Exodus 12:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Exodus 12:11
And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’s passover.
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
loins
מָתְנֵיכֶ֣םma.te.nei.Khem
H4975
properly · noun, common masculine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
girded
חֲגֻרִ֔יםcha.gu.Rim
H2296
to gird on (as a belt · verb, qal passive participle, masculine plural absolute
shoes
נַֽעֲלֵיכֶם֙na.'a.lei.Khem
H5275
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
feet
בְּרַגְלֵיכֶ֔םbe.rag.lei.Khem
H7272
a foot (as used in walking) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
staff
וּמַקֶּלְכֶ֖םu.ma.kel.Khem
H4731
a shoot · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
hand
בְּיֶדְכֶ֑םbe.yed.Khem
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
eat
וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֤םva.'a.khal.Tem
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
haste
בְּחִפָּז֔וֹןbe.chi.pa.Zon
H2649
hasty flight · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD’s
לַיהוָֽהla.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
passover
פֶּ֥סַחPe.sach
H6453
a pretermission · noun, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 12:27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote…
Ephesians 6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Je…
Exodus 12:21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the pa…
Exodus 12:43 And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:
Leviticus 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover.
Numbers 28:16 And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the passover of the LORD.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 12:1-20
Moses and Aaron here receive of the Lord what they were afterwards to deliver to the people concerning the ordinance of the passover, to which is prefixed an order for a new style to be observed in their months (Exo 12:1, Exo 12:2): This shall be to you the beginning of months. They had hitherto begun their year from the middle of September, but henceforward they were to begin it from the middle of March, at least in all their ecclesiastical computations. Note, It is good to begin the day, and begin the year, and especially to begin our lives, with God. This new calculation began the year with the spring, which reneweth the face of the earth, and was used as a figure of the coming of Christ,…
THE RITE OF THE PASSOVER. (Exo 12:11-14)
thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet--as prepared for a journey. The first was done by the skirts of the loose outer cloth being drawn up and fastened in the girdle, so as to leave the leg and knee free for motion. As to the other, the Orientals never wear shoes indoors, and the ancient Egyptians, as appears from the monuments, did not usually wear either shoes or sandals. These injunctions seem to have applied chiefly to the first celebration of the rite.
it is the Lord's passover--called by this name from the blood-marked dwellings of the Israelites being passed over figuratively by the destroying angel.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 12:11
And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded - As in the eastern countries they wear long loose garments, whenever they travel they tuck up the fore parts of their garments in the girdle which they wear round their loins.
Your shoes on your feet - This seems particularly mentioned because not customary. "The easterns throw off their shoes when they eat, because it would be troublesome," says Sir J. Chardin, "to keep their shoes upon their feet, they sitting cross-legged on the floor, and having no hinder quarters to their shoes, which are made like slippers; and as they do not use tables and chairs as we do in Europe, but have their floors covered with carpets, they throw off their shoes…
[The father of the prodigal son] orders the shoes to be brought out, for he who is about to celebrate the Lord's Passover, about to feast on the Lamb, ought to have his feet protected against all attacks of spiritual wild beasts and the bite of the serpent.
Therefore, the just man commends his vow with swiftness. And our fathers hastened to eat the Passover, having their loins girded, and their feet shod with shoes, and carrying burdens of the body, so that they would be ready for the passage; for the Passover of the Lord is a passage from sufferings to exercises of virtue. And therefore it is called the Passover of the Lord; because even then in that Lamb the truth of the Lord's Passion was announced, and now it is celebrated by his grace.
