Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 12 is the theological and liturgical heart of Exodus — the institution of Passover, the tenth plague, the hurried departure, and the foundational Israel-in-Egypt chronology. Every NT use of the lamb-of-God symbolism, the 'Christ our Passover sacrificed for us' theology of 1 Corinthians 5:7, the unbroken-bones citation of John 19:36, and the 430-year chronology of Galatians 3:17 depend on LXX Exodus 12. This chapter supplies more NT Christological vocabulary than any other single chapter in the Pentateuch.
Notable Variants
The 'lamb without blemish' (amnos amōmos) at 12:5 that becomes Peter's description of Christ (1 Pet 1:19); the 'I will pass over' formula at 12:13 using parelthō; the 'memorial' (mnēmosynon) at 12:14 whose vocabulary shapes Luke 22:19 ('do this in remembrance of me'); the 430-year chronology at 12:40 — critically, LXX expands this to include 'in the land of Canaan,' which Paul's Galatians 3:17 argument depends on; the 'not a bone broken' at 12:46 quoted verbatim at John 19:36; the 'one law for native and sojourner' at 12:49 that shapes Pauline Jew-Gentile ecclesiology.
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 12 preserves MT's 51-verse structure. The chapter is the longest in Exodus.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
The divine speech-introduction tracks MT. The setting 'in the land of Egypt' underscores that the foundational Israelite liturgy is instituted on Egyptian soil — a theologically charged location for the birth of covenant cult.
"This month will mark the beginning of months for you. It will be the first month of your year.
The calendrical reset ('this month shall be the beginning of months for you') tracks MT. The institution of a new Israelite calendar at the Exodus is the first act of Israel's liturgical self-definition.
Speak to the whole congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month, each man shall take a lamb for his father's household — a lamb for each household.
The tenth-day lamb-selection commandment tracks MT. The LXX's probaton ('sheep') allows for either sheep or goat (per verse 5). The household-based structure of the rite is preserved.
If the household is too small for a lamb, he and his nearest neighbor shall take one according to the number of persons. According to what each can eat, you shall apportion the lamb.
The small-household neighbor-sharing provision tracks MT. The LXX's katarithmēsesthe ('number yourselves together') is the accounting-vocabulary that recurs in Acts 1:26 (Matthias was 'numbered' with the eleven apostles).
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
Masoretic (WLC)
שֶׂה תָמִים זָכָר בֶּן־שָׁנָה
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male
Septuagint (LXX)
πρόβατον τέλειον ἄρσεν ἐνιαύσιον
A perfect male lamb, one year old
The LXX's teleion ('perfect, complete, unblemished') renders Hebrew tamim. The cognate amōmos ('without blemish') appears in parallel LXX Passover/sacrifice passages (Exod 12:5 in most MSS reads amōmon; Num 6:14, 19:2).
1 Peter 1:19 describes Christ as 'a lamb without blemish and without spot' (hōs amnou amōmou kai aspilou) — the precise LXX-Exodus 12:5 Passover-lamb vocabulary.
Hebrews 9:14 ('who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish,' amōmon, to God) and Ephesians 1:4, 5:27 also use amōmos for Christ and the church. The whole 'Christ our Passover' Christology of 1 Corinthians 5:7 presupposes this LXX-Exodus 12:5 vocabulary.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.
The fourteenth-day slaughter at twilight tracks MT. The LXX's pros hesperan ('toward evening') preserves the Hebrew beyn ha-arbayim ('between the two evenings'). The slaughter timing becomes the synoptic-Gospel chronology for Jesus' death: the Passover lamb dies at the same hour Jesus dies on Good Friday.
They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
The blood on the doorposts and lintel tracks MT. The LXX's phliai ('doorposts') and phlion ('lintel') is the specific architectural vocabulary that Luke 11:22 and patristic Passover-typology will deploy.
They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted over fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
The roasted flesh, unleavened bread (azyma), and bitter herbs (pikridas) tracks MT. The three-part meal becomes the template for the Passover seder plate.
Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over fire — its head with its legs and its inner parts.
The prohibition against raw or boiled preparation (only roasted) tracks MT. The 'head with its legs and inner parts' underscores the whole-lamb consumption — nothing may be portioned away.
You shall not leave any of it until morning. Whatever remains until morning you shall burn with fire.
The no-leftovers provision tracks MT. The whole-lamb burning of remainders becomes the paradigm of complete-devotion offerings.
This is how you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.
Masoretic (WLC)
פֶּסַח הוּא לַיהוָה
It is the LORD's Passover
Septuagint (LXX)
πασχα ἐστιν κυρίῳ
It is a Pascha to the Lord
The LXX transliterates Hebrew pesach as pascha — giving Greek and thence Latin and European languages the word 'Passover/Paschal.' The 'eaten in haste' with belted loins and staff-in-hand is rendered literally.
