Moses’ Instructions Before Israel Entered the Promised Land
Deuteronomy 16:4, 1-8
Setting: Near the end of the 40 years of wandering, probably on the east side of the Jordan.
Audience: The Israelites and mixed multitudes preparing to go into the Promised Land, and those reading this in the last days.
Context: This passage gives us critical information regarding the Passover and how and where to keep it, which differs in significant ways from the original in Exodus 12 and 13, which I call the Goshen Passover.
Dt 16:1 “Keep the month of Abib, and observe the Passover to the LORD your God. For in the month of Abib, the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.
Dt 16:2 And you shall therefore sacrifice the Passover offering to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place His name there.
Dt 16:3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction, for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember the day that you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
Dt 16:4 And there shall be no leaven seen with you in all your borders for seven days. Nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrificed in the first day at sunset remain all night until the morning.
Dt 16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover offering within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you,
Dt 16:6 But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place His name in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover offering at sunset, at the going down of the sun, at the time that you came out of Egypt.
Dt 16:7 And you shall boil and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
Dt 16:8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work.
We will parse verses 1-7 of Dt 16 later in this chapter, and we will address each one of these verses shortly. For now, let’s look at just verse 4…The time context is just before Israel is about to go into the Promised Land. Moses is giving God’s final instructions about how they are to keep the three times per year that they were commanded to appear at His “moedim” appointed times, verse 16…But for now, just read Dt 16, verse 4:
(AFV) “Dt 16:4 And there shall be no leaven seen with you in all your borders for seven days. Nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrificed in the first day at sunset remain all night until the morning. .”
Notice, no leavened bread “for seven days”; then, notice “the first day, at sunset”. Notice that no “flesh, which you sacrificed “the first day, at even, shall remain all night until the morning”. THIS CAN ONLY BE THE PASSOVER…and “the first day, at even” is the first of the “seven days”; When we get to Exodus 12:6-10, we will see this more clearly. Ex 12:10:
Ex 12:10 And you shall not let any of it remain until the morning. And that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
…the flesh of this Passover sacrifice is the only sacrifice that is specifically prohibited from remaining until the morning. We will notice, when we specify all the offerings in Chapter 6, that there were a couple of offerings that also couldn’t remain until the morning, but in context here, this was specifically speaking of the Passover sacrifice.
So, just concentrating on verse 4, we have Ezekiel 45 and 2 Chronicles 35 that directly or indirectly declare the one day, the 14th day of the first month, as the day on which Passover is kept as holy, the first day of the seven, and as we saw more specifically in 2 Chronicles, at two different times and in different types of sacrifices…but on the same day.
Now let’s look more concisely at the whole passage, starting in verse 1:
Dt 16:1 “Keep the month of Abib, and observe the Passover to the LORD your God. For in the month of Abib, the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.
“…in the month of Abib,” Notice that Moses did not include the day of the month, and that the following verses in this passage are all event-based. In the first mention of the Passover, in Exodus, there are specific details used that prepare the way for all subsequent Passovers, yet this passage in Dt 16 has notable changes that the first didn’t have, notably less specificity. As we go through each passage, we’ll note some of those differences, then compare them to each other and then the New Testament.
“…by night.”As we will see in the Ex 12 section, there is quite a bit more specificity. In this passage, less. We know from Genesis that the evening part of the day starts at sunset. And in Ex 12, we have specific times and specific instructions. And in the original Passover, a specific event occurred at midnight that caused them to leave. Look at Ex 12:30-31, and then 13:14-16:
Exo 12:27 That ye shall say,H559 ItH1931 is the sacrificeH2077 of the LORD’SH3068 passover,H6453 whoH834 passedH6452 overH5921 the housesH1004 of the childrenH1121 of IsraelH3478 in Egypt,H4714 when he smoteH5062 (H853) the Egyptians,H4714 and deliveredH5337 our houses.H1004 And the peopleH5971 bowed the headH6915 and worshipped.H7812
Ex 12:30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
Ex 12:31 And during the night he sent word to Moses and Aaron saying, “Rise up! Get away from my people, both you and the children of Israel! And go serve the LORD, as you have said.