Passover means "passing over." It derives its ancient name from the Lord's passing over on this [day] through Egypt, striking the firstborn of the Egyptians and freeing the children of Israel, and from the children of Israel's passing over on that night from their slavery in Egypt in order that they might come to the land which had once been promised to their heirs as a land of peace. Mystically it signifies that on this [day] our Lord would pass over from this world to his Father. Following his example, the faithful, having cast off temporal desires and having cast off their slavery to vices by their continual practice of the virtues, should pass over to their promised heavenly fatherland.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Blood — (1.) As food, prohibited in Gen. 9:4, where the use of animal food is first allowed. Comp. Deut. 12:23; Lev. 3:17; 7:26; 17:10-14. The injunction to abstain from blood is renewed in the decree of the…
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Passover — The name given to the chief of the three great historical annual festivals of the Jews. It was kept in remembrance of the Lord’s passing over the houses of the Israelites (Ex. 12:13) when the first…
Pentecost — I.e., “fiftieth”, found only in the New Testament (Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:8). The festival so named is first spoken of in Ex. 23:16 as “the feast of harvest,” and again in Ex. 34:22 as “the day…
Sacrifice — The offering up of sacrifices is to be regarded as a divine institution. It did not originate with man. God himself appointed it as the mode in which acceptable worship was to be offered to him by…
Atonement · .Typified — .Typified
Atonement, The · Typified — Typified
Blood · .Sprinkled on door posts — .Sprinkled on door posts
Egypt · History of Israel in: The passover instituted — History of Israel in: The passover instituted
Feast Of The Passover, The · Called the: Lord’s passover — Called the: Lord’s passover
Feet, The · Early use of shoes — Early use of shoes
John Gill on Exodus 12:11
And thus shall ye eat it,.... After the following manner, in the habit and posture described: the Targum of Jonathan adds,"at this time, and not in ages following;''for these rites were peculiar to the passover in Egypt, and not to be observed in later times:
with your loins girded; that is, with their garments girt about their loins, for the better convenience in travelling; for in those countries they wore long loose garments, which reached to their feet, and unless girt up, were a great hinderance in walking; and may denote the saints being girt with the girdle of truth, and their readiness and fitness to perform every good work:
your shoes on your feet; which used to be put off at feas…
Exodus 12:1-20
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
1. Loquutus est Jehova ad Mosen et ad Abaton in terra Aegypti, dicendo.
2. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
2. Mensis iste principium vobis erit mensium, et primus idem vobis in mensibus anni.
3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their' fathers, a lamb for an house.
3. Loquimini ad totum coetum Israel, dicendo, Decima hujus mensis tollat sibi quisque agnum secundum domum patrum, agnum domatim.
4. And if the house…
Institution of the Passover. - The deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt was at hand; also their adoption as the nation of Jehovah (Exo 6:6-7).
But for this a divine consecration was necessary, that their outward severance from the land of Egypt might be accompanied by an inward severance from everything of an Egyptian or heathen nature. This consecration was to be imparted by the Passover-a festival which was to lay the foundation for Israel's birth (Hos 2:5) into the new life of grace and fellowship with God, and to renew it perpetually in time to come. This festival was therefore instituted and commemorated before the exodus from Egypt. Vv. 1-28 contain the directions for the Pa…
Be fully dressed: The Israelites were to be ready to depart at a moment’s notice.
Rashi on Exodus 12:11
מתניכם חגרים YOUR LOINS GIRDED — i. e. prepared for the journey (Mekhilta).
בחפזון — This is an expression denoting hurry and haste, similar to, (I Samuel 23:26) “And David made haste (נחפז) to get away”; (2 Kings 7:15) ”which the Arameans had cast away in their haste"
פסח הוא לה IT IS THE PASSOVER OF THE LORD — The offering is called פסח in allusion to the springing and passing over — because the Holy One, blessed be He, passed over the houses of the Israelites in between the houses of the Egyptians and sprang from Egyptian to Egyptian, whilst the Israelite who was between them escaped. The words “And ye shall eat it in haste for it is a 'springing’-offering to the Lord” imply: Ye, theref…
Paschal Lamb, Typical Nature Of · Eaten in haste — Eaten in haste
Passover · Institution of — Institution of
Pilgrims And Strangers · Typified: Israel — Typified: Israel
Shoes · The Jews: Put on, before beginning a journey — The Jews: Put on, before beginning a journey
Symbols And Similitudes · ma — ma
Travellers · On foot, how attired — On foot, how attired
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
