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Chapter 11
Themes
and Colors
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.
Active
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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