Exodus 12:24
in Exodus 12And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.
KJV
And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.
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This verse in Exodus 12
Commentary
5 notes on this verseAnd ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and thy sons for ever. Not this last thing of sprinkling the blood, which was peculiar to the passover in Egypt; but the whole before observed relating to the feast of the passover, and the feast of unleavened bread, and all the rites appertaining to them, which were to be observed until the coming of Christ.
This site's exposition
ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance
on Exodus 12:24-25
The command reaches forward to a land they have not seen and to a generation not yet born. It is called a service, and the Hebrew root behind that word is the one Exodus 1:14 used five times over for the bondage they are leaving that night. Israel does not stop serving; the master changes.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
None of all the providences of God concerning the Jewish church was more illustrious, than the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt. The first-born of the Egyptians are slain, ver. 29, 30. Orders are given immediately for their discharge, ver. 31-33.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-31-anchored-24-27
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I WANTED, dear Friends, earnestly wanted, to continue the subject of last Lord's-Day morning, for I felt it important that we should bear again and again our witness to the doctrine of the vicarious Sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. But, at the same time, I promised that I would endeavor to keep "the feast of the children" and have a sermon which should be specially addressed to Sunday school teachers.
I WANTED, dear Friends, earnestly wanted, to continue the subject of last Lord's-Day morning, for I felt it important that we should bear again and again our witness to the doctrine of the vicarious Sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. But, at the same time, I promised that I would endeavor to keep "the feast of the children" and have a sermon which should be specially addressed to Sunday school teachers. I could not preach a school sermon at the appointed time, so as to open your children's week, but thought a discourse might come in, none the less suitably, if I brought up the rear by closing your meetings. How am I to fulfill both my purposes? I think the subject before us will enable me to do so. We shall preach of the sprinkled blood and of Jesus, the great Sacrifice for sin—and then we shall press upon all who know the value of the great Redemption that they teach the young in their earliest days what is meant by the death of Jesus and salvation through His blood. The Paschal lamb was a special type of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not left to gather this from the general fact that all the ancient sacrifices were shadows of the one true and real Substance—we are assured in the New Testament that "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor 5:7). As the Paschal lamb must be without blemish, so was our Lord, and its killing and roasting with fire were typical of His death and sufferings. Even as to time our Lord fulfilled the type, for the time of His Crucifixion was the Passover. As the impression answers to the seal, so does the Sacrifice of our Lord correspond with all the items of the ceremonial Passover. We see Him "drawn out" from among men and led as a lamb to the slaughter. We see His blood shed and sprinkled. We see Him roasted in the fire of anguish. By faith we eat of Him and flavor the feast with the bitter herbs of penitence.
How the passage was read
On Exodus 12:1-51On Exodus 12:1-51
The night Israel still keeps
This chapter founds Passover, in Hebrew Pesach, the spring feast that remembers the night God struck Egypt's firstborn and passed over the blood-marked houses. Jewish families keep it to this day with a ceremonial meal called the seder (Hebrew for “order”): unleavened flatbread (matzah), bitter herbs, cups of wine, and the retelling of this chapter's story, with the children asking the questions.
Honesty about the timeline helps the reader: in the Bible's own period the center of the feast was the lamb, slain and eaten as this chapter commands. The seder as now practiced took its shape after the Temple fell in AD 70 and the lamb could no longer be offered; its oldest written outline is in the Mishnah, the first code of Jewish oral law (about AD 200), which already includes the four cups and the rule that “in every generation a person must see himself as if he personally came out of Egypt.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Pesachim 10 (the seder's oldest outline) · Mishnah Pesachim 10:5 (“in every generation”) · The Feasts of the LORD (this site's study)
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֖ם | ushemartem | and you will keep | H8104 → | 468 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַדָּבָ֣ר | hadavar | the word | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| הַזֶּ֑ה | hazeh | <the> this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| לְחָק־ | lechok- | to a decree | H2706 → | 127 times |
| לְךָ֥ | lekha | for yourself | ||
| וּלְבָנֶ֖יךָ | ulevaneikha | and for children your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| עוֹלָֽם׃ | olam | perpetuity | H5769 → | 438 times |
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֖םand you will keep
ushemartemH8104 →468 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַדָּבָ֣רthe word
hadavarH1697 →1440 times
הַזֶּ֑ה<the> this
hazehH2088 →1180 times
לְחָק־to a decree
lechok-H2706 →127 times
לְךָ֥for yourself
lekha
וּלְבָנֶ֖יךָand for children your
ulevaneikhaH1121 →4930 times
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
עוֹלָֽם׃perpetuity
olamH5769 →438 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 12:14And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
it leads to
- 2 Kings 23:21
The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
- Exodus 13:9–10
It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the…
- Exodus 12:17
So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute…
- 1 Corinthians 5:7–8
Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
- Leviticus 23:4–5
These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.
- 2 Kings 23:21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Exodus

This page draws on Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1988: “The Blood of Sprinkling and the Children” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