Ex 13:14 And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘The LORD brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand, from the house of bondage.
Ex 13:15 And it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that opens the womb, that are males. But all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ [The event that caused them to leave happened at midnight]
Ex 13:16 And it shall be for a token upon your hand, and for frontlets between your eyes, for the LORD brought us out from Egypt by strength of His hand.” [This parrots Dt 16:1, adding “by night”.]
Dt 16:2 And you shall therefore sacrifice the Passover offering to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place His name there.
“…of the flock and the herd”…In Ex 12, it’s clear that the Passover sacrificial lamb or goat was the responsibility of the head of household (rf. Ex 12:3-6) and it was chosen on the 10th day, either a lamb in its first year or a kid goat in its first year. “of the flock…”. The lamb or goat was killed by each head of household for the Passover service in the evening portion of the 14th, then both “of the flock and the herd”: We already saw in 2 Ch 35 that sacrifices were taken from lambs, rams, bulls and a goat. These were killed during the daylight portion of the day by the Levites and priests (See Nu 28:16 + where these are enumerated and also 2Ch 30,35).
”…in the place…” (see Dt 16:16, “three times a year, in the place the Lord chose. At the time Moses wrote this, he wouldn’t have known where they were going to meet…after they entered the land, Shiloh was that place during Joshua’s time and the time of the judges. Later, at the time of David, Jerusalem became that place.
Dt 16:3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction, for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember the day that you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
“…no leavened bread, for all 7 days, with “IT”(the Passover sacrifice); “…in haste…”, as we’ll see in Ex 12, with a sense of fear. “that you may remember the day when you came out of Egypt;” Seven contiguous/connected days, no interruption between the Passover service and the first holy day—they were the same day, as we see confirmed in the next verse. The day they were to remember implies that the Passover “day” (night portion and day portion) was the day they were to remember, AND the day they “came out” of Egypt.
Dt 16:4 And there shall be no leaven seen with you in all your borders for seven days. Nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrificed in the first day at sunset remain all night until the morning.
“…no leavened bread…seven days”…”the flesh you sacrificed THE FIRST DAY, at even…remain UNTIL THE MORNING…” These phrases indicate at least 3 things: 1) 7 contiguous days of unleavened bread, 2) starting with the sacrifice of the Passover “at even”. 3) “…remain until the morning.” This must be referring to the Passover sacrifice, according to Ex 12:10, as it is the only sacrifice in context that cannot remain “until the morning”. The daily sacrifices did not have that prohibition, though they also were killed at dusk and dawn. See Nu 28:4,8…morning, “boqer” and, also, “between the evenings”.
Dt 16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover offering within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you,
Dt 16:6 But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place His name in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover offering at sunset, at the going down of the sun, at the time that you came out of Egypt.
“…not sacrifice…within any of your gates”. They weren’t to stay at home and do it where they lived, but “at the place that God chooses to place His name there.” V6: “Sacrifice the Passover, at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season (moedim, “appointed times) that you came out of Egypt”…more indication that it was at the end of the 13th/beginning of the 14th…at the going down of the sun, not mid-day. And, additionally, “at the time you came out of Egypt‘…that night.
Dt 16:7 And you shall boil and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. [Many translations use roast, or cook]
A couple of important points here:…“roast” (H1310: bashal, properly to boil up; hence, to be done in cooking; figuratively to ripen:-bake, boil, bring forth, is ripe, roast, seethe, sod (be sodden). When comparing to Ex12: they couldn’t eat it (the Passover sacrifice) raw OR boiled in pots, sodden with water. See previous explanation in 2 Ch 35, and in Ex 12 when we get there. Notice here, though, that it can mean “to be done in cooking”, according to Strong’s, as they weren’t to eat it raw. Pots and cauldrons COULD be used the next day, however. In Exodus 12, we’ll see that a more specific word is used to delineate roast from boiled.
