–19). Anyone who is in Christ is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17), Jesus spoke of the new testament in his blood (Luke 22:19–20), and at the end God makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).

Moses and Aaron are to speak to “all the congregation of Israel”. The verb dâbar means to speak or tell (Strong’s adds that it may first have meant to arrange), and the congregation, ʻêdâh, is the whole people gathered as one. On the tenth day of the month every man is to take “a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house”.

The word for lamb, seh, means one animal of the flock, a sheep or a goat, which is why verse 5 allows either. The word for house, bayith, reaches well past the building. It is the household, the family in the widest sense, with relatives and servants under one roof and the resident foreigners who joined them. The lamb is provided for each household, and everyone inside shares in it.

People ask whether “a lamb for an house” means that God saves families and leaves the individual aside. The household was where each person shared the lamb, and the next verse counts every soul one by one, so the person and the family belong together here. The New Testament shows the same pattern when Paul and Silas tell the jailer at Philippi to believe on the Lord Jesus, and he will be saved, and his house (Acts 16:31).

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.” The word tâmîym means whole, complete or sound, and when it is used of people, blameless or upright. Any defect, injury or disease ruled an animal out. The same standard runs through the later law of sacrifice (Leviticus 22:21), and Malachi rebuked those who brought the blind and the lame to God’s altar.

The lamb is to be a male, zâkâr, a word Strong’s explains as properly “remembered” and which simply means a male, of man or beast. “Of the first year” is literally ben shanah, “son of a year”, a young animal at its full strength, often said to be anywhere from eight days to a year old. Israel was to give God a sound young animal in its prime, the best of the flock.

“Ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats” means that every household could obey, whatever its flock. People ask what a family too poor for a lamb could do. For other sacrifices the law later let the poor bring two turtledoves, two young pigeons or a measure of fine flour (Leviticus 5:7–11), and for this first Passover the sharing of verse 4 meant that every family could take part.

Sacrifice runs back to the beginning. God clothed Adam and Eve in skins after the fall (Genesis 3:21), and Abel brought an offering from his flock (Genesis 4). The Passover lamb is the fullest of these early pictures, and Peter describes Christ in its terms, as “a lamb without blemish and without spot”, whose precious blood redeems us (1 Peter 1:18–19).

“And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month.” The phrase rests on mishmereth, a watch or keeping, the custody of something under guard, and also an observance or duty. The lamb taken on the tenth lived with the family for four days. Those days gave time to make sure it truly was without blemish, and they let the household come to know the animal whose life would be given for theirs.

Then “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it”. The Hebrew gathers up its words for the people: kôl, all, qâhâl, an assembly, ʻêdâh, a congregation, and Yisrâʼêl, Israel, the name given to Jacob, which Strong’s explains as “he will rule as God”. Each household killed its own lamb, all of them at the same hour, so the whole nation acted as one. On this first night the sacrifice belonged to every family, and the people stood together under the same command.

“In the evening” translates bêyn, “between”, and ʻereb, “evening” or sunset, and the phrase reads literally “between the two evenings”, ben ha’arbayim.

“And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post.” To take, lâqach, is the common verb for taking something in hand. The blood, dâm, is the lamb’s life poured out, for “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). The verb the KJV renders “strike” is nâthan, the everyday word “to give”, used with great latitude for putting or setting something in place, so the blood is put on the doorframe. The side posts are the mᵉzûwzâh, the upright posts of the door, and the upper door post is the mashqôwph, the lintel across the top. The whole entrance is marked.

The blood goes on “the houses, wherein they shall eat it”. The place of the sign and the place of the meal are the same, so the family sits down to eat behind a door marked with the blood of the lamb they are eating. Anyone passing could see which houses had obeyed. Later in the chapter the one who strikes Egypt is called the destroyer, and the LORD keeps him from coming in at a door that bears the blood (Exodus 12:23).

Scripture gives other signs that marked people for protection, such as the mark God set on Cain (Genesis 4:15) and the scarlet cord in Rahab’s window, which kept her household safe when Jericho fell (Joshua 2:18).

People ask what would have happened to an Israelite household that left its door unmarked. Verse 13 makes the blood the sign the LORD looks for, so such a house would have stood with the houses of Egypt and lost its firstborn.

“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” Flesh, bâsâr, is the meat of the lamb, the heart of the meal. Those whose door bore its blood now ate its flesh, sharing in the sacrifice that sheltered them, and the meal gave them strength for the journey ahead.

The bread is matstsâh, thin bread made without yeast. Later in the chapter the people leave Egypt so quickly that their dough is still unleavened (Exodus 12:34), and so this bread came to recall the haste of that night. Scripture also uses leaven as a picture of corruption. Jesus warned his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:6), and Paul, in the same breath as calling Christ our passover, tells believers to purge out the old leaven of malice and keep the feast with sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6–8). Unleavened bread pictured a clean new start for a people God had redeemed.

The bitter herbs, mᵉrôr, from a root meaning to be bitter, put the taste of slavery in the mouth. The Egyptians had made Israel’s lives bitter with hard bondage (Exodus 1:14), and every bite recalled what God had brought them out of.

“And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.” To remain is yâthar, to be left over, and in the form used here, to leave something over. Morning, bôqer, is the break of day. To burn is sâraph, the ordinary word for burning something up. “Until the morning” comes twice in this verse, and it fixes the hour by which the meal must be finished.

