But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
Every man's servant bought for money was to eat the Passover only after he had been circumcised. Circumcision thus made such servants members of the household and of Israel's covenant community, naturalized citizens and partakers of its rites and privileges who sat with the household at the feast. The bought servants were indentured helpers for labor rather than chattels, and the rule takes servitude as already existing without instituting or sanctioning slavery, since buying alone does not make a person property. The Passover was the yearly memorial of deliverance from Egyptian bondage when houses marked with the lamb's blood were spared, and that blood and the slaying of the lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month typified Christ's blood for pardon and His death as the Lamb of God on that same day. The circumcision requirement belonged to eating the Passover lamb on the night of the coming out of Egypt, not to keeping the weekly Sabbath, for the Passover memorializes deliverance from Egypt while the Sabbath remains the memorial of creation and the Creator's rest.
Exodus Setting and History
The ordinance for the Passover to which the verse belongs was given in close connection with the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, and the hurried departure of the Israelites from Egypt, at the time the firstborn were claimed as the Lord's. It stands in the Exodus 9 to 12 account of the plagues, just before the first Passover and the guidance by fire and by cloud through the Red Sea with a song of triumph, and in Exodus 6 through 12, which record the ten plagues upon Egypt and God's merciful deliverance of His children. It is part of the story of the very first Passover, kept at Rameses in Egypt on the night the children of Israel were led out of bondage to go to the land of Canaan. The full story is found in Exodus 11 and Exodus 12, and the feast then became a yearly observance at Jerusalem.
The leaving of Egypt described in the chapter occurred 1491 years before Christ and was accompanied by darkness, plagues, and storm. It is included in the account of the conflict between God's religious system and Egypt's, a conflict supported by miracles, within God's wonderful deliverance of Israel from Egypt that demonstrated His wisdom, love, and power, His ability and right to rule, and Israel's obligation to obey. It belongs to God's redemption of Israel with a mighty hand from Egyptian bondage after hundreds of years of slavery that had unfitted them to comprehend His great salvation and the character He required, so He gave them the sanctuary as a great, multiple object-lesson that by various forms and rites would comprehend in its teaching the great plan of salvation.
Circumcision Rule for Servants
Every man's servant bought for money may eat the Passover only after he has been circumcised, when circumcision has been performed upon him. Circumcision was therefore a condition of participation in the Passover and marked entry into Israel's national covenant community, making the servant a member of the Hebrew community and household eligible to partake. Circumcision made bought servants part of the household during their period of service and naturalized citizens of the state, members of the congregation, and partakers of all the rites and privileges common to the people. The bought servants were indentured helpers for tilling the land, not chattels, and the law thus both supplied labor and increased the numbers of the commonwealth, while circumcised slaves and foreigners sat with the household at the feast.
The requirement is connected with the exclusion of uncircumcised children from the Passover, for because circumcision was omitted during the wilderness sojourn the Passover was not regularly observed again until entry into Canaan. The verse states a participation rule within the Passover institution whose command, observance, timing, participants, and purpose are set out in Exodus 12.
The verse is part of the directions for preparing and eating the Passover that Jesus and His disciples followed at the Last Supper, so they ate the Passover lamb. That paschal meal was eaten with bitter herbs. The verse belongs to the original Passover instructions first instituted in Egypt and observed in the wilderness on the journey to Palestine, distinct from the later temple form that was materially changed with added injunctions not in the former and hardly possible in the wilderness, and without the wine and closing Hallel of later observances that were not enjoined in the Pentateuch.
Bought Service Not Slavery
The ordinance assumes that bought servants and hired servants will be present without setting up, providing for, approving, or condemning either arrangement. It was not made to create slavery or to defend it, but deals with servitude as a condition already in existence. It lays down only that a servant purchased with money must be circumcised before sharing in the Passover, and it does not found any such system by the Passover command itself.
Those purchased were engaged helpers for working the land rather than owned chattels. By bringing them under circumcision the law furnished labor and at the same time enlarged the population of the commonwealth. The mention of a servant bought with money does not by itself prove that slavery existed, since hired servants were not slaves and the phrase does not mean a chattel slave. To take it in that sense forces American meanings onto Hebrew speech, which was not derived from American usage and cannot safely be explained by it. Buying, whether of things or of persons, does not in itself turn a person into property held as a chattel slave. The text can be applied to slaves only after the existence of chattel slaves has been proved elsewhere, so to cite it as proof of that class reasons in a circle by assuming the very thing to be proved.
