Deuteronomy 16:1

Observe the month of Abib,.... Sometimes called Nisan; it answered to part, of our March, and part of April; it was an observable month, to be taken notice of; it was called Abib, from the corn then

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Observe the month of Abib - or first-fruits.

CHAPTER 16 Their feast of the passover to be kept, , and to eat unleavened bread, . The seven weeks and their feasts, . The feast of tabernacles to be observed by them, and their family, seven days, . All the males to appear before the Lord three times a year, and at these three feasts, ,17. Judges and officers are appointed, , and are prohibited to set up idolatry, ,22. Object. They came out of Egypt by day, and in the morning, as appears from 13:3 . Answ. They are said to be brought out by night, because in the night Pharaoh was forced to give them leave to depart, and accordingly they made preparation for their departure, and in the morning they perfected the work.

Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.Ver. 1. And keep the passover.] Every man that seeth another stricken and himself spared is still to keep a passover for himself.

XVI. Deuteronomy 16:1-8. THE . (See on Exodus 12) (1) The month Abib was so called from the “ears of corn” which appeared in it. By night.—Pharaoh’s permission was given on the night of the death of the first-born, though Israel did not actually depart until the next day (Numbers 33:3-4). (2) Of the flock, and of the herd.—The Passover victim itself must be either lamb or kid. (See on Deuteronomy 14:4, and comp. Exodus 12:5.) But there were special sacrifices of bullocks appointed for the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which followed the Passover. (See Numbers 28:19.) (6) At even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou comest forth from Egypt.—The word “season” here is ambiguous in the English. Does it mean the time of year, or the time of day? The Hebrew word, which usually denotes a commemorative time, might seem to point to the hour of sunset as the time when the march actually began. If so, it was the evening of the fifteenth day of the month (See Numbers 33:3). But the word is also used generally of the time of year (Exodus 23:15; Numbers 9:2, &c.); and as the Passover was to be kept on the fourteenth, not the fifteenth day, the time actually commemorated is the time of the slaying of the lamb which saved Israel from the destroyer, rather than the time of the actual march. It is noticeable that, while the Passover commemorated the deliverance by the slain lamb in Egypt, the Feast of Tabernacles commemorated the encampment at Succoth, the first resting-place of the delivered nation after the exodus had actually begun. (8) A solemn assembly.—Literally, as in the Margin, a restraint—i.e., a day when work was forbidden. The word is applied to the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles in Leviticus 23:36, and Numbers 29:35, and does not occur elsewhere in the Pentateuch.

CHAPTER XVI The month of Abib to be observed, 1. The feast of the passover and of unleavened bread, 2-8. The feast of weeks, 9-12. The feast of tabernacles, 13-15. All the males to appear before the Lord thrice in the year, none to come empty, each to give according to his ability, 16, 17. Judges and officers to be made in all their cities, 18. Strict justice shall be executed, 19, 20. No grove to be planted near the altar of God, nor any image to be set up, 21, 22. NOTES ON CHAP. XVI Verse 1. Keep the passover] A feast so called because the angel that destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians, seeing the blood of the appointed sacrifice sprinkled on the lintels and door-posts of the Israelites' houses, passed over THEM, and did not destroy any of their firstborn. See Clarke on Exodus 12:2, "Exodus 12:3", &c.

1–8. The Passover (with Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth) To be kept in Abib—for in that month Israel was brought out of Egypt—by the sacrifice of a victim from herd or flock at the One Altar (Deuteronomy 16:1 f.). For seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten—Israel’s food in the haste of quitting Egypt,—and no leaven shall be found in their borders, nor any of the Passover flesh after the first evening (Deuteronomy 16:3 f.). The Passover shall be boiled and eaten, the people returning next morning to their tents (Deuteronomy 16:5-7); for six days Israel shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh hold a convocation and do no work (Deuteronomy 16:8).—The integrity of the passage has been questioned (Steuern., Stȧ ?rk, Berth., Marti) and with reason. For not only do Deuteronomy 16:3 f. on Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth break the connection of Deu 16:1 f. with 5–7 on the Passover, while Deuteronomy 16:8 also on Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth reflects the style of P; but Deuteronomy 16:7, fixing the Feast for one day after which the people are to return home, is difficult to harmonise with the seven days of Deu 16:3 f. and Deuteronomy 16:8. Two explanations are possible;—(1) D’s law originally consisted of Deu 16:1 f., Deuteronomy 16:5-7, and dealt only with the Passover; and the vv. on Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth are from an editor. But there is no reason why the original code of D should ignore Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth—for which certainly E has a law, Exodus 23:15 a, and (Steuern. notwithstanding) J also, Exodus 34:18 a—unless Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth, a purely agricultural feast, had become too closely associated with the cults of the Baalim. (2) More probably we have here a compilation of two laws of D, originally separate, one on Passover and one on Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth. In either case the combination of Passover and Maṣ ?ṣ ?τth, which was not original and is not accepted even by H in Leviticus 23 (Leviticus 23:5; Leviticus 23:9 ff.; Leviticus 23:6-8 are added by P), took place between the date of the original code of D and that of the final composition of the Book of Deuteronomy.

The cardinal point on which the whole of the prescriptions in this chapter turn, is evidently the same as has been so often insisted on in the previous chapters, namely, the concentration of the

1. Observe… Abib — The day for the commencement of the observance would be known from tradition as well as from Exodus 12:2. Comp. also Numbers 9:1-14, and Leviticus 23:1-8.