“…And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.”Notice here that they were already to be in the place that the LORD chose for them to be, to celebrate these holy days 3 times per year. So it seems they were somewhere else to go from to get to their tents. This might seem to be too picky a point to make here, but bear with me for a moment. In the Goshen Passover, they were told to not go out from their houses during this night, protected by the blood which was on their doorposts. Here, Moses is giving them instructions for the future, when they are in the Promised Land. There is no instruction about putting blood on the doors of their temporary dwellings or their tents. And, as we see here, they are told to go to their tents, their temporary dwellings “in the morning”. Presumably, now, from a place NOT at their tents where they have eaten of the Passover sacrifice perhaps as part of a family unit, or as a communal or memorial meal of some sort?
Practically speaking, they could have eaten the Passover lamb or goat well after dark, then held a memorial rehearsing the meaning, perhaps until 11 pm or midnight? And then, after midnight, gone to their tents in the wee hours of the morning, while it was still dark. They could have then slept in their tents until mid-morning and participated in the holy convocation activities later that day…?
There is an example at the time of Solomon, when the new temple was being dedicated, where we have similar language. It was during the Feast of Tabernacles…
2Ch 7:8 And at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt.
2Ch 7:9 And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly, for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.
2Ch 7:10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel His people.
The 22nd day of the seventh month would have been what we call the Last Great Day (some would argue that the “Last Great Day” of the feast is the seventh day of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and technically they would be right, but since the eighth day was a holy day…”in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly”, NOT the seventh…”and the feast seven days” indicates that the Feast of Tabernacles is indeed only seven days, but the holy convocation took place on the 22nd day, the eighth day, so that is why most people, in the New Testament its implied, and us today, call it the Last Great Day).
The point here is that on the 23rd day, which could have been after sunset at the end of the 22nd day, they were at the temple complex, being told by Solomon to go back to their tents, and then, presumably, on the daylight portion of the 23rd, go back to their permanent homes. We often do that when we go to the Feast of Tabernacles. Some leave the very night after the closing service of the eighth day, some leave the following morning, the 23rd, to travel back to the homes.
Before closing this chapter, let’s go back to verse 1, and address more specifically “by night”. Can morning still by night? Could they have left on the morning of the 14th, while it was still night?
Take a closer look at when “night” can be “morning” or “today” can be night, from several scriptural references: Ex 12:22; Mk 1:35; 14:30, Gn 19:15-28, Ru 3:8-15
Ex 12:22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip in the blood that is in the bowl, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood in the bowl. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until sunrise,
Act 20:11 WhenG1161 he therefore was come up again,G305 andG2532 had brokenG2806 bread,G740 andG2532 eaten,G1089 andG5037 talkedG3656 a long while,G1909 G2425 even tillG891 break of day,G827 soG3779 he departed.G183
Jesus Preaches in Galilee
Mar 1:35 AndG2532 in the morning,G1773 rising upG450 a great while before day,G3029 G4404 he went out,G1831 andG2532 departedG565 intoG1519 a solitaryG2048 place,G5117 and thereG2546 prayed.G4336
We have the strongest witness from Mark, an ethnic Jew who wrote his gospel apparently with Peter as his main source. This would have been the “Jewish” way of thinking…
Mk 1:35:
(AFV) And at the time of the morning watch, while it was still night, He rose up; and going out, He departed into a desert place, and was praying there.
(ASV) And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed.
(BBE) And in the morning, a long time before daylight, he got up and went out to a quiet place, and there he gave himself up to prayer.
(LSV) And very early, it being yet night, having risen, He went forth, and went away to a desolate place, and was praying there;
Mk 14:30: Showing “today” can be divided between night and day. “today” is not just daylight.
(AFV) And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today, in this very night, before the cock crows twice, you shall deny Me three times.”
(ASV) And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that thou to-day, even this night, before the cock crow twice, shalt deny me thrice.
(BBE) And Jesus said to him, Truly, I say to you that you, today, even this night, before the cock’s second cry, will say three times that you have no knowledge of me.
