Exodus 23:18

18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.

Exodus 23:18 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:18

Thou shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened
bread
This belongs to the feast of the passover; for, as all the Jewish writers agree, this sacrifice is the sacrifice of the passover, as it is sometimes called, see ( Exodus 12:27 ) now when the paschal lamb was killed, and its blood shed, and its flesh eaten, there was to be no leaven along with it; it was to be eaten with unleavened bread, and there was to be no leaven in their houses at this time; nay, it was not to be slain until all was removed: this was the first thing the Jews did, as soon as the fourteenth day was come, to search for leaven, remove and burn it; and this sense of the law is confirmed by the Targum of Jonathan, which is,

``not a man shall slay, while there is leaven in your houses, the sacrifice of my passover;''

and to the same purpose is the note of Jarchi:

neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning;
and indeed no part of the passover lamb was to remain until the morning, what did was to be burnt with fire, ( Exodus 12:10 ) the Targum of Jonathan is,

``neither shall there remain without the altar the fat of the sacrifice of my passover until the morning, nor of the flesh which ye ate in the evening;''

and so Jarchi interprets it of its not remaining without the altar.

Exodus 23:18 In-Context

16 and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field.
17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah.
18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.
19 The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in it mother's milk
20 Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.