The verse introduces the Lord's instruction to Moses about Passover observance. It marks the point where the narrative of Israel's journey, resumed from Exodus after the opening chapters, continues from the camp at Sinai. It belongs to the account of the first Passover kept after departing from Egypt, kept while Israel was still at Horeb where they remained nearly or quite a year. They did not depart from Horeb until as late as the latter part of the second month of the second year.
The verse is part of the account of the Passover in the wilderness, which was observed once in the year after Israel left Egypt and then omitted until the people entered Canaan. Its wilderness observance is thus linked to its later observance in the land. In the surrounding instructions, those made unclean by contact with the dead could keep the Passover later. The allowance for a different time was only in case of ceremonial defilement, and then the Passover was to be eaten just one month later, not one day before.
Provision was made for those who for valid reasons failed to keep the Passover in the first month to keep it on the fourteenth day of the second month. This second observance is the background for the later Jewish practice of observing two feast days instead of one, keeping two days in each case where the first and last days of the feast were to be kept as a sabbath. The ceremonial restriction in the surrounding instructions is connected with the timing of Peter's imprisonment during Passover.
The verse introduces the Lord's instruction to Moses about Passover observance. It marks the point where the narrative of Israel's journey, resumed from Exodus after the opening chapters, continues from the camp at Sinai. It belongs to the account of the first Passover kept after departing from Egypt, kept while Israel was still at Horeb where they remained nearly or quite a year. They did not depart from Horeb until as late as the latter part of the second month of the second year.
The verse is part of the account of the Passover in the wilderness, which was observed once in the year after Israel left Egypt and then omitted until the people entered Canaan. Its wilderness observance is thus linked to its later observance in the land. In the surrounding instructions, those made unclean by contact with the dead could keep the Passover later. The allowance for a different time was only in case of ceremonial defilement, and then the Passover was to be eaten just one month later, not one day before.
Provision was made for those who for valid reasons failed to keep the Passover in the first month to keep it on the fourteenth day of the second month. This second observance is the background for the later Jewish practice of observing two feast days instead of one, keeping two days in each case where the first and last days of the feast were to be kept as a sabbath. The ceremonial restriction in the surrounding instructions is connected with the timing of Peter's imprisonment during Passover.