Exodus 12:18

18 From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat matzah.

Exodus 12:18 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 12:18

In the first month
As it was now ordered to be reckoned, the month Abib or Nisan: the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread;
that is, at the evening following, the fourteenth of Nisan, and which was the beginning of the fifteenth day, the Jews beginning their day from the evening: hence the Targum of Jonathan is,

``on the fourteenth of Nisan ye shall slay the passover, in the evening of the fifteenth ye shall eat unleavened bread:''

unto the twentieth day of the month at even;
which would make just seven days; the above Targum adds,

``on the evening of the twenty second ye shall eat leavened bread,''

which was the evening following the twenty first day. This long abstinence from leaven denotes, that the whole lives of those who are Israelites indeed should be without guile, hypocrisy, and malice, and should be spent in sincerity and truth.

Exodus 12:18 In-Context

16 On the first and seventh days, you are to have an assembly set aside for God. On these days no work is to be done, except what each must do to prepare his food; you may do only that.

17 You are to observe the festival of matzah, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you are to observe this day from generation to generation by a perpetual regulation.

18 From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat matzah.

19 During those seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. Whoever eats food with hametz in it is to be cut off from the community of Isra'el - it doesn't matter whether he is a foreigner or a citizen of the land.

20 Eat nothing with hametz in it. Wherever you live, eat matzah.'"