Exodus 12 Study Notes

12:1-13:16 Chapters 12-13 are arranged topically in a way that intersperses long sections of instruction with short sections that describe events taking place. With earlier plagues, the report of the plague follows immediately after its announcement. Not so with the tenth. Instructions to Moses and Aaron and then to the Israelites about how to observe the Lord’s Passover (12:11) postpone the report of the plague’s enactment (12:29-42). Some of the instructions that stand before the report of the plague and of the Israelite departure are ones that the Israelites would have needed at the time in order to prepare. Some instructions would be of use only in later years, but they are prominent among the instructions before the event. The report of the exodus (12:29-42) is followed by further instructions for future celebrations (12:43-49) and a short summary of the first Passover observance and the exodus (12:50-51).

Another section of instructions for the future follows. It involves dedication of the firstborn and observing the Festival of Unleavened Bread (13:1-16) before the account returns to the unfolding events of the exodus (13:17-14:31). People usually wait to make plans for commemorating an event until after the event has occurred, but here the Israelites were still in Egypt (12:1). The attention given to future celebrations in these preparatory chapters highlights the event’s certainty and importance as well as the authority of the Lord, who would give the Israelites cause for celebration.

12:2 Because of what the Lord was about to do in the current month, the Israelites were to consider it the first month of their year (the beginning of months). Its Canaanite name was Abib and its Babylonian name was Nisan (13:4). This lunar month overlaps with portions of the solar months of March and April.

12:3 To select an animal of the flock four days in advance would give opportunity to observe it for defects. But more importantly, early selection would draw attention to what was ahead. Just enough should be prepared for the people who would eat together.

12:4-7 As Douglas Stuart explains, the principle was that “everyone had to eat the meat, and all the meat had to be eaten.” The perfection of the animal foreshadowed the perfection of the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29).

12:8-10 The meat must be eaten immediately, and anything left must be burned and not left to ordinary uses the next morning. That it must be roasted whole also fits the need for special treatment of this animal, whose blood above the doorway and on the side posts identified the inhabitants of the house: they were people who took the Lord’s commands seriously (9:20-21).

12:11-14 The declarations it is the Lord’s Passover and I am the Lord reinforce the truth that what was happening centered on God’s identity and his self-revelatory actions (6:2-8,29; 7:5,17, etc.). In this instance he exercised his ability and right to execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.

12:15-20 Eating unleavened bread would remind the Israelites of their rapid departure from Egypt that did not allow time for a leavening agent to make the bread rise (v. 39). Those who ate leavened bread showed disdain for what the Lord had done in founding Israel as a nation and were subject to either banishment (Nm 19:13) or the death penalty, which was meted out to intentionally defiant lawbreakers in Nm 15:22-31 and carried out by human or divine agency (Ex 31:14; Lv 20:1-24).

12:21-22 The instructions were summarized for the elders, who would pass the instructions on to the rest of the Israelites. Hyssop would be used in cleansing rituals (Lv 14:4,6,49,51-52; Nm 19:6,18; Ps 51:7; Heb 9:19). See also Jn 19:29.

12:23 The descriptions of the death of the firstborn say nothing more about the destroyer, nor do they indicate how the humans or animals died. The Lord’s sovereign activity was the issue, and he presented himself as bringing about the deaths. He also referred to the plague as destroying (v. 13), in an expression that uses a Hebrew word closely related to the one here translated “destroyer.” Elsewhere an angel from the Lord is described using the Hebrew word for “the destroyer” in a situation that involved a deadly plague (2Sm 24:16). David chose “plague” because it would allow him to “fall into the Lord’s hands” (2Sm 24:14). Angels came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 19:13), while God was repeatedly credited with destroying the cities (Gn 13:10; 18:22-19:14,24-25).

12:24-28 The Lord expected the Israelites to teach their children about him in the process of regularly celebrating what he had done for them (10:2; 13:8-9,14-15).

12:29-30 The prisoner who was in the dungeon was another person opposite Pharaoh in social standing, like “the servant girl who is at the grindstones” (11:5). Mention of both extremes encompassed all people in between.

12:31-32 Pharaoh had one last encounter with Moses and Aaron. He had declared that Moses would die if they met again, but he could not keep that resolve. Instead, he capitulated and gave unconditional release of all the Israelites to go and worship, but he himself made no mention of worshiping the Lord (cp. 2Kg 5:17-18). Pharaoh’s desire for blessing recalls earlier dealings of Egyptians and others with God’s people that show things could have been far different for him (Gn 12:3; 21:22-24; 26:28-31; 39:5; 47:7,10).

12:33-34 We’re all going to die! is the last recorded statement to Moses by ordinary Egyptians. It uses just two words in Hebrew and assesses the situation without any pretense, the expectation being that all the Egyptians were about to die if the Israelites stayed any longer in Egypt.

12:35-36 These verses describe what the statements in 3:21-22 and 11:2-3 had looked toward.

12:37 Rameses and Succoth are thought to have been in eastern Egypt (1:11), with Succoth east of Rameses in an area that the ancient Egyptians called Tjeku. This was at the eastern end of the Wadi Tumilat and contained fortifications because the area was a trade route with access to the Sinai Peninsula. The large number of people who left Egypt contrasts with the small number who had entered it (1:1-5). The census of about six hundred thousand able-bodied men implies a total population of more than two million. See also note at Nm 1:44-46.

12:38 The mixed crowd may have included other laborers who saw an opportunity to escape from Egyptian servitude, but who had not necessarily come to faith in the Lord (Nm 11:4).

12:39 See 12:14-20.

12:40-41 Starting from 966 BC, when Solomon began to build the Lord’s temple, and adding 480 years (1Kg 6:1) yields 1446 BC for the date of the exodus. Adding 430 years to that brings Jacob to Egypt in 1876 BC, during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom era.

12:42 Because the Lord had watched over Israel on Passover night, they would hold a vigil in commemoration.

12:43-49 Passover was a family event for those who belonged to the covenant community of Israel, to whom circumcision was the sign of the covenant that God was in the process of fulfilling (2:24; Gn 17:9-13). The whole community of Israel must celebrate the Passover, and one law would apply to anyone who was part of the covenant community, whether by birth (and membership in a family through purchase) or by choice of affiliation. A woman’s participation would normally depend on her family connections. The restriction against breaking the bones of the lamb foreshadows Jesus, the true Passover lamb (Jn 19:33-36; cp. Ps 34:20).