Exodus 12:4

4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, he and the neighbor nearest to his house will take [one] according to the number of persons; you will count out portions of the lamb {according to how much each one can eat}.

Exodus 12:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 12:4

And if the household be too little for the lamb
That they cannot eat it up at once; let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the
number of the souls;
which Josephus ^F5 says were never fewer than ten, and were often twenty, but no man might feast alone; with which agrees the Jewish canon ^F6,

``they do not kill the passover lamb for a single person, nor even for a society consisting of one hundred, that cannot eat the quantity of an olive:''

every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb:
that is, a man must reckon up how many he has in his own house to eat of the lamb, and what their appetites be, by which he will he able to judge whether he can dispense with a lamb himself, or whether he must take in some of his neighbours, and how many, so as to eat up the whole lamb, for, for such persons the lamb was to be slain. The rule is,

``if a man slays it for those that do not eat of it, or for those that are not counted, for the uncircumcised, and the unclean, it was wrong, and not allowed of ^F7.''

The taking in his neighbours may respect the call of the Gentiles to partake of Christ with the Jews, see ( Ephesians 3:5 Ephesians 3:6 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3.
F6 Misn. Pesach. c. 8. sect. 7.
F7 lbid. c. 5. sect. 3.

Exodus 12:4 In-Context

2 "This month [will be] the beginning of months; it [will be] for you the first of the months of the year.

3 Speak to all the community of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month, they will each take for themselves {a lamb for the family}, a lamb for the household.

4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, he and the neighbor nearest to his house will take [one] according to the number of persons; you will count out portions of the lamb {according to how much each one can eat}.

5 The lamb for you must be a male, without defect, in its first year; you will take [it] from the sheep or from the goats.

6 "{You will keep it} until the fourteenth day of this month, and all the assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter it {at twilight}.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "the number of selves"
• [b]. Literally "a man for the mouth of his eating"