Exodus 12, Pesach

After the story of Moses and the Israelites in Egypt, covered in chapters 1-11 of Exodus, we suddenly, just before the climactic act, have an interlude.  The author of the Torah takes time to carefully describe the expectations of the nation about to rise out of Egypt. Here is a new beginning.  A new calendar.  We see the first Passover (Hebrew Pesach) here; out of this the People of the Passover are born.

Exodus 12: 1-11, The Final Plague is coming

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

      

If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.

    

The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

    

Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire--head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.  This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.

Very specific prescription is given on how each family is to mark their doorposts and cook the lamb. Among the prescription, they are to eat as if in a hurry, ready to go!  These are the people who will always feel like aliens in the land.

Exodus 12: 12-14, Passover

"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

    

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance.

The Passover will be an eternal theme for this nation and so we have instructions to future generations.  The Passover is a central rite of Jewishness.  This is the beginning of a new calendar, a new nation, and a new religion.

Imes, in her online class on Exodus, comments on the word pesach, translated here as Passover.  The words "pass over" may not be the best translation.  (She cites Karl Kutz and the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew.) The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew allows pesach to be translated "pass over" or "leap" or "protect".  The term here may more accurately means "protection", that is, it is YHWH who will protect the doorway and the homes as the angel of death passes by.

Exodus 12: 15-20, "Remove the yeast!"

For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat--that is all you may do.

    

"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.

    

Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."

Emphasized again and again -- remove the yeast!  No yeast is allowed at any time during this festival.  Why?  What does bread without yeast mean?

Exodus 12: 21-23, Blood on the door frame

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.

    

"When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down."

The blood of the sacrificed lamb (and YHWH's protection) will force the "destroyer" to move on, and pass over the house.

Exodus 12: 24-27, A lasting ordinance

"Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.

    

When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, `What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, `It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" 

    

Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

In addition to the drama of the event, there is to be an annual emphasis on remembering Pesach and remembering why it occurred.

Exodus 12: 28-30, YHWH strikes

The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.

    

Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

Across Egypt everyone weeps.  The Egypt that long ago had been throwing baby boys in the Nile now loses some of its own children

Exodus 12: 31-34, "Up! Leave!"

During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me."

    

The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!"

    

So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.

Now everyone, even Pharaoh, wants the Israelites gone.

Exodus 12: 35-39, The migration begins

The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.

    

The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. 

  

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

    

With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

Six hundred thousand men on foot could mean several million people, counting women and children.  Notice in verse 38 that some Egyptians even join the Israelites! (I will write elsewhere on alternate translations for the 600 elef described here.)

Exodus 12: 40-42, 430 years

Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt. Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.

Verse 40 follows the Masoretic text, that the people lived in Egypt for so long.  The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint manuscripts have "Egypt and Canaan" in place of "Egypt". (In a Sunday essay I will attempt to summarize our understanding of the years spent by Jacob's descendants in Egypt.)

Exodus 12: 43-51, Regulations for Passover

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover: "No foreigner is to eat of it. Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it. "It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.

    

The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. "An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."

    

All the Israelites did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

    

And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

Foreigners are prohibited from the Passover celebration.  This includes temporary and hired workers.  However a circumcised slave is treated like any other Jewish male.  Celebrating the Passover requires that the men be circumcised, indicating membership in the Israel covenant community.