A third witness, a bit more circumstantial, but consider the clues given…
Gen 19:15 And whenH3644 the morningH7837 arose,H5927 then the angelsH4397 hastenedH213 Lot,H3876 saying,H559 Arise,H6965 takeH3947 (H853) thy wife,H802 and thy twoH8147 daughters,H1323 which are here;H4672 lestH6435 thou be consumedH5595 in the iniquityH5771 of the city.H5892
God Destroys Sodom
Gen 19:23 The sunH8121 was risenH3318 uponH5921 the earthH776 when LotH3876 enteredH935 into Zoar.H6820
Gen 19:27 And AbrahamH85 gat up earlyH7925 in the morningH1242 toH413 the placeH4725 whereH834 H8033 he stoodH5975 (H853) beforeH6440 the LORD:H3068
Num 28:4 (H853) The oneH259 lambH3532 shalt thou offerH6213 in the morning,H1242 and the otherH8145 lambH3532 shalt thou offerH6213 atH996 even;H6153 shachar alah not boqer
Gn 19:15 And when the morning dawned, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Rise up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”
Gn 19:16 But he lingered, so the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hands of his two daughters (the LORD being merciful to him), and they brought him forth and set him outside the city.
Gn 19:17 And it came to pass, when they brought him outside, they said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain lest you be consumed.”
Gn 19:18 And Lot said to them, “Oh no, my Lord,
Gn 19:19 Behold now, your servant has found grace in your sight, and you have magnified your mercy, which you have shown to me in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil overtake me and I die.
Gn 19:20 Behold now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my soul shall live.”
Gn 19:21 And the angel said to him, “See, I have accepted you concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.
Gn 19:22 Hurry and escape there! For I cannot do anything till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Gn 19:23 The sun had risen upon the land, and Lot entered into Zoar. [The sun had NOT yet risen when they got up in the morning.] yatsa…define
Gn 19:24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire, from the LORD out of heaven. …
Gn 19:27 And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
Gn 19:28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the lands of the plain, and saw, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. [Lot dilly-dallied around enough that we might assume it was still dark that morning when they got up.]
And a fourth witness: three different meanings of the phrase, “in the morning”…
Rth 3:8 And it came to pass at midnight, the man was startled and turned himself. And, behold, a woman lay at his feet.
Rth 3:9 And he said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am your handmaid Ruth. And you shall spread your skirt over your handmaid, for you are a kinsmanredeemer.”
Rth 3:10 And he said, “Blessed be you of the LORD, my daughter. You have shown more kindness in the end than at the beginning, in that you did not follow young men, whether poor or rich.
Rth 3:11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do to you all that you ask. For all the men in the city of my people know that you are a woman of virtue.
Rth 3:12 And now it is true that I am your kinsman-redeemer. But there is also a kinsman nearer than I.
Rth 3:13 Stay tonight, and it shall be that 1) in the morning if he will redeem you— good, he will redeem. But if he does not delight to redeem you, as the LORD lives, then I will redeem you. Lie down 2) until the morning.” [1) when business is open 2) generally, when harvesting, you get up early, at the crack of dawn, to get right at it. Others would be doing the same thing, heading out to the fields if they slept in the city.]
Rth 3:14 And she lay at his feet 3) until the morning. And she rose up before one could discern another. And he said, “Do not let it be known that a woman came to the floor.”
Rth 3:15 Also, he said, “Bring the shawl that is upon you, and hold it.” And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. Then she went to the city. [3) Intrigue: She had to get home to Bethlehem (we don’t know how far his property was from the city) before she was recognized, to avoid the appearance of evil. So, this reference to morning could be considered still dark, even night. Give him credit, maybe he put it around her neck to hide her identity a bit?]
To summarize, leaving “by night” can mean the Israelites left their homes in Goshen before even the hint of daylight occurred, during the dark portion, when the morning of the 14th was still considered both “night” AND “morning”. While there can be a debate regarding “at even” “ben-arbarim” vs. “ereb”, in the Hebrew, “boqer” is the most common meaning of “morning”, often meaning “dawn”. But it can also be while it is still dark or night.
We will now address the most controversial passage, Leviticus 23:5-7…