1 Corinthians 5:7 ('Christ, our pascha, has been sacrificed,' to pascha hēmōn Christos) is the definitive NT Christological reading of the Exodus 12 lamb. The pascha word is LXX; the sacrifice-theology is LXX Exodus 12.
Every subsequent NT reference to Easter (pascha at 1 Cor 5:7, Heb 11:28, and elsewhere; the Gospels' consistent use for the Last Supper context) traces to this LXX-Exodus transliteration choice.
I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the LORD.
The 'I will pass through Egypt … and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment' tracks MT. The judgment-on-gods dimension — the ten plagues as polemic against Egyptian polytheism — is made explicit. Numbers 33:4 reiterates this point.
The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Masoretic (WLC)
וּפָסַחְתִּי עֲלֵכֶם
I will pass over you
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ σκεπάσω ὑμᾶς
I will shelter you
Hebrew pasach ('pass over, skip, protect') — the verb from which Passover takes its name — is rendered in LXX as skepazō ('shelter, cover, protect'). The LXX's interpretive move shifts the image from 'passing over' the house to 'sheltering' those inside.
Patristic exegetes (Origen, Melito of Sardis) drew both senses simultaneously: the Lord both passes over (does not strike) and protects (shelters). The shelter-sense resonates with Christian atonement typology: Christ's blood does not cause the Judge to look elsewhere but actively covers the protected household.
Hebrews 11:28 ('by faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the firstborn') presupposes the protection-theology that LXX skepazō brings out.
This day shall be a memorial for you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD. Throughout your generations you shall celebrate it as an eternal ordinance.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְהָיָה הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה לָכֶם לְזִכָּרוֹן
This day shall be a memorial for you
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ἔσται ἡ ἡμέρα ὑμῖν αὕτη μνημόσυνον
This day shall be for you a memorial
Hebrew zikkaron ('memorial, remembrance') is rendered mnēmosynon. The LXX's mnēmosynon carries into the NT at Matthew 26:13 / Mark 14:9 ('wherever the gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in remembrance [mnēmosynon] of her'), Acts 10:4 (Cornelius's prayers as a memorial), and — most importantly — Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24–25 ('do this in remembrance of me,' eis tēn emēn anamnēsin).
The shift from mnēmosynon (Exodus 12:14) to anamnēsis (Luke 22:19) is minor semantically but carries a weighty theological distinction: the Passover is a memorial of the Exodus, the Eucharist is an anamnēsis of the Cross. Both are LXX-derived cultic remembrance-vocabulary.
'Throughout your generations you shall celebrate it as an eternal ordinance' (nomimon aiōnion) is the standing LXX formula for permanent cultic obligation — a phrase that the NT's Hebrews reads as transcended in Christ.
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day to the seventh day — that person shall be cut off from Israel.
The seven days of unleavened bread and the cut-off-from-Israel penalty tracks MT. 1 Corinthians 5:6–8 ('a little leaven leavens the whole lump … cleanse out the old leaven') draws on this LXX Exodus-12 sabbatical-purging vocabulary.
On the first day there shall be a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days, except what is needed for each person to eat — that alone may be prepared by you.
The holy-assembly (hagia klētē) provisions at the first and seventh days track MT. The klēsis ('calling') vocabulary is the root from which NT ekklēsia (the 'called-out' assembly) derives.
You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. You shall observe this day throughout your generations as an eternal ordinance.
The institution of Unleavened Bread as an eternal observance tracks MT. The correlation of the feast with the exit 'on this very day' links liturgy tightly to historical event.
In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you shall eat unleavened bread.
The seven-day calendrical range (evening of 14th to evening of 21st) tracks MT. The evening-to-evening day structure becomes the template for Jewish and early Christian liturgical days.
For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened — that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether sojourner or native of the land.
The total prohibition of leaven and the cut-off penalty (for both native and sojourner) tracks MT. The inclusivity of the prohibition across ethnic lines sets up the 12:48–49 one-law principle.
You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread."
The blanket prohibition of leavened food tracks MT.
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and select lambs for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
Moses' transmission of the Passover instructions to the elders tracks MT. The LXX's thysate to pascha ('sacrifice the Passover') uses the cultic thyō vocabulary that the NT inherits at Mark 14:12 and 1 Cor 5:7.
Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.
The hyssop-and-blood application and the prohibition of leaving the house tracks MT. Hyssop (hyssōpos in LXX) becomes the ritual-purification tool of Numbers 19 and Psalm 51:7 (LXX 50:9) — and at John 19:29, the reed by which the sponge is offered to Jesus on the cross, completing the Passover-lamb typology.