At that time Israel itself had been brought down to a servile state as serfs under the Egyptians, a condition allowed for a time. Even that modified bondage was not sanctioned, for release was demanded at once. When release was refused, fearful judgments fell on the oppressors. Israel was then brought out as an army of fugitive slaves, and their pursuers were drowned in the Red Sea.
Memorial, Type and Prophecy
Exodus 12 gives the time of the Passover as a yearly feast that memorialized deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The Passover was given as the sufficient, fitting, harmonious and plain memorial of that deliverance, suited to call it to mind and to be observed repeatedly to keep fresh in thought how God brought deliverance near through judgment. It stands with the Feast of Unleavened Bread as yearly memorials of that work, the appointed commemoration of bondage ended when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die. The word Passover means that when the angel saw the blood on the doorposts he passed over the house and did not slay the firstborn. The houses of Israel marked with the blood of the paschal lamb were spared when the destroying angel passed over to slay the firstborn of the Egyptians, the full story lying in Exodus 11 and 12 and the feast afterward becoming a yearly observance at Jerusalem.
The blood on the doorposts typified Christ's blood, through which transgressions are passed over and sin is pardoned and blotted out. The rite commemorated bondage in Egypt and served as a shadow of good to be done for the human race. The slaying of the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month was a type that met its antitype in the death of Jesus as the Lamb of God on that same day. This exact correspondence of day proves God designed to honor the feast and its fulfillment. This experience connects with the remnant living when probation closes, joining Passover forgiveness and mercy to the final generation.
The marking with blood is the pattern for the seal of God placed on His servants to exempt them from the judgments of God falling on the wicked around them when war and trouble are restrained. As Israel was marked and spared, so the sealed are exempted amid surrounding judgments. The saints' situation during the final plagues will be like Israel's during the plagues on Egypt: they will remain on earth through the calamities yet be protected by God. The going out of Egypt into Canaan typifies the deliverance of God's people from the earth, and the plagues on Egypt typify the last plagues in Revelation 16 as literal events known in Egypt and remembered in Philistia. The Exodus 11-12 portion stands in that typology with Psalm 27.
Law, Sabbath and Covenant
The same law given to Israel was for every other person of whatever race or nationality, and Israel as the chosen people was to extend the knowledge of God through the earth as a light to the surrounding nations, revealing by the course they pursued what it meant to be a member of God's government and people. It belongs to the explicit record of the institution of the Passover. The circumcision it requires of a bought servant applied to eating the Passover lamb on the night to be observed at the coming out of Egypt, not to keeping the weekly Sabbath, and the chapter does not make the Sabbath a memorial of coming out of Egypt. Women and nearly all Israel kept the Sabbath during the forty years in the wilderness without circumcision, so being uncircumcised did not prevent keeping the Sabbath.
The Passover was given as the memorial of deliverance from Egyptian bondage, its character as a memorial plainly declared and its office described, sufficient, fitting, harmonious and suited to call that deliverance to mind. It was appointed to be observed repeatedly to keep fresh in thought how God brought deliverance near through judgment when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die and the destroying angel passed over Israel's dwellings. It stands with the Feast of Unleavened Bread as yearly memorials of that work, distinct from the weekly Sabbath, which cannot memorialize a once-a-year deliverance and is not a rest memorial of a rush. The Sabbath is therefore not to be wrested from its proper office to commemorate the Exodus, but remains a memorial of creation after six days of labor and rest on the seventh and a type of future rest, commemorating the Creator's rest and not deliverance from Egypt. As the broken body and spilt blood of the Lord are remembered by the Last Supper and His resurrection by baptism, each memorial keeps its proper office.
Its incidental wording implies that circumcision was already known and practiced among the Hebrews before Moses gave the law, since the rule assumes a purchased male servant could be circumcised and then eat the Passover, just as Israel already had knowledge of the Sabbath when it was entrusted to them. Israel in Egypt still observed God's ordinances including circumcision, because being circumcised was necessary to eat the Passover and Israel was ready to eat it. The requirement that a servant bought for money be circumcised before eating the Passover shows that the ceremonial law of circumcision did not originate with Moses but was first instituted in patriarchal times and afterward became part of the Mosaic code. The Passover ordinance is described as perpetual, but the stated duration of this verse may have expired, just as the duration of other ordinances called perpetual or everlasting may have expired.
