Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, August 14th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Exodus 12:2

"This month will be the first month of the year for you.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Abib;   Chronology;   Israel;   Month;   Year;   Scofield Reference Index - Israel;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Egypt;   Feast of the Passover, the;   Years;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Abib;   Exodus;   Nisan;   Passover;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Feasts;   Passover;   Plague;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Animals;   Feasts and Festivals of Israel;   Lamb, Lamb of God;   Remember, Remembrance;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Passover;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Frontlets;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Cornet;   Month;   Passover;   Pentecost;   Year;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Exodus, Book of;   Salvation;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Exodus;   Moses;   Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Passover (I.);   Samaria, Samaritans;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Months;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Month;   Passover;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Plagues of egypt;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Month;   Pass'over,;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Abib;   Nisan;   Plagues of Egypt;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Exodus, the;   On to Sinai;   Hebrew Calendar;   Sabbath and Feasts;   Priesthood, the;   Moses, the Man of God;   Conquest of Canaan;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Abib;   Beginning;   Criticism (