Exodus 12:1

The Institution of the Passover

12:1 ¹ The Lord said ²  to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ³ 

Exodus 12:27

12:27 then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice ⁴  of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck ⁵  Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low ⁶  to the ground,

Exodus 32:27

32:27 and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten ⁷  his sword on his side, and go back and forth ⁸  from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” ⁹ 

[12:1]  ¹ sn Chapter 12 details the culmination of the ten plagues on Egypt and the beginning of the actual deliverance from bondage. Moreover, the celebration of this festival of Passover was to become a central part of the holy calendar of Israel. The contents of this chapter have significance for NT studies as well, since the Passover was a type of the death of Jesus. The structure of this section before the crossing of the sea is as follows: the institution of the Passover (12:1-28), the night of farewell and departure (12:29-42), slaves and strangers (12:43-51), and the laws of the firstborn (13:1-16). In this immediate section there is the institution of the Passover itself (12:1-13), then the Unleavened Bread (12:14-20), and then the report of the response of the people (12:21-28).

[12:1]  ² tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”

[12:1]  ³ tn Heb “saying.”

[12:27]  ⁴ sn This expression “the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover” occurs only here. The word זֶבַח (zevakh) means “slaughtering” and so a blood sacrifice. The fact that this word is used in Lev 3 for the peace offering has linked the Passover as a kind of peace offering, and both the Passover and the peace offerings were eaten as communal meals.

[12:27]  ⁵ tn The verb means “to strike, smite, plague”; it is the same verb that has been used throughout this section (נָגַף, nagaf). Here the construction is the infinitive construct in a temporal clause.

[12:27]  ⁶ tn The two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “and the people bowed down and they worshiped.” The words are synonymous, and so one is taken as the adverb for the other.

[32:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “put.”

[32:27]  ⁸ tn The two imperatives form a verbal hendiadys: “pass over and return,” meaning, “go back and forth” throughout the camp.

[32:27]  ⁹ tn The phrases have “and kill a man his brother, and a man his companion, and a man his neighbor.” The instructions were probably intended to mean that they should kill leaders they knew to be guilty because they had been seen or because they failed the water test – whoever they were.