Exodus 12:17

17 Keep this festival, because it was on this day that I brought your tribes out of Egypt. For all time to come you must celebrate this day as a festival.

Exodus 12:17 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 12:17

And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread
Which was a distinct feast from the passover feast; for though at that unleavened bread was eaten, it was kept but one night, this seven days; and it is repeated that it might be taken notice of, and the rather, as it was to be observed in all ages as long as the Jewish economy lasted; the reason of which follows:

for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of
Egypt;
which, though not already done, was just on doing, and was certain; and besides, it respects the day when it should come about another year: by their "armies" are meant the tribes of Israel, not so much for their military force, for as yet they were an unarmed people, but for their numbers, which were sufficient to make several considerable armies, and for their order and ease, and their being without any fear of the enemy, in which they marched out of Egypt:

therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance
for ever;
according to the rules given, with the same exactness, strictness, and constancy, as the first of the passover, and as long as that continued; (See Gill on Exodus 12:14).

Exodus 12:17 In-Context

15 The Lord said, "For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast - eat only unleavened bread. On the first day you are to get rid of all the yeast in your houses, for if anyone during those seven days eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people.
16 On the first day and again on the seventh day you are to meet for worship. No work is to be done on those days, but you may prepare food.
17 Keep this festival, because it was on this day that I brought your tribes out of Egypt. For all time to come you must celebrate this day as a festival.
18 From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month to the evening of the twenty-first day, you must not eat any bread made with yeast.
19 For seven days no yeast must be found in your houses, for if anyone, native-born or foreign, eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.