Exodus 12:1-20 - Exposition

1 . The festival was to last seven days.

2 . No leavened bread was to be eaten during that space, and leaven was even to be put away altogether out of all houses.

3 . On the first day of the seven and on the last, there was to be "a holy convocation" or gathering for worship.

4 . No work not strictly necessary was to Be done on these days.

Other directions were given at a later date.

1 . Besides the Paschal lamb, with which the festival commenced, and which was to be a domestic rite, public sacrifices were appointed for each day of the seven—to consist of two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs, and one goat, with appropriate "meat-offerings" ( Numbers 28:19-24 ).

2 . On the second day of the feast, "the morrow after the sabbath," the first fruits of the harvest were to be presented in the shape of a ripe sheaf (of barley) which was to be a wave-offering, and to be accompanied by the sacrifice of a lamb with meat and drink offerings ( Leviticus 23:10-14 ). By this regulation the festival was made to embody the old spring feast, and to have thus a double aspect.