Exodus 12:45

A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(45) An hired servant.—It is assumed that the hired servant will be a foreigner; otherwise, of course, he would participate.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 12:45; Exodus 12:48. A hired servant — Unless he submit to be circumcised. All the congregation of Israel must keep it — Though it was observed in families apart, yet it is looked upon as the act of the whole congregation. And so the New Testament passover, the Lord’s supper, ought not to be neglected by any that are capable of celebrating it. No stranger that was uncircumcised might eat of it. Neither may any now approach the Lord’s supper who have not first submitted to baptism; nor shall any partake of the benefit of Christ’s sacrifice, who are not first circumcised in heart. Any stranger that was circumcised might eat of the passover, even servants. Here is an indication of favour to the poor Gentiles, that the stranger, if circumcised, stands upon the same level with the home-born Israelite; one law for both. This was a mortification to the Jews, and taught them that it was their dedication to God, not their descent from Abraham, that entitled them to their privileges.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:43-51 In times to come, all the congregation of Israel must keep the passover. All that share in God's mercies should join in thankful praises for them. The New Testament passover, the Lord's supper, ought not to be neglected by any. Strangers, if circumcised, might eat of the passover. Here is an early indication of favour to the gentiles. This taught the Jews that their being a nation favoured by God, entitled them to their privileges, not their descent from Abraham. Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, 1Co 5:7; his blood is the only ransom for our souls; without the shedding of it there is no remission; without the sprinkling of it there can be no salvation. Have we, by faith in him, sheltered our souls from deserved vengeance under the protection of his atoning blood? Do we keep close to him, constantly depending upon him? Do we so profess our faith in the Redeemer, and our obligations to him, that all who pass by may know to whom we belong? Do we stand prepared for his service, ready to walk in his ways, and to separate ourselves from his enemies? These are questions of vast importance to the soul; may the Lord direct our consciences honestly to answer them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A foreigner - or sojourner: one who resides in a country, not having a permanent home, nor being attached to an Israelitish household.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

41. even the selfsame day—implying an exact and literal fulfilment of the predicted period.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Except he submit to circumcision, as Exodus 12:43. See Numbers 9:14.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. One of another nation, and one that was only hired by the day, week, or year; as they were not obliged to circumcision, so without it they had no right to eat of the passover, none but such as became proselytes of righteousness.

Geneva Study Bible

A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

45. The settler (tôshâb) and hired servant are not to eat of it. The technical distinction between the tôshâb and the gêr (v. 48) is not altogether clear. To judge from the etymology, the tôshâb was a foreigner, more permanently ‘settled’ in Israel than an ordinary gêr, and also perhaps (Leviticus 22:10; Leviticus 25:6) more definitely attached to a particular family (LXX. usually πάροικος), but, like the gêr, without civil rights, and dependent for his position on the good-will of his patronus (cf. Genesis 23:4, Leviticus 25:23, Psalm 39:12, 1 Chronicles 29:15): the word also occurs Leviticus 25:35; Leviticus 25:40; Leviticus 25:45; Leviticus 25:47 (twice), Numbers 35:15. RV. ‘sojourner,’ except Leviticus 25:6; Leviticus 25:45 ‘stranger.’ See further Bertholet, Die Stellung der Isr. zu den Fremden (1896), p. 157 ff. (cf. 172 f.), Bä. p. 107, EB. iv. 4818. The ‘hired servant’ is associated, as here, in Leviticus 22:10; Leviticus 25:6; Leviticus 25:40, with the tôshâb, and in Leviticus 22:10 with the gêr as well, as having both similar disqualifications, and (Exodus 25:39 f.) similar rights; evidently he is to be thought of as a foreigner (cf. Leviticus 25:6 ‘that sojourn with thee’), whose rights are limited, and who is hired by his master, for fixed wages, for a longer or a shorter time. Why the same permission is not given to the ‘settler’ as to the ‘sojourner’ (v. 48) to partake of the Passover, if he is circumcised, is not apparent; perhaps (cf. Bertholet, 159) he is included in v. 48 in the more general term gêr (cf. Lev Exo 25:6 end).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 45. - A foreigner. Literally "a so-journer" - i.e., a foreigner who is merely passing through the land, or staying for a time, without intending to become a permanent resident. The Septuagint πάροικος well expresses the meaning. An hired servant. It is assumed that the "hired servant" will be a foreigner; and intended to guard against any compulsion being put upon him. Exodus 12:45

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Regulations Concerning the Participants in the Passover. - These regulations, which were supplementary to the law of the Passover in Exodus 12:3-11, were not communicated before the exodus; because it was only by the fact that a crowd of foreigners attached themselves to the Israelites, that Israel was brought into a connection with foreigners, which needed to be clearly defined, especially so far as the Passover was concerned, the festival of Israel's birth as the people of God. If the Passover was still to retain this signification, of course no foreigner could participate in it. This is the first regulation. But as it was by virtue of a divine call, and not through natural descent, that Israel had become the people of Jehovah, and as it was destined in that capacity to be a blessing to all nations, the attitude assumed towards foreigners was not to be an altogether repelling one. Hence the further directions in Exodus 12:44 : purchased servants, who had been politically incorporated as Israel's property, were to be entirely incorporated by circumcision, so as even to take part in the Passover. But settlers, and servants working for wages, were not to eat of it, for they stood in a purely external relation, which might be any day dissolved. בּ אכל, lit., to eat at anything, to take part in the eating (Leviticus 22:11). The deeper ground fore this was, that in this meal Israel was to preserve and celebrate its unity and fellowship with Jehovah. This was the meaning of the regulations, which were repeated in Exodus 12:46 and Exodus 12:47 from Exodus 12:4, Exodus 12:9, and Exodus 12:10, where they had been already explained. If, therefore, a foreigner living among the Israelites wished to keep the Passover, he was first of all to be spiritually incorporated into the nation of Jehovah by circumcision (Exodus 12:48). פס ועשׂה: "And he has made (i.e., made ready) a passover to Jehovah, let every male be circumcised to him (i.e., he himself, and the male members of his house), and then he may draw near (sc., to Jehovah) to keep it." The first עשׂה denotes the wish or intention to do it, the second, the actual execution of the wish. The words בּן־נכר, גּר, תּושׁב and שׂכיר, are all indicative of non-Israelites. בּן־נכר was applied quite generally to any foreigner springing from another nation; גּר was a foreigner living for a shorter or longer time in the midst of the Israelites; תּושׁב, lit., a dweller, settler, was one who settled permanently among the Israelites, without being received into their religious fellowship; שׂכיר was the non-Israelite, who worked for an Israelite for wages.