and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls. You shall make your count for the lamb according to what everyone can eat.
Parallel Translations
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and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls. You shall make your count for the lamb according to what everyone can eat.
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And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
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and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbour next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man's eating ye shall make your count for the lamb.
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Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He shall take so many as are sufficient to…
He shall take so many as are sufficient to eat the lamb.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 12:4 And if the household be too little…
Exo 12:4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take [it] according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Ver. 4. Shall make your count,] sc., Of communicants; that the whole may be eaten up, and every one have enough. Spiritual blessing may be divided in solidum: one may have as much as another, and all alike. The Gentiles also are called to fruition and feeding on the Lamb.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Too little for the lamb, i.e. for the eating…
Too little for the lamb, i.e. for the eating of the whole lamb at one meal, according to the rule, Exo 12:8,10; if the persons be so few that they cannot eat it up without gluttony.
Take it; or rather thus, word for word, And, or Then he (the master of that family) shall take also his neighbour next unto his house; he shall take him and his family into society with himself; they shall join together.
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To the number of the souls, or persons, i.e. as the two families shall consist of more or fewer persons. I suppose the meaning is, that if his next neighbour’s family were of itself sufficient for the eating of the whole lamb, that he should pass over that to the next small family, which being joined with his might make up a fit number, which, as the Hebrew doctors tell us, was ten, besides women and children.
According to his eating, i.e. according to the proportion which he can or commonly doth eat. The meaning is this, The whole lamb being to be eaten at once, and a sufficient number being necessary to that end, and there being great variety in men’s stomachs and meals, they were to give allowance for that, and to take either more or fewer persons, as their stomachs were better or worse.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And if the household be too little for the…
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:"
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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 Eph 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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. If the household be too little] That…
Verse 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 12:4. If the household be too little —…
Exo 12:4. If the household be too little — The Hebrew doctors tell us, that there were not to be fewer than ten persons, nor more than twenty, to the eating of one lamb. And at this sacred repast, men, women, and children, masters and servants, if circumcised, were entertained.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Tradition specifies ten as the least number; but the…
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.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Less. Moses does not specify the number. But in…
Less. Moses does not specify the number. But in never comprised fewer than ten, nor more than twenty, in which number Menoch does not think women or children are comprised. The Jews satisfied the inquiry of Cestius, concerning the multitude which might be assembled at the paschal solemnity, by allowing ten for every victim; and finding that 250,600 victims had been sacrificed in the space of two hours, they concluded 2,700,000 people were collected at Jerusalem. (Josephus, Jewish Wars vii. 16.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain if the household be too little for the lamb,…
if the household be too little for the lamb, &c.--It appears from JOSEPHUS that ten persons were required to make up the proper paschal communion.
every man according to his eating--It is said that the quantity eaten of the paschal lamb, by each individual, was about the size of an olive.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. too little for a lamb] According to the…
4. too little for a lamb] According to the later Jews, fewer than ten (cf. Jos. BJ. vi. 9. 3; and Targ. Ps.-Jon. here), in accordance with the Rabb. exegesis of Num_14:27, that ten was the smallest number the could constitute a ‘congregation’ (the ‘congregation’ there being interpreted of the ten murmuring spies).
according to every man’s eating, &c.] In determining the number of persons sufficient for one lamb, you are to be guided by the usual measure or amount of their eating,—according, for example, as they are adults or children, healthy or infirm, &c.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) If the household be too little for the…
(4) If the household be too little for the lamb.—There would be cases where the family would not be large enough to consume an entire lamb at a sitting. Where this was so, men were to club with their neighbours, either two small families joining together, or a large family drafting off some of its members to bring up the numbers of a small one. According to Josephus (Bell. Jud., vi. 9, § 3), ten was the least number regarded as sufficient, while twenty was not considered too many.
Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.—Rather, shall ye count. In determining the number for any given Paschal meal, ye shall “count men according to their eating,” admitting more or fewer, as they are likely to consume less or more.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain If the household be too little for the lambi.e.,…
If the household be too little for the lambi.e., "too few to consume it at a sitting." Usage in course of time fixed the minimum number at ten. (Joseph. Bell. Jud: 6:9, The whole family, men, women and children participated. The lamb was generally slain between the ninth hour (3 p.m.) and the eleventh (5 p.m.). Let him and his neighbour take it according to the number of the souls. If there were a household of only five, which could not possibly consume the lamb, any large neighbouring family was to send five or six of its number, to make up the deficiency. Every man according to his eating, etc. It is difficult to see what sense our translators intended. The real direction is that, in providing a proper number of guests, consideration should be had of the amount which they would be likely to eat. Children and the very aged were not to be reckoned as if they were men in the vigour of life. Translate man according to his eating shall ye count towards the lamb."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.