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 12:19
stranger--No foreigner could partake of the passover, unless circumcised; the "stranger" specified as admissible to the privilege must, therefore, be considered a Gentile proselyte.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 12:19
No leaven found in your houses - To meet the letter of this precept in the fullest manner possible, the Jews, on the eve of this festival, institute the most rigorous search through every part of their houses, not only removing all leavened bread, but sweeping every part clean, that no crumb of bread shall be left that had any leaven in it. And so strict were they in the observance of the letter of this law, that if even a mouse was seen to run across the floor with a crumb of bread in its mouth, they considered the whole house as polluted, and began their purification afresh. We have already seen that leaven was an emblem of sin, because it proceeded from corruption; and the putting away of…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Exodus 12:20
Ye shall eat nothing leavened,.... Bread or anything else that had any leaven in it:
in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread, that is, if they eat any bread at all, it must be such; otherwise they might eat cakes of almonds or of eggs mixed with sugar, provided there was no leaven used, and this the Jews call the rich unleavened bread (p): this is repeated over and over, that they might be the more careful of observing this precept; but as this was limited for a certain time, it plainly appears to be a mistake of Tacitus (q) the Roman historian, who represents unleavened bread as the bread the Jews eat of in common.
(p) See Leo Modena's History of the Rites, &c. of the Jews,…
