[Translation: EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses. We are featuring only the new translation to replace the former, the usual commentaries will be added later.—Admin1.]
When we read this narrative, there is so much to remember. If you were one of the Hebrew slaves being given all the detailed instructions on what to do and you had no paper and pencil to note it all down which most likely they did not, what if you missed one little detail? Would you have missed your chance to be liberated from bondage?
This God named YHWH Who has demonstrated His power over Pharaoh and Egypt is a God of details!
Surely the instructions for preparation for the ‘night of all nights’ were spread by word of mouth to all—Israelite or not, the curious or disinterested, the skeptic or the desperate—perhaps even some Egyptians who had suffered through the 9 plagues were beginning to be persuaded and shift loyalty to the God of the Hebrews, who knows! Wouldn’t you if you had witnessed and experienced the plagues? This was their chance of a lifetime, only the Pharaoh was resistant through the plagues and even he was ready to concede just to get rid of the population causing trouble in what used to be the land of refuge for all Israel during times of famine in Canaan. And so, the information about preparations for the last night in Egypt must have spread around not only among Hebrew slaves but slaves from other nations, those who eventually joined the exodus of the “mixed multitude” out of the land of bondage.
The narrative reads simply and is very clear. If a slave could remember it, so could we. Since the actual event of the first Pesach, Jews—religious or not— have celebrated at the time prescribed in their biblical calendar. Messianic congregations among the Christian population are among the few who celebrate Passover instead of “Easter” or “Holy Week” though expectedly, their celebration is infused with symbolism pointing to their Trinitarian Godhead as well as their Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, the human sacrifice supposedly fulfilling the final atonement sacrifice required on Yom Kippur.
How the two different feasts are fused in one, only Messianics can explain; we know, we’ve been there and never questioned the fusion, or rather, confusion. As you read, just remember that the Passover is a spring festival while Yom Kippur is a fall festival; the lamb in Passover is cooked and eaten by a family while the Yom Kippur sacrifice is one of two goats which is slaughtered at the Temple. Passover is a happy occasion celebrating and commemorating the chosen nation’s liberation from bondage, a historical event; Yom Kippur involves self-examination, setting right one’s relationships, with fellowmen and with God, repentance for sin and a turnaround in life-direction.
What is even more bewildering is how “Easter” or “Holy Week” might have metamorphosed from the Passover. Messianics explain that the “Last Supper” sometimes called “the Lord’s Supper” is really the Passover Seder that the Jewish Jesus was celebrating with his Jewish apostles, according to the commandment regarding the “Feasts of YHWH” in Leviticus 23. How the Passover became the Lord’s Supper and then Communion is really perplexing, unless they are not at all connected and the Christian celebrations are not “fulfillment” of OT “prophetic feasts” but traditions that developed from New Testament theology.
So . . . what was the actual historical event like? TORAH records:
Exodus/Shemoth 11
1 YHVH said to Moshe: I will cause one more blow to come upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterward he will send you free from here . When he sends you free, it is finished-he will drive, yes, drive you out from here. 2 Pray speak in the ears of the people: They shall ask, each man of his neighbor, each woman of her neighbor, objects of silver and objects of gold. 3 And YHVH gave the people favor in the eyes of Egypt, while the man Moshe was (considered) exceedingly great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and in the eyes of the people. 4 Moshe said: Thus says YHVH: In the middle of the night I will go forth throughout the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn shall die throughout the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the maid who is behind the handmill, and every firstborn of beast. 6 Then shall there be a cry throughout all the land of Egypt, the like of which has never been, thelike of which will never be again. 7 But against all the Children of Israel, no dog shall even sharpen its tongue, against either man or beast, in order that you may know that YHVH makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 Then all these your servants shall go down to me, they shall bow to me, saying: Go out, you and all the people who walk in your footsteps! And afterward I will go out. He went out from Pharaoh in flaming anger. 9 YHVH said to Moshe: Pharaoh will not hearken to you, in order that my portents may be many in the land of Egypt. 10 Now Moshe and Aharon had done all the portents in Pharaoh’s presence, but YHVH had made Pharaoh’s heart strong-willed, and he had not sent the Children of Israel free from his land.Exodus/Shemoth 12
1 YHVH said to Moshe and to Aharon in the land of Egypt, saying: 2 Let this New-moon be for you the beginning of New-moons, the beginning-one let it be for you of the New-moons of the year. 3 Speak to the entire community of Israel, saying: On the tenth day after this New-moon they are to take them, each-man, a lamb, according to their Fathers’ House, a lamb per household. 4 Now if there be too few in the house for a lamb, he is to take (it), he and his neighbor who is near his house, by the computation according to the (total number of) persons; each-man according to what he can eat you are to compute for the lamb. 5 A wholly-sound male, year-old lamb shall be yours, from the sheep and from the goats are you to take it. 6 It shall be for you in safekeeping, until the fourteenth day after this New-moon, and they are to slay it-the entire assembly of the community of Israel-between the setting-times. 7 They are to take some of the blood and put it onto the two posts and onto the lintel, onto the houses in which they eat it. 8 They are to eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire, and matzot , with bitter-herbs they are to eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw, or boiled, boiled in water, but rather roasted in fire, its head along with its legs, along with its innards. 