Exodus 12:45
in Exodus 12A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof.
KJV
A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
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This verse in Exodus 12
Commentary
5 notes on this verseA foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. One of another nation, and one that was only hired by the day, week, or year; as they were not obliged to circumcision, so without it they had no right to eat of the passover, none but such as became proselytes of righteousness.
This site's exposition
This is the ordinance of the passover
on Exodus 12:43-45
The meal is closed to outsiders and the closure has one door in it, which is circumcision. A bought servant who is circumcised eats, a hired servant who is not does not, and money is not what decides it. The line runs between covenant and no covenant rather than between Israelite and foreigner, which verses 48 and 49 then say outright.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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 Century2 voices
A foreigner - תושב toshab, from ישב yashab, to sit down or dwell; one who is a mere sojourner, for the purpose of traffic, merchandise, etc., but who is neither a proselyte of the gate nor of the covenant. And a hired servant - Who, though he be bought with money, or has indented himself for a certain term to serve a Jew, yet has not become either a proselyte of the gate or of the covenant. None of these shall eat of it, because not circumcised - not brought under the bond of the covenant; and not being under obligation to observe the Mosaic law, had no right to its privileges and blessings. Even under the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is the author of eternal salvation only to them who Obey him, Heb 5:9; and those who become Christians are chosen to salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, 2Th 2:13; for the grace of God, that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared, teaching us that, Denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live Soberly, Righteously, and Godly, in this present world; Tit 2:11, Tit 2:12. Such persons only walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
A foreigner - or sojourner: one who resides in a country, not having a permanent home, nor being attached to an Israelitish household.
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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תּוֹשָׁ֥ב | toshav | a resident alien | H8453 → | |
| וְשָׂכִ֖יר | vesakhir | and a hired laborer | H7916 → | |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יֹ֥אכַל־ | yokhal- | he will eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| בּֽוֹ׃ | bo | in <the> it |
תּוֹשָׁ֥בa resident alien
toshavH8453 →
וְשָׂכִ֖ירand a hired laborer
vesakhirH7916 →
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יֹ֥אכַל־he will eat
yokhal-H398 →810 times
בּֽוֹ׃in <the> it
bo
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
Ephesians 2:12remember 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.
- Galatians 4:8
Through
Leviticus 22:10No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired hand eat it.
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 21:6
So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there but the Bread of the Presence, which had been removed from before the LORD and replaced with hot bread on…
- Matthew 12:4
He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to eat, but only for the priests.
- Exodus 29:33
They must eat those things by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no outsider may eat them, because these things are sacred.
- 1 Samuel 21:6
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); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.