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Exodus 12:43

in Exodus 12

And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: there shall no foreigner eat thereof;

KJV

And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:

This verse in Exodus 12

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
And the Lord said - From this verse to Exo 13:16 are instructions regarding the Passover. Such instructions were needed when the Israelites were joined by the “mixed multitude:” of strangers; and they were probably given at Succoth, on the morning following the departure from Rameses. No stranger - Literally, “son of a stranger.” The term is general; it includes all who were aliens from Israel, until they were incorporated into the nation by circumcision.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Athanasius of Alexandria

296–373

FESTAL LETTERS 6.11 · Written before 373.

proposed

But the deceitful, and he that is not pure of heart and possesses nothing that is pure (as Proverbs says, "To a deceitful man there is nothing good") shall assuredly, being a stranger and of a different race from the saints, be accounted unworthy to eat the Passover, for "a foreigner shall not eat of it." Thus Judas, when he thought he kept the Passover, because he plotted deceit against the Savior, was estranged from the city which is above and from the apostolic company. For the law commanded the Passover to be eaten with due observance.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

We must be born again by the word ere we can be nourished by it. Nor shall any partake of the benefit of Christ's sacrifice, or feast upon it, who are not first circumcised in heart, Col. ii. Any stranger that was circumcised might be welcome to eat of the passover, even servants,

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

This is the ordinance of the passover - From the last verse of this chapter it appears pretty evident that this, to the 50th verse inclusive, constituted a part of the directions given to Moses relative to the proper observance of the first passover, and should be read conjointly with the preceding account beginning at Exo 12:21. It may be supposed that these latter parts contain such particular directions as God gave to Moses after he had given those general ones mentioned in the preceding verses, but they seem all to belong to this first passover. There shall no stranger eat thereof - בן נכר ben nechar, the son of a stranger or foreigner, i.e., one who was not of the genuine Hebrew stock, or one who had not received circumcision; for any circumcised person might eat the passover, as the total exclusion extends only to the uncircumcised, see Exo 12:48. As there are two sorts of strangers mentioned in the sacred writings; one who was admitted to all the Jewish ordinances, and another who, though he dwelt among the Jews, was not permitted to eat the passover or partake of any of their solemn feasts; it may be necessary to show what was the essential point of distinction through which the one was admitted and the other excluded. In treatises on the religious customs of the Jews we frequently meet with the term proselyte, from the Greek προσηλυτος, a stranger or foreigner; one who is come from his own people and country to sojourn with another. All who were not descendants of some one of the twelve sons of Jacob, or of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph, were reputed strangers or proselytes among the Jews. But of those strangers or proselytes there were two kinds, called among them proselytes of the gate, and proselytes of injustice or of the covenant. […]

How the passage was read

On Exodus 12:1-51

On 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

14 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וַיֹּ֤אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • יְהוָה֙Yahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H4135510 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֣הMoses

    moshehH4872765 times

  • וְאַהֲרֹ֔ןand Aaron

    veaharonH175347 times

  • זֹ֖אתthis

    zotH2063603 times

  • חֻקַּ֣ת[is] [the] statute of

    chukatH2708104 times

  • הַפָּ֑סַחthe passover

    hapasachH645349 times

  • כָּל־any

    kol-H36055413 times

  • בֶּן־son of

    ben-H11214930 times

  • נֵכָ֖רforeignness

    nekharH5236

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H38085168 times

  • יֹ֥אכַלhe will eat

    yokhalH398810 times

  • בּֽוֹ׃in <the> it

    bo

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Ephesians 2:12

    remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

    it leads to

    • Galatians 4:8

      Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

    • Colossians 1:21

      Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.

    • 1 Peter 1:3

      Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

    • Jeremiah 31:31–34

      Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

    • Ephesians 4:18

      They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

  • Through

    Exodus 12:11

    This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it…

    it leads to

    • Ephesians 6:15

      and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace.

    • Exodus 12:27

      you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the…

    • 1 Peter 1:13

      Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Where this verse is studied

About Exodus

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Athanasius of Alexandria, FESTAL LETTERS 6.11; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.