For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְלֹא יִתֵּן הַמַּשְׁחִית לָבֹא אֶל־בָּתֵּיכֶם לִנְגֹּף
will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ οὐκ ἀφήσει τὸν ὀλεθρεύοντα εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὰς οἰκίας ὑμῶν πατάξαι
and he will not allow the destroyer to enter into your houses to strike
The LXX's ho olothreuōn ('the destroyer') is the Greek name that takes on quasi-personal status in the later tradition. 1 Corinthians 10:10 ('some of them were destroyed by the Destroyer,' hypo tou olothreutou) identifies the Destroyer as a judicial figure operating on Israel even after the Exodus — in the wilderness grumblings.
Hebrews 11:28 ('so that the destroyer of the firstborn [ho olothreuōn ta prōtotoka] might not touch the firstborn') cites the exact LXX-Exodus 12:23 participle for the Passover-night angel of death.
The Destroyer as quasi-personal figure (angel, Satan, judicial emissary) develops across Second Temple Jewish and early Christian literature from this LXX starting point.
You shall observe this as an ordinance for you and your sons forever.
The perpetual-ordinance provision tracks MT.
When you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall keep this service.
The promise-land framing of Passover ('when you come to the land') ties liturgy to inheritance. The LXX's latreia ('service, worship') is the NT's word for Christian worship (Rom 9:4, 12:1, Heb 9:1, 6).
When your children say to you, 'What does this service mean to you?'
The 'when your children ask' catechetical device tracks MT. The four questions of the Passover Haggadah derive from this verse and Exodus 13:14, Deuteronomy 6:20.
you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for He passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians but delivered our households.'" And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.
The parental answer — 'it is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover' — tracks MT. The whole Jewish and Christian Passover-catechesis tradition takes shape around this verse.
The sons of Israel went and did so. Just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
Israel's obedient execution of the commands tracks MT. The emphasis ('just as the LORD had commanded … so they did') is the standard Exodus-compliance formula.
At midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.
The midnight-striking of every Egyptian firstborn tracks MT. The scope — from Pharaoh's throne-heir to the captive in the dungeon — underscores the judgment's totality.
Pharaoh rose in the night — he and all his servants and all the Egyptians — and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.
The great Egyptian cry ('not a house where someone was not dead') tracks MT. The reversal of the 'who is the LORD?' question (Exod 5:2) is complete: Egypt now knows, through grief.
He summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, "Rise up, go out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel! Go, serve the LORD, as you have said.
Pharaoh's summons 'by night' and capitulation tracks MT. The 'rise up, go out' formula ends the plague cycle; Moses' 10:29 prediction ('I will not see your face again') holds — the summons comes by proxy.
Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go — and bless me also."
The final concession — taking flocks, herds, and receiving a blessing from Pharaoh — tracks MT. The humbled-king-asking-for-blessing motif is the narrative's dramatic inversion.
The Egyptians pressed the people hard, urging them to leave the land quickly, for they said, "We shall all be dead."
Egyptian pressure for quick departure tracks MT.
So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their shoulders.
The unleavened-dough-on-shoulders image tracks MT. The haste that makes leavening impossible is the narrative foundation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The sons of Israel had done as Moses told them: they had asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and articles of gold and for clothing.
The asking-and-receiving of silver, gold, clothing tracks MT.
The LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
'Thus they plundered the Egyptians' (eskyleusan tous Aigyptious) echoes 3:22. The LXX's military despoliation vocabulary is preserved.
The sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
Masoretic (WLC)
כְּשֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף רַגְלִי הַגְּבָרִים
about six hundred thousand men on foot
Septuagint (LXX)
εἰς ἑξακοσίας χιλιάδας πεζῶν οἱ ἄνδρες
about six hundred thousand footsoldiers, the men
The 600,000 figure tracks MT. The LXX's pezoi ('foot-soldiers, infantry') adds a martial connotation not present in Hebrew's simple regli ('on foot'). This fits the LXX's tendency (cf. 13:18) to read the Exodus-departure as a military formation.
The number has been scholarly disputed: some argue for a smaller historical figure with eleph meaning 'clan' rather than 'thousand.' The LXX preserves the straightforward million-plus reading.
A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with very many flocks and herds of livestock.
The 'mixed multitude' (epimiktos polys) accompanying Israel tracks MT. The presence of non-Israelites in the Exodus — a theologically important detail — is preserved.
They baked the dough that they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it was not leavened — because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and they had not prepared any provisions for themselves.
The unleavened cakes narrative tracks MT, providing the etiology for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.