Every man's servant bought for money was to eat the Passover only after he had been circumcised. Circumcision thus made such servants members of the household and of Israel's covenant community, naturalized citizens and partakers of its rites and privileges who sat with the household at the feast. The bought servants were indentured helpers for labor rather than chattels, and the rule takes servitude as already existing without instituting or sanctioning slavery, since buying alone does not make a person property. The Passover was the yearly memorial of deliverance from Egyptian bondage when houses marked with the lamb's blood were spared, and that blood and the slaying of the lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month typified Christ's blood for pardon and His death as the Lamb of God on that same day. The circumcision requirement belonged to eating the Passover lamb on the night of the coming out of Egypt, not to keeping the weekly Sabbath, for the Passover memorializes deliverance from Egypt while the Sabbath remains the memorial of creation and the Creator's rest.
Exodus Setting and History
The ordinance for the Passover to which the verse belongs was given in close connection with the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, and the hurried departure of the Israelites from Egypt, at the time the firstborn were claimed as the Lord's. It stands in the Exodus 9 to 12 account of the plagues, just before the first Passover and the guidance by fire and by cloud through the Red Sea with a song of triumph, and in Exodus 6 through 12, which record the ten plagues upon Egypt and God's merciful deliverance of His children. It is part of the story of the very first Passover, kept at Rameses in Egypt on the night the children of Israel were led out of bondage to go to the land of Canaan. The full story is found in Exodus 11 and Exodus 12, and the feast then became a yearly observance at Jerusalem.
The leaving of Egypt described in the chapter occurred 1491 years before Christ and was accompanied by darkness, plagues, and storm. It is included in the account of the conflict between God's religious system and Egypt's, a conflict supported by miracles, within God's wonderful deliverance of Israel from Egypt that demonstrated His wisdom, love, and power, His ability and right to rule, and Israel's obligation to obey. It belongs to God's redemption of Israel with a mighty hand from Egyptian bondage after hundreds of years of slavery that had unfitted them to comprehend His great salvation and the character He required, so He gave them the sanctuary as a great, multiple object-lesson that by various forms and rites would comprehend in its teaching the great plan of salvation.
Circumcision Rule for Servants
Every man's servant bought for money may eat the Passover only after he has been circumcised, when circumcision has been performed upon him. Circumcision was therefore a condition of participation in the Passover and marked entry into Israel's national covenant community, making the servant a member of the Hebrew community and household eligible to partake. Circumcision made bought servants part of the household during their period of service and naturalized citizens of the state, members of the congregation, and partakers of all the rites and privileges common to the people. The bought servants were indentured helpers for tilling the land, not chattels, and the law thus both supplied labor and increased the numbers of the commonwealth, while circumcised slaves and foreigners sat with the household at the feast.
The requirement is connected with the exclusion of uncircumcised children from the Passover, for because circumcision was omitted during the wilderness sojourn the Passover was not regularly observed again until entry into Canaan. The verse states a participation rule within the Passover institution whose command, observance, timing, participants, and purpose are set out in Exodus 12.
The verse is part of the directions for preparing and eating the Passover that Jesus and His disciples followed at the Last Supper, so they ate the Passover lamb. That paschal meal was eaten with bitter herbs. The verse belongs to the original Passover instructions first instituted in Egypt and observed in the wilderness on the journey to Palestine, distinct from the later temple form that was materially changed with added injunctions not in the former and hardly possible in the wilderness, and without the wine and closing Hallel of later observances that were not enjoined in the Pentateuch.
Bought Service Not Slavery
The ordinance assumes that bought servants and hired servants will be present without setting up, providing for, approving, or condemning either arrangement. It was not made to create slavery or to defend it, but deals with servitude as a condition already in existence. It lays down only that a servant purchased with money must be circumcised before sharing in the Passover, and it does not found any such system by the Passover command itself.
Those purchased were engaged helpers for working the land rather than owned chattels. By bringing them under circumcision the law furnished labor and at the same time enlarged the population of the commonwealth. The mention of a servant bought with money does not by itself prove that slavery existed, since hired servants were not slaves and the phrase does not mean a chattel slave. To take it in that sense forces American meanings onto Hebrew speech, which was not derived from American usage and cannot safely be explained by it. Buying, whether of things or of persons, does not in itself turn a person into property held as a chattel slave. The text can be applied to slaves only after the existence of chattel slaves has been proved elsewhere, so to cite it as proof of that class reasons in a circle by assuming the very thing to be proved.
