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 passover.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Moses	מֹשֶׁ֛ה mo.Sheh	H4872	Mosheh · proper noun, a man's name
called	וַיִּקְרָ֥א vai.yik.Ra'	H7121	to call out to (i.e. properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
elders	זִקְנֵ֥י zik.Nei	H2205	old · adjective, masculine plural construct
Israel	יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל Yis.ra.'El	H3478	Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
said	וַיֹּ֣אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
out	מִֽשְׁכ֗וּ mish.Khu	H4900	to draw · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
take	וּקְח֨וּ u.ke.Chu	H3947	to take (in the widest variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
lamb	צֹ֛אן tzon	H6629	a collective name for a flock (of sheep or goats) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
families	לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתֵיכֶ֖ם le.mish.pe.cho.tei.Khem	H4940	a family · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
kill	וְשַׁחֲט֥וּ ve.sha.cha.Tu	H7819	to slaughter (in sacrifice or massacre) · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
passover	הַפָּֽסַח ha.Pa.sach	H6453	a pretermission · definite article + 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 12:3 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…
Joshua 5:10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
2 Kings 23:21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
Ezra 6:20 For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity…
Mark 14:12-16 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare th…
Numbers 9:2-5 Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season.
Exodus 3:16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, a…
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…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 12:21-28

I. Moses is here, as a faithful steward in God's house, teaching the children of Israel to observe all things which God had commanded him; and no doubt he gave the instructions as largely as he received them, though they are not so largely recorded. It is here added, 1. That this night, when the first-born were to be destroyed, no Israelite must stir out of doors till morning, that is, till towards morning, when they would be called to march out of Egypt, Exo 12:22. Not but that the destroying angel could have known an Israelite from an Egyptian in the street; but God would intimate to them that their safety was owing to the blood of sprinkling; if they put themselves from under the protecti…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 12:21

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, &c.--Here are given special directions for the observance.

Adam Clarke on Exodus 12:21

Kill the passover - That is, the lamb, which was called the paschal or passover lamb. The animal that was to be sacrificed on this occasion got the name of the institution itself: thus the word covenant is often put for the sacrifice offered in making the covenant; so the rock was Christ, Co1 10:4; bread and wine the body and blood of Christ, Mar 14:22, Mar 14:24. St. Paul copies the expression, Co1 5:7 : Christ our passover (that is, our paschal lamb) is sacrificed for us.

John Gill on Exodus 12:21

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel,.... Not in age but in office, who were either heads of families, or at least principal men in the tribes; which explains in what manner he was to speak to the congregation of Israel, and convey to them the will of God concerning the observation of these feasts, Exodus 12:3, and said unto them, draw out; a lamb or a kid, out of the flocks on the tenth day of the month, and keep it up until the fourteenth, as in Exodus 12:3. and take you a lamb, according to your families; or "take ye of the flock" (r), whether a lamb or a kid; a lamb for every family, if there was a sufficient number in it to eat it up; if not, two or more families were to joi…

The Church Fathers

What then did Moses do? "Sacrifice an unblemished lamb," he said, "and smear your doors with its blood." What do you mean? Can the blood of an irrational animal save one who expresses reason? "Yes," he says. "Not because it is blood but because it prefigures the Master's blood." Although statues of the emperor have neither life nor perception, they can save the men endowed with perception and life who flee to them for refuge, not because they are bronze but because they are images of the emperor. So too that blood which lacked life and perception saved the men who had life, not because it was blood but because it was an anticipatory type of the Master's blood.
— John Chrysostom, BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 3.14

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…
Congregation — (Heb. kahal), the Hebrew people collectively as a holy community (Num. 15:15). Every circumcised Hebrew from twenty years old and upward was a member of the congregation. Strangers resident in 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…
Blood · .Sprinkled on door posts — .Sprinkled on door posts
Communion Of The Lord’s Supper · Prefigured — Prefigured
Egypt · History of Israel in: The passover instituted — History of Israel in: The passover instituted
Government · Closely as — Closely as
Month · .Pas — .Pas

Exodus 12:21

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 12:21-28

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 12:21

Adam Clarke on Exodus 12:21

John Gill on Exodus 12:21

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Exodus 12:21

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Exodus 12:21-28

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 12:21

Adam Clarke on Exodus 12:21

John Gill on Exodus 12:21

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Exodus 12:21-23

Keil & Delitzsch on Exodus 12:1-28

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Exodus 12:15

Rashi on Exodus 12:21