The rule kept the holy meal from becoming common food. Whatever was left went into the fire, which kept it from being stored, given away or treated lightly. Burning it was an act of reverence and obedience, the fitting end for what had been set apart for God, as with the peace offering mentioned above. The rule also fit the night’s haste, since a people about to leave had no room for leftovers, and it taught them to live on what God gave for that day. The manna was to be gathered the same way, with none kept until morning (Exodus 16:19–20). The later Passover law repeats the rule (Deuteronomy 16:4), and Jesus told his disciples to leave tomorrow’s cares to tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

“And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste.” To gird, châgar, is to bind on a belt, and people in long robes tucked them up into the belt before work or travel so they could move freely. Shoes were often taken off indoors, so shoes on the feet marked a person about to go out. The staff, maqqêl, was the traveller’s tool, used for support, for defence and for guiding animals. Israel ate the first Passover dressed as people on the point of leaving.

Haste is chippâzôwn, hurried flight. People ask whether eating in haste showed a lack of reverence. The haste was itself obedience, the response of a people who believed that God would act that very night, and before morning Pharaoh would be urging them out of the land.

“It is the LORD’S passover.” The word peçach names both the feast and its sacrifice, and it comes from a root meaning to pass over or spare. The meal belongs to the LORD. It is his deliverance, his judgment and his sparing, and the name of the meal is the name of what he does in verse 13. The feast of unleavened bread that goes with it is set out in the verses that follow (Exodus 12:14–20).

The traveller’s clothes picture God’s people as pilgrims. Abraham left his homeland at God’s call (Genesis 12:1–3), and the faithful confessed that they were “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). Jesus uses the same picture for those who wait for his return: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning” (Luke 12:35). Paul speaks of having the loins girt about with truth as part of the armour of God (Ephesians 6:14).

“For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night.” The LORD himself acts, and on this one night. He will “smite all the firstborn”, and the verb nâkâh is the ordinary active word for striking or smiting, here a fatal blow. The firstborn of man and beast both fall. In Egypt, as in Israel, the firstborn stood for a family’s strength and future, so the blow fell on the heart of the land and on its succession. Egypt’s animals were bound up with its work and its worship, and they share in the judgment.

“And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.” The word shepheṭ means a sentence carried out, an act of judgment. Egypt worshipped many gods tied to the river, the sun, animals and the life of the land, and Pharaoh himself was honoured as divine. The plagues had already shown that the LORD rules over all of them. Looking back, Moses records that upon their gods the LORD executed judgments (Numbers 33:4). God had said that by these acts the Egyptians would know that he is the LORD (Exodus 7:5), and a psalm shows God judging among the gods (Psalm 82:1).

The verse ends, “I am the LORD”, with the covenant name Yᵉhôvâh that God made known to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3). It sets his seal on everything before it. The One who judges Egypt is the God who keeps covenant with Israel, and he would soon lead his people through the sea (Exodus 14).

“And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are.” Token is ʼôwth, a sign: a signal, a visible mark, or evidence that confirms a promise. The blood on the door is the sign God appointed, and he joins his promise to it: “when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you”. To pass over is pâçach, the verb from which the feast takes its name, and it means to pass over and so to spare. The houses under the blood are spared on the night the land of Egypt is struck.

The Passover lamb is the clearest Old Testament picture of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist called him “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and Paul writes plainly, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The lamb was to be without blemish, and Christ is the sinless Lamb whose blood redeems us.

The lamb died in the place of the firstborn, and its blood turned judgment away from the house. In the same way Christ died for sinners. God commends his love toward us in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), and God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). On the night of the Passover God struck the firstborn of Egypt, and at the cross he “spared not his own Son” (Romans 8:32), who bore the judgment that our sin deserved.

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). We are “bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Israel killed a lamb every year, and Christ by his own blood obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12), for by one offering he has perfected for ever those who are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). As the LORD judged the gods of Egypt, so at the cross Christ triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15).

Even the dates match. The lamb was taken on the tenth day and killed on the fourteenth. By the traditional reckoning Jesus entered Jerusalem on the tenth of the month and was crucified on the fourteenth, at the time of the Passover, and the days between are like the lamb’s keeping, as he was watched and questioned in the city. He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23), sent in “the fulness of the time” (Galatians 4:4), and in due time he died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6).

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning. He took bread and the cup and spoke of his body, and of his blood of the covenant shed for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:26–28). Paul hands on the same words, and believers eat this meal to remember the Lord and look for his return (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). As one household shared one lamb, we who are many are one bread and one body (1 Corinthians 10:17). Jesus spoke of eating his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6:53–56), and we receive him by faith, as Israel received the lamb by eating it. The lamb was enough for every household that shared it, and Christ’s sacrifice is enough for all who believe.

These verses show a God who speaks first. Israel’s deliverance began with his word, spoken to slaves in the land of their slavery, with a plan worked out to the day and the hour. He is the judge of all the earth, and his sentence on Egypt was real and terrible. In the same night he provided a lamb for every house, a way for small and poor households to share it, and a sign he promised to honour. Israel was spared through the blood on the door and through God’s faithful word, and each family’s safety rested there.

He also gave his people a year that begins with redemption, a meal eaten ready for the road, and a story to tell their children. The same pattern holds for us in Christ, the Lamb of God. His blood is the sign God sees, his sacrifice was whole and enough, and the life that follows is a pilgrim’s life, lived with loins girded and lights burning until he comes. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”, and he kept that word in Egypt and keeps it still for all who shelter under the blood of his Son.