10 You are not to leave any of it until morning; what is left of it until morning, with fire you are to burn. 11 And thus you are to eat it: your hips girded, your sandals on your feet, your sticks in your hand; you are to eat it in trepidation- it is a Passover-meal to YHVH. 12 I will proceed through the land of Egypt on this night and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will render judgment, I, YHVH. 13 Now the blood will be a sign for you upon the houses where you are: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, the blow will not become a bringer-of-ruin to you, when I strike down the land of Egypt. 14 This day shall be for you a memorial, you are to celebrate it as a pilgrimage-celebration for YHVH, throughout your generations, as a law for the ages you are to celebrate it! 15 For seven days, matzot you are to eat, already on the first day you are to get rid of leaven from your houses, for anyone who eats what is fermented-from the first day until the seventh day-: that person shall be cut off from Israel! 16 And on the first day, a proclamation of holiness, and on the seventh day, a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you, no kind of work is to be made on them, only what belongs to every person to eat, that alone may be made-ready by you. 17 And keep the (Festival of) matzot! For on this same day I have brought out your forces from the land of Egypt. Keep this day throughout your generations as a law for the ages. 18 In the first (month), on the fourteenth day after the New-moon, at sunset, you are to eat matzot, until the twenty-first day of the month, at sunset. 19 For seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses, for whoever eats what ferments, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether sojourner or native of the land. 20 Anything that ferments you are not to eat; in all your settlements, you are to eat matzot. 21 Moshe had all the elders of Israel called and said to them: Pick out, take yourselves a sheep for your clans, and slay the Passover-animal. 22 Then take a band of hyssop, dip (it) in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two posts with some of the blood which is in the basin. Now you-you are not to go out, any man from the entrance to his house, until daybreak. 23 YHVH will proceed to deal-blows to Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two posts, YHVH will pass over the entrance, and will not give the bringer-of-ruin (leave) to come into your houses to deal-the-blow. 24 You are to keep this word as a law for you and for your children, into the ages! 25 Now it will be, when you come to the land which YHVH will give you, as he has spoken, you areto keep this service!
26 And it will be, when your children say to you: What does this service (mean) to you? 27 then say: It is the slaughter-meal of Passover to YHVH, who passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt, when he dealt-the-blow to Egypt and our houses he rescued. The people did homage and bowed low. 28 And the Children of Israel went and did as YHVH had commanded Moshe and Aharon, thus they did. 29 Now it was in the middle of the night: YHVH struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon, and every firstborn of beast. 30 Pharaoh arose at night, he and all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there is not a house in which there is not a dead man. 31 He had Moshe and Aharon called in the night and said: Arise, go out from amidst my people, even you, even the Children of Israel! Go, serve YHVH according to your words, 32 even your sheep, even your oxen, take, as you have spoken, and go! And bring-a-blessing even on me! 33 Egypt pressed the people strongly, to send them out quickly from the land, for they said: We are all dead-men! 34 So the people loaded their dough before it had fermented, their kneading-troughs bound in their clothing, upon their shoulders. 35 Now the Children of Israel had done according to Moshe’s words: they had asked of the Egyptians objects of silver and objects of gold, and clothing; 36 YHVH had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they let themselves be asked of. So did they strip Egypt. 37 The Children of Israel moved on from Ra’amses to Sukkot, about six hundred thousand on foot, menfolk apart from little-ones, 38 and also a mixed multitude went up with them, along with sheep and oxen, an exceedingly heavy (amount of) livestock. 39 Now they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into matzot cakes, for it had not fermented, for they had been driven out of Egypt, and were not able to linger, neither had they made provisions for themselves. 40 And the settlement of the Children of Israel which they had settled in Egypt was thirty years and four hundred years. 41 It was at the end of thirty years and four hundred years, it was on that same day: All of YHVH’S forces went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is a night of keeping-watch for YHVH, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that is this night for YHVH, a keeping-watch of all the Children of Israel, throughout their generations. 43 YHVH said to Moshe and Aharon: This is the law of the Passover-meal: Any foreign son is not to eat of it. 44 But any man’s serf who is acquired by money-if you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. 45 Settler and hired-hand are not to eat of it. 46 In one house it is to be eaten, you are not to bring out of the house any of the flesh, outside. And you are not to break a bone of it. 47 The entire community of Israel is to do it. 48 Now when a sojourner sojourns with you, and would make the Passover-meal to YHVH, every male with him must be circumcised, then he may come-near to make it, and will be (regarded) as a native of the land. But any foreskinned-man is not to eat of it. 49 One Instruction shall there be for the native and for the sojourner that sojourns in your midst. 50 All the Children of Israel did as YHVH commanded Moshe and Aharon, thus they did. 51 It was on that same day, (when) YHVH brought the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their forces.
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