Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
The LORD tells Moses and Aaron that for Israel, this month will mark the beginning of the year. On the tenth of the month, every Israelite family must take an unblemished year-old lamb. On the fourteenth day, every household must slaughter their lamb at midnight, then place some of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house. They must roast the lamb that night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, then eat it in a hurry while dressed for travel. This is the LORD’s Passover, because the LORD will pass through Egypt that night, striking down every firstborn among both humans and animals. When the LORD sees the blood on the Israelite houses, he will pass over them.
Before the outbreak of the plague, there’s a pause in the narrative for a key Jewish origin story—the institution of the Passover festival. When God strikes down the Egyptian firstborn, he will “pass over” the Israelites’ houses because they are marked with a sacrificial lamb’s blood. At the time, the blood might simply have signified a household’s obedience to God’s command. Later, as Israel’s sacrificial system developed, observant Jews would look at the Passover blood as a reminder that a life had been sacrificed to redeem theirs.
Themes
The Passover will be a day of remembrance for Israel, a festival to be observed forever. For seven days (from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day), they must eat unleavened bread, having removed all leaven from their houses—anyone who eats leavened bread will be cut off. The first and seventh days will be marked by solemn gatherings.
Passover is to be celebrated between the 14th and 21st days of the Hebrew lunar month of Abib or Nisan. Unleavened bread is eaten to commemorate the fact that the Israelites had to flee Egypt in a great hurry. Though it’s not clear what being “cut off” means in this context (whether physical separation, actual death, or something else), the offender is removed from the community’s solemn celebration as a warning against breaking the covenant with God.
Themes
Moses calls Israel’s elders and tells them to choose lambs for the families. They must also dip a bunch of hyssop into the lamb’s blood, mark the door of the house, and stay inside until the next morning. The Israelites must always celebrate this ordinance. In the future, when their children ask them its purpose, they must explain that it’s a Passover sacrifice to the LORD, in remembrance of the night he struck down the Egyptians while sparing Israel. After hearing this, the people worship God and do just as he commanded through Moses and Aaron.
Moses’s instructions emphasize the importance of passing down the Passover story to one’s children. In other words, observing the Passover isn’t a matter of rote repetition, but of narrating Israel’s history. Such narration teaches future generations their place within the active covenant between Israel and their God.
Themes
At midnight, the LORD strikes down all the firstborn of Egypt. A cry is heard throughout the land, because no Egyptian household is untouched. Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron and tells them to take their people and livestock and go. In the meantime, the Israelites have gained favor in the Egyptians’ sight, collecting silver and gold jewelry and clothing from their neighbors. In this way, they “plunder” the Egyptians.
The account of the Egyptians being struck down is told sparingly, emphasizing the horror of the event. It comes against the backdrop of God’s promise to Abraham centuries ago, as told in Genesis 15, that Abraham’s descendants would be brought out of the land of their oppressors with great wealth. Ironically, these Egyptian riches will later help the Israelites construct the materials they need to worship God on the way to the promised land. These events also enact God’s bold and seemingly unlikely claim that the Israelites would “plunder” their oppressors, and in so doing emphasize God’s power.
Themes
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About 600,000 Israelite men, besides children, travel from Rameses to Succoth, along with a mixed crowd and huge flocks and herds. Because they leave in a hurry, they only have unleavened dough to bake and no other provisions. At this time, the Israelites have lived in Egypt for exactly 430 years.
At the beginning of Exodus, it was noted that when Jacob’s offspring first settled in Egypt, they numbered 70. Scholars have questioned whether the figure of 600,000 can plausibly be taken at face value. The main point of such massive numbers, however, is to show how much God has blessed Israel in the centuries after Jacob’s life. The scarcity of provisions anticipates God’s coming care for the Israelites in the wilderness.
Themes
The LORD instructs Moses and Aaron that no foreigners may eat the Passover, but any slaves may do so after they have been circumcised. Each household should eat the Passover inside one house, and all of Israel should celebrate it. Foreigners living among the Israelites may join in, but their males must first be circumcised; one law must apply to native and foreigner alike. The Israelites do just as the LORD commands them.
Before the Israelites go, God gives further stipulations regarding future celebrations of the Passover. This is because the Passover will be key to Israelite identity, especially during the wanderings in the desert. The rules about slaves and foreigners stress the importance of being identified with God’s people in order to join in Israelite celebrations—that is, ethnic diversity is assumed, but non-Israelite males must nevertheless join the covenant through the ritual of circumcision.
Themes
