Exodus 12:25

And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:21-28 That night, when the first-born were to be destroyed, no Israelite must stir out of doors till called to march out of Egypt. Their safety was owing to the blood of sprinkling. If they put themselves from under the protection of that, it was at their peril. They must stay within, to wait for the salvation of the Lord; it is good to do so. In after-times they should carefully teach their children the meaning of this service. It is good for children to ask about the things of God; they that ask for the way will find it. The keeping of this solemnity every year was, 1. To look backward, that they might remember what great things God had done for them and their fathers. Old mercies, to ourselves, or to our fathers, must not be forgotten, that God may be praised, and our faith in him encouraged. 2. It was designed to look forward, as an earnest of the great sacrifice of the Lamb of God in the fulness of time. Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; his death was our life.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A bunch of hyssop - The species here designated does not appear to be the plant now bearing the name. It would seem to have been an aromatic plant, common in Palestine and near Mount Sinai, with a long straight stalk and leaves well adapted for the purpose of sprinkling.

Bason - The rendering rests on good authority and gives a good sense: but the word means "threshold" in some other passages and in Egyptian, and is taken here in that sense by some versions. If that rendering be correct it would imply that the lamb was slain on the threshold.

None ... shall go out ... - There would be no safety outside the precincts protected by the blood of the lamb; a symbolism explained by the margin reference.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. hyssop—a small red moss [Hasselquist]; the caper-plant [Royle]. It was used in the sprinkling, being well adapted for such purposes, as it grows in bushes—putting out plenty of suckers from a single root. And it is remarkable that it was ordained in the arrangements of an all-wise Providence that the Roman soldiers should undesignedly, on their part, make use of this symbolical plant to Christ when, as our Passover, He was sacrificed for us [Joh 19:29].

none … shall go out at the door of his house until the morning—This regulation was peculiar to the first celebration, and intended, as some think, to prevent any suspicion attaching to them of being agents in the impending destruction of the Egyptians; there is an allusion to it (Isa 26:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To the land, viz. of Canaan, as Exodus 12:19. For in the wilderness they kept this feast but once, and that by God’s particular direction, Numbers 9:2.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land,.... To the land of Canaan, towards which they were just about to set forward on their journey, and in a few years would be in the possession of:

which the Lord will give you according as he hath promised; to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to them:

that ye shall keep this service; enjoined them, respecting the passover lamb, and leavened bread, with all the rites and ceremonies relative thereunto, excepting such as were peculiar to the first passover in Egypt.

Geneva Study Bible

And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the {m} land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

(m) The land of Canaan.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25–27a. How, in future years, when Israel is in Canaan, the memory of the deliverance is to be kept alive: the children of successive generations, at the time when the Passover is celebrated, are to be instructed respecting its origin. The verses form one of the parenetic passages in Exodus (cf. Exodus 13:8-10; Exodus 13:14-16, Exodus 15:26; and see p. 87), which in style and tone approximate to Deuteronomy, and may be additions due to the compiler of JE.

The injunction contained in these verses is still observed by the Jews, in the part of the Passover service called the Haggâdâh, or ‘telling’: see Oesterley and Box, op. cit. p. 359 ff.

26, 27a. For the instruction of the children, cf. Exodus 10:2, Exodus 13:8, Deuteronomy 4:9 b, Deuteronomy 6:7 (= dey 11:19); and esp. the similarly worded passages, Exodus 13:14-15, Deuteronomy 6:20 ff., Joshua 4:6-7 (J), Joshua 4:21-24 (D[131]).

[131] Deuteronomic passages in Josh., Jud., Kings.

27b. bowed the head and worshipped (Exodus 4:31)] In acknowledgement of the promises of protection and deliverance given in vv. 21–23.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - The land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised. See above, Exodus 3:8-17; Exodus 6:4; and compare Genesis 17:8; Genesis 28:4, etc. Exodus 12:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(cf. Exodus 12:13). "He will not suffer (יתּן) the destroyer to come into your houses:" Jehovah effected the destruction of the first-born through המּשׁחית, the destroyer, or destroying angel, ὁ ὁλοθρεύων (Hebrews 11:28), i.e., not a fallen angel, but the angel of Jehovah, in whom Jehovah revealed Himself to the patriarchs and Moses. This is not at variance with Psalm 78:49; for the writer of this psalm regards not only the slaying of the first-born, but also the pestilence (Exodus 9:1-7), as effected through the medium of angels of evil: though, according to the analogy of 1 Samuel 13:17, המּשׁחית might certainly be understood collectively as applying to a company of angels. Exodus 12:24. "This word," i.e., the instructions respecting the Passover, they were to regard as an institution for themselves and their children for ever (עד־עולם in the same sense as עולם, Genesis 17:7, Genesis 17:13); and when dwelling in the promised land, they were to explain the meaning of this service to their sons. The ceremony is called עבדה, "service," inasmuch as it was the fulfilment of a divine command, a performance demanded by God, though it promoted the good of Israel.