Exodus 12:3

“Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, etc.] That is, to the elders of the people, and heads of families; unless we can suppose that they had been gradually gathered, and were now gathered together in a body by the direction of Moses, by whom they were assured that their departure was at hand; and the rather it may be thought that so it was, since the following order concerned the whole and every individual: saying, in the tenth [day] of this month; the month Abib or Nisan, which shows that this direction must be given before that day, and so very probably on the first of the month, as before observed: they shall take to them every man a lamb; not every individual person, but every…”

“Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel--The recent events had prepared the Israelitish people for a crisis in their affairs, and they seem to have yielded implicit obedience at this time to Moses. It is observable that, amid all the hurry and bustle of such a departure, their serious attention was to be given to a solemn act of religion. a lamb for an house--a kid might be taken (Exo 12:5). The service was to be a domestic one, for the deliverance was to be from an evil threatened to every house in Egypt.”

“A lamb - The Hebrew word is general, meaning either a sheep or a goat - male or female - and of any age; the age and sex are therefore epecially defined in the following verse. The direction to select the lamb on the tenth day, the fourth day before it was offered, was intended to secure due care in the preparation for the great national festival. The custom certainly fell into desuetude at a later period, but probably not before the destruction of the temple. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Take every man a lamb - In each of their families, or two or three families, if they were small, join for a lamb. The lamb was to be got ready four days before. and that afternoon they went, they were to kill it, ( Exo 12:6,) as a sacrifice, not strictly, for it was not offered upon the altar, but as a religious ceremony, acknowledging God's goodness to them, not only in preserving them from, but in delivering them by the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. The lamb so slain they were to eat roasted (we may suppose in its several quarters) with unleavened bread and bitter herbs; they were to eat it in haste, Exo 12:11, and to leave none of it until the morning; for God would have them to…”

“Speak ye: Exo 4:30, Exo 6:6, Exo 14:15, Exo 20:19; Lev 1:2 in the tenth: Exo 12:6; Joh 12:1, Joh 12:12 take to: Gen 4:4, Gen 22:8; Sa1 7:9; Joh 1:29, Joh 1:36; Co1 5:7; Rev 5:6-13, Rev 7:9-14, Rev 13:8 lamb: or, kid, The word seh means the young of both sheep and goats, and may be indifferently rendered either lamb or kid. It is evident from Exo 12:5 that the Hebrews might take either; but they generally preferred a lamb, from being of a more gentle nature. Lev 5:6; Num 15:11; Ch2 35:7 an house: The Israelites were divided into twelve tribes, these tribes into families, the families into houses, and the houses into particular persons. Num. 1:1-54; Jos 7:14 Exodus 12:5”