Masoretic (WLC)
וּמוֹשַׁב בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יָשְׁבוּ בְּמִצְרָיִם שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה
The time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years
Septuagint (LXX)
ἡ δὲ κατοίκησις τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ ἣν κατῴκησαν ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν γῇ Χανααν ἔτη τετρακόσια τριάκοντα
The dwelling of the sons of Israel that they dwelled in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan was 430 years
The LXX adds 'and in the land of Canaan' — expanding the 430-year span to cover both the patriarchal period (Abraham-to-Jacob) and the Egyptian sojourn. The Samaritan Pentateuch has an identical plus, suggesting this is a genuine older Hebrew reading.
Galatians 3:17 ('the law, which came 430 years afterwards, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God') is Paul's chronological argument for the priority of the Abrahamic covenant over the Sinai law. Paul's math only works with the LXX/Samaritan reading: 430 years covers Abraham to Moses, not merely Egypt.
The MT's 'Egypt only' reading gives approximately 645 years from Abraham to the law (patriarchal 215 + Egyptian 430), which breaks Paul's argument. Paul is reading with LXX chronology, which many Hellenistic Jewish sources (Josephus, Jubilees) share.
This is one of the clearest cases where a NT doctrinal argument depends on an LXX textual plus against the Masoretic text.
At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
'All the hosts of the LORD went out' tracks MT. The 'hosts' (dynameis) vocabulary reinforces the military-formation imagery of the Exodus.
It was a night of watching by the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is a night of watching kept to the LORD by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.
The 'night of watching' (paratērēsis) tracks MT. The Jewish tradition's all-night Passover vigil derives from this verse.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it,
The statute against foreigner-participation in Passover tracks MT. The allogenēs ('foreigner') category is distinct from the proselytos ('sojourner') that 12:48–49 will admit through circumcision.
but every slave purchased with silver, after you have circumcised him, may eat of it.
Circumcised slaves admitted to Passover tracks MT. The provision establishes household-membership as Passover-access criterion — not ethnicity alone.
A temporary resident and a hired worker shall not eat of it.
The exclusion of temporary residents and hired workers tracks MT. The distinction is between incorporated-household and external-contractor relationships.
It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְעֶצֶם לֹא תִשְׁבְּרוּ־בוֹ
you shall not break any of its bones
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ὀστοῦν οὐ συντρίψετε ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ
and you shall not break a bone of it
John 19:36 ("for these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'Not one of his bones will be broken'") cites this verse to identify Jesus' unbroken legs (in contrast to the two thieves whose legs were broken) as the fulfillment of the Passover-lamb statute.
The Johannine citation reads osteon ou syntribēsetai autou ('a bone of him shall not be broken'), which is very close to LXX Exodus 12:46 combined with Numbers 9:12 and Psalm 34:20 (33:21 LXX). The citation is likely a composite drawing on the whole LXX lamb-and-righteous-sufferer tradition.
The typological connection is tight: the unbroken Passover lamb foreshadows the unbroken body of the crucified Christ. John's Gospel is the NT text most saturated with Passover-lamb Christology, and this verse supplies the climactic fulfillment-citation.
The whole congregation of Israel shall keep it.
The universal Israelite obligation tracks MT.
If a sojourner lives with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then he may come near and keep it. He shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
The provision for the sojourner (proselytos) to keep Passover after circumcision tracks MT. The proselytos word becomes the NT's term for Gentile converts to Judaism (Matt 23:15, Acts 2:10, 6:5, 13:43).
There shall be one law for the native and for the sojourner who lives among you."
Masoretic (WLC)
תּוֹרָה אַחַת יִהְיֶה לָאֶזְרָח וְלַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶם
There shall be one law for the native and for the sojourner who lives among you
Septuagint (LXX)
νόμος εἷς ἔσται τῷ ἐγχωρίῳ καὶ τῷ προσελθόντι προσηλύτῳ ἐν ὑμῖν
One law shall be for the native and for the proselyte who has come to you
The 'one law for native and sojourner' principle — foundational to biblical inclusion-theology — is rendered with the LXX's nomos eis word-pair. Galatians 3:28 ('there is neither Jew nor Greek … for you are all one in Christ Jesus') and Ephesians 2:14–15 (Christ making 'the two into one') read the LXX's one-law principle as consummated in Christ.
The LXX's proselytos is a technical term for the convert. The distinction between allogenēs (foreigner), proselytos (convert), and enchōrios (native) supplies the NT's conceptual categories for ethnic inclusion questions.
All the sons of Israel did so. Just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
The compliance-formula tracks MT.
On that very day the LORD brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.
The closing 'on that very day' departure-notice echoes 12:41, framing the Passover chapter with its exit-event. The LXX's syn dynamei autōn ('with their hosts/armies') reinforces the martial departure imagery.