121 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses and unto Aaron, in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 'This month 'is' to you the chief of months—it 'is' the first to you of the months of the year; 3 speak ye unto all the company of Israel, saying, In the tenth of this month—they take to them each man a lamb for the house of the fathers, a lamb for a house. 4 '(And if the household be too few for a lamb, then hath he taken, he and his neighbour who is near unto his house, for the number of persons, each according to his eating ye do count for the lamb,) 5 a lamb, a perfect one, a male, a son of a year, let be to you; from the sheep or from the goats ye do take 'it'. 6 'And it hath become a charge to you, until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole assembly of the company of Israel have slaughtered it between the evenings; 7 and they have taken of the blood, and have put on the two side-posts, and on the lintel over the houses in which they eat it. 8 'And they have eaten the flesh in this night, roast with fire; with unleavened things and bitters they do eat it; 9 ye do not eat of it raw, or boiled at all in water, but roast with fire, its head with its legs, and with its inwards; 10 and ye do not leave of it till morning, and that which is remaining of it till morning with fire ye do burn. 11 'And thus ye do eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye have eaten it in haste; it is Jehovah's passover, 12 and I have passed over through the land of Egypt during this night, and have smitten every first-born in the land of Egypt, from man even unto beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I do judgments; I 'am' Jehovah. 13 'And the blood hath become a sign for you on the houses where ye 'are', and I have seen the blood, and have passed over you, and a plague is not on you for destruction in My smiting in the land of Egypt. 14 'And this day hath become to you a memorial, and ye have kept it a feast to Jehovah to your generations;—a statute age-during; ye keep it a feast. 15 Seven days ye eat unleavened things; only—in the first day ye cause leaven to cease out of your houses; for any one eating anything fermented from the first day till the seventh day, even that person hath been cut off from Israel.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 12:1-15
Commentary on Exodus 12:1-20
(Read Exodus 12:1-20)
The Lord makes all things new to those whom he delivers from the bondage of Satan, and takes to himself to be his people. The time when he does this is to them the beginning of a new life. God appointed that, on the night wherein they were to go out of Egypt, each family should kill a lamb, or that two or three families, if small, should kill one lamb. This lamb was to be eaten in the manner here directed, and the blood to be sprinkled on the door-posts, to mark the houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. The angel of the Lord, when destroying the first-born of the Egyptians, would pass over the houses marked by the blood of the lamb: hence the name of this holy feast or ordinance. The passover was to be kept every year, both as a remembrance of Israel's preservation and deliverance out of Egypt, and as a remarkable type of Christ. Their safety and deliverance were not a reward of their own righteousness, but the gift of mercy. Of this they were reminded, and by this ordinance they were taught, that all blessings came to them through the shedding and sprinkling of blood. Observe, 1. The paschal lamb was typical. Christ is our passover, 1 Corinthians 5:7,8. Having received Christ Jesus the Lord, we must continually delight ourselves in Christ Jesus. No manner of work must be done, that is, no care admitted and indulged, which does not agree with, or would lessen this holy joy. The Jews were very strict as to the passover, so that no leaven should be found in their houses. It must be a feast kept in charity, without the leaven of malice; and in sincerity, without the leaven of hypocrisy. It was by an ordinance for ever; so long as we live we must continue feeding upon Christ, rejoicing in him always, with thankful mention of the great things he has done for us.