Keluaran 12:43-49

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  12:44 But everyone’s servant who is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may eat it. 12:45 A foreigner and a hired worker must not eat it. 12:46 It must be eaten in one house; you must not bring any of the meat outside the house, and you must not break a bone of it. 12:47 The whole community of Israel must observe it.

12:48 “When a foreigner lives ⁴  with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, ⁵  and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land ⁶  – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it. 12:49 The same law will apply ⁷  to the person who is native-born and to the foreigner who lives among you.”

Bilangan 9:6-10

9:6 It happened that some men ⁸  who were ceremonially defiled ⁹  by the dead body of a man ¹⁰  could not keep ¹¹  the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. 9:7 And those men said to him, “We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?” 9:8 So Moses said to them, “Remain ¹²  here and I will hear ¹³  what the Lord will command concerning you.”

9:9 The Lord spoke to Moses: 9:10 “Tell the Israelites, ‘If any ¹⁴  of you or of your posterity become ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, or are on a journey far away, then he may ¹⁵  observe the Passover to the Lord.

[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).

[12:48]  ⁴ tn Both the participle “foreigner” and the verb “lives” are from the verb גּוּר (gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.” This reference is to a foreigner who settles in the land. He is the protected foreigner; when he comes to another area where he does not have his clan to protect him, he must come under the protection of the Law, or the people. If the “resident alien” is circumcised, he may participate in the Passover (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 104).

[12:48]  ⁵ tn The infinitive absolute functions as the finite verb here, and “every male” could be either the object or the subject (see GKC 347 §113.gg and 387 §121.a).

[12:48]  ⁶ tn אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh) refers to the native-born individual, the native Israelite as opposed to the “stranger, alien” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 104); see also W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, 127, 210.

[12:49]  ⁷ tn Heb “one law will be to.”

[9:6]  ⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.

[9:6]  ⁹ tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.

[9:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.

[9:6]  ¹¹ tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.

[9:8]  ¹² tn The verb is simply “stand,” but in the more general sense of waiting to hear the answer.

[9:8]  ¹³ tn The cohortative may be subordinated to the imperative: “stand…[that I] may hear.”

[9:10]  ¹⁴ tn This sense is conveyed by the repetition of “man” – “if a man, a man becomes unclean.”

[9:10]  ¹⁵ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of an imperfect tense. In the apodosis of this conditional sentence, the permission nuance fits well.