At that time Israel itself had been brought down to a servile state as serfs under the Egyptians, a condition allowed for a time. Even that modified bondage was not sanctioned, for release was demanded at once. When release was refused, fearful judgments fell on the oppressors. Israel was then brought out as an army of fugitive slaves, and their pursuers were drowned in the Red Sea.
Memorial, Type and Prophecy
Exodus 12 gives the time of the Passover as a yearly feast that memorialized deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The Passover was given as the sufficient, fitting, harmonious and plain memorial of that deliverance, suited to call it to mind and to be observed repeatedly to keep fresh in thought how God brought deliverance near through judgment. It stands with the Feast of Unleavened Bread as yearly memorials of that work, the appointed commemoration of bondage ended when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die. The word Passover means that when the angel saw the blood on the doorposts he passed over the house and did not slay the firstborn. The houses of Israel marked with the blood of the paschal lamb were spared when the destroying angel passed over to slay the firstborn of the Egyptians, the full story lying in Exodus 11 and 12 and the feast afterward becoming a yearly observance at Jerusalem.
The blood on the doorposts typified Christ's blood, through which transgressions are passed over and sin is pardoned and blotted out. The rite commemorated bondage in Egypt and served as a shadow of good to be done for the human race. The slaying of the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month was a type that met its antitype in the death of Jesus as the Lamb of God on that same day. This exact correspondence of day proves God designed to honor the feast and its fulfillment. This experience connects with the remnant living when probation closes, joining Passover forgiveness and mercy to the final generation.
The marking with blood is the pattern for the seal of God placed on His servants to exempt them from the judgments of God falling on the wicked around them when war and trouble are restrained. As Israel was marked and spared, so the sealed are exempted amid surrounding judgments. The saints' situation during the final plagues will be like Israel's during the plagues on Egypt: they will remain on earth through the calamities yet be protected by God. The going out of Egypt into Canaan typifies the deliverance of God's people from the earth, and the plagues on Egypt typify the last plagues in Revelation 16 as literal events known in Egypt and remembered in Philistia. The Exodus 11-12 portion stands in that typology with Psalm 27.
Law, Sabbath and Covenant
The same law given to Israel was for every other person of whatever race or nationality, and Israel as the chosen people was to extend the knowledge of God through the earth as a light to the surrounding nations, revealing by the course they pursued what it meant to be a member of God's government and people. It belongs to the explicit record of the institution of the Passover. The circumcision it requires of a bought servant applied to eating the Passover lamb on the night to be observed at the coming out of Egypt, not to keeping the weekly Sabbath, and the chapter does not make the Sabbath a memorial of coming out of Egypt. Women and nearly all Israel kept the Sabbath during the forty years in the wilderness without circumcision, so being uncircumcised did not prevent keeping the Sabbath.
The Passover was given as the memorial of deliverance from Egyptian bondage, its character as a memorial plainly declared and its office described, sufficient, fitting, harmonious and suited to call that deliverance to mind. It was appointed to be observed repeatedly to keep fresh in thought how God brought deliverance near through judgment when Egypt's firstborn were doomed to die and the destroying angel passed over Israel's dwellings. It stands with the Feast of Unleavened Bread as yearly memorials of that work, distinct from the weekly Sabbath, which cannot memorialize a once-a-year deliverance and is not a rest memorial of a rush. The Sabbath is therefore not to be wrested from its proper office to commemorate the Exodus, but remains a memorial of creation after six days of labor and rest on the seventh and a type of future rest, commemorating the Creator's rest and not deliverance from Egypt. As the broken body and spilt blood of the Lord are remembered by the Last Supper and His resurrection by baptism, each memorial keeps its proper office.
Its incidental wording implies that circumcision was already known and practiced among the Hebrews before Moses gave the law, since the rule assumes a purchased male servant could be circumcised and then eat the Passover, just as Israel already had knowledge of the Sabbath when it was entrusted to them. Israel in Egypt still observed God's ordinances including circumcision, because being circumcised was necessary to eat the Passover and Israel was ready to eat it. The requirement that a servant bought for money be circumcised before eating the Passover shows that the ceremonial law of circumcision did not originate with Moses but was first instituted in patriarchal times and afterward became part of the Mosaic code. The Passover ordinance is described as perpetual, but the stated duration of this verse may have expired, just as the duration of other ordinances called perpetual or everlasting may have expired.