And Moses said unto the people
After the Lord had spoken to him, and said the above things: remember this day in which ye came out of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage;
or "of servants" F24 where they had been servants to the Egyptians, by whom they had been made to serve with rigour, and their lives made bitter with hard bondage; that country had been like a prison house unto them, where they had been detained captives, and treated in a very cruel manner; but now they were come out of this place and state of servitude, even that very day, the fifteenth of Nisan; and which therefore it became them to remember, they and theirs, in all succeeding generations, as the Lord had directed, and which is afterwards repeated to impress it the more upon their, minds and memories: for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place;
it was not by their own might and strength that they were redeemed from their state of bondage, but by the mighty hand of the Lord who wrought such signs and wonders before Pharaoh and his servants, and inflicted such plagues upon them, which none but an omnipotent hand could do, which obliged them at last to let them go: and if the Israelites were under obligation, on account of this redemption, to remember the day when it was in this wonderful manner wrought out, much, more reason have we to remember the redemption by Christ the mighty Redeemer, whose own arm wrought salvation for us, and delivered us out of the hands of our spiritual enemies, that were stronger than we, by frequently attending the ordinance of the Lord's supper, which is instituted to bring this amazing affair to our remembrance, and which is to be continued for that purpose unto the second coming of Christ: there shall no leavened bread be eaten;
as they then on this very day had no other but unleavened bread to eat, so they should eat no other on this day and the six days following, in successive ages unto the coming of the Messiah.