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,…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 12:17
ye shall observe, &c.--The seven days of this feast were to commence the day after the passover. It was a distinct festival following that feast; but although this feast was instituted like the passover before the departure, the observance of it did not take place till after.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 12:17
Self-same day - בעצם beetsem, in the body of this day, or in the strength of this day; probably they began their march about day-break, called here the body or strength of the day, and in Deu 16:1, by night - sometime before the sun rose.
John Gill on Exodus 12:18
In the first month,.... As it was now ordered to be reckoned, the month Abib or Nisan:
the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread; that is, at the evening following, the fourteenth of Nisan, and which was the beginning of the fifteenth day, the Jews beginning their day from the evening: hence the Targum of Jonathan is,"on the fourteenth of Nisan ye shall slay the passover, in the evening of the fifteenth ye shall eat unleavened bread:"
unto the twentieth day of the month at even; which would make just seven days; the above Targum adds,"on the evening of the twenty second ye shall eat leavened bread,''which was the evening following the twenty first day. This lon…
