Keluaran 12:43

Participation in the Passover

12:43 ¹ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may ²  share in eating it. ³ 

Keluaran 30:21

30:21 they must wash ⁴  their hands and their feet so that they do not die. And this ⁵  will be a perpetual ordinance for them and for their descendants ⁶  throughout their generations.” ⁷ 

[12:43]  ¹ sn The section that concludes the chapter contains regulations pertaining to the Passover. The section begins at v. 43, but vv. 40-42 form a good setting for it. In this unit vv. 43-45 belong together because they stress that a stranger and foreigner cannot eat. Verse 46 stands by itself, ruling that the meal must be eaten at home. Verse 47 instructs that the whole nation was to eat it. Verses 48-49 make provision for foreigners who may wish to participate. And vv. 50-51 record the obedience of Israel.

[12:43]  ² tn This taken in the modal nuance of permission, reading that no foreigner is permitted to share in it (apart from being a member of the household as a circumcised slave [v. 44] or obeying v. 48, if a free individual).

[12:43]  ³ tn This is the partitive use of the bet (ב) preposition, expressing that the action extends to something and includes the idea of participation in it (GKC 380 §119.m).

[30:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “and [then] they will wash.”

[30:21]  ⁵ tn The verb is “it will be.”

[30:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “for his seed.”

[30:21]  ⁷ tn Or “for generations to come”; it literally is “to their generations.”

[30:21]  sn The symbolic meaning of washing has been taught throughout the ages. This was a practical matter of cleaning hands and feet, but it was also symbolic of purification before Yahweh. It was an outward sign of inner spiritual cleansing, or forgiveness. Jesus washed the disciples feet (Jn 13) to show this same teaching; he asked the disciples if they knew what he had done (so it was more than washing feet). In this passage the theological points for the outline would be these: I. God provides the means of cleansing; II. Cleansing is a prerequisite for participating in the worship, and III. (Believers) priests must regularly appropriate God’s provision of cleansing.