Exodus 12:4

4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb.

Exodus 12:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 12:4

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 ^F5 says were never fewer than ten, and were often twenty, but no man might feast alone; with which agrees the Jewish canon ^F6,

``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 ^F7.''

The taking in his neighbours may respect the call of the Gentiles to partake of Christ with the Jews, see ( Ephesians 3:5 Ephesians 3:6 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3.
F6 Misn. Pesach. c. 8. sect. 7.
F7 lbid. c. 5. sect. 3.

Exodus 12:4 In-Context

2 "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.

3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.