Chapter XXXIII.
THE PASCHAL LAMB.— DEPARTURE FROM EGYPT.
[Ex. 12 — 13, 16.]
AFTER this Moses and Aaron spoke to the children of Israel, telling them of the Lord's command to make this month [1] henceforth the first of the year, and to kill in every family a lamb without blemish, on the fourteenth day of the month, and to sprinkle the door-posts with the blood of the lamb[2]. The Lord also commanded that, on the same night, they should eat the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread [3] and wild lettuce[4]. They should, moreover, have their loins girt[5], and shoes on their feet and staves[6] in their hand; for that it was the passing[7] of the Lord, and that, on that night, His angel would slay every firstborn of the Egyptians.
The Israelites did as they were commanded, and at midnight, the fourteenth day of the month, the destroying angel visited every house in Egypt and slew every first-born, from the king's own to the first-born of the captive woman in prison. But the houses of the Jews he did not enter; for the doors thereof were sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. And a fearful cry[8]
- ↑ This month. When Moses announced the institution of the Pasch, they were in the seventh month of the year, which had hitherto begun at the autumnal equinox, or about the middle of September. Henceforward this seventh month, in which fell the vernal equinox, was to be the beginning of the year.
- ↑ The lamb. The lamb was to be one year old, and without blemish, i. e. fine and healthy. The paschal lamb was to be a burnt-offering, and everything that was offered to God, had to be of the best.
- ↑ Unleavened bread. Bread baked without leaven or yeast. Baked cakes were used, made of flour and water, such as the Jews still use at paschal time. As the fermentation caused by leaven is a form of corruption, the absence of leaven was a type of incorruption.
- ↑ Lettuce. A herb with a bitter taste.
- ↑ Girt. They were to fasten up their robes by a girdle round their hips, so that they might be ready to start on their journey at a moment’s notice.
- ↑ Staves. Therefore, actually ready to start.
- ↑ Passing . The day was called the Pasch, or passing of the Lord, because the angel of God, who killed the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Israelites, the doors of which were sprinkled with the blood of the lamb.
- ↑ Fearful cry. Because it was the eldest sons, the hope and prop of their parents, who lay dead.
