Exodo 12:4

Filipino Cebuano Bible

4 Ug kong ang panimalay diriyut da nga dili makahurot sa pagkaon sa usa ka nating carnero, unya mokuha siya ug ang iyang nsilingan nga sunod sa iyang balay ug usa ka book, sumala sa gidaghanon sa mga tawo; ang tagsatagsa ingon sa iyang makaon mao ang iyang paghimo sa pag-isip sa nating carnero.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 19:35 - I hear Matthew 26:19 - and they

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And if the household be too little for the lamb,.... That they cannot eat it up at once;

let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; which Josephus e says were never fewer than ten, and were often twenty, but no man might feast alone; with which agrees the Jewish canon f,

"they do not kill the passover lamb for a single person, nor even for a society consisting of one hundred, that cannot eat the quantity of an olive:''

every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb: that is, a man must reckon up how many he has in his own house to eat of the lamb, and what their appetites be, by which he will he able to judge whether he can dispense with a lamb himself, or whether he must take in some of his neighbours, and how many, so as to eat up the whole lamb, for, for such persons the lamb was to be slain. The rule is,

"if a man slays it for those that do not eat of it, or for those that are not counted, for the uncircumcised, and the unclean, it was wrong, and not allowed of g.''

The taking in his neighbours may respect the call of the Gentiles to partake of Christ with the Jews, see Ephesians 3:5.

e De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3. f Misn. Pesach. c. 8. sect. 7. g lbid. c. 5. sect. 3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Tradition specifies ten as the least number; but the matter was probably left altogether to the discretion of the heads of families.

The last clause should be rendered: “each man, according to his eating, ye shall count for the lamb.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 12:4. If the household be too little — That is, if there be not persons enough in one family to eat a whole lamb, then two families must join together. The rabbins allow that there should be at least ten persons to one paschal lamb, and not more than twenty.

Take it, according to the number of the souls — The persons who were to eat of it were to be first ascertained, and then the lamb was to be slain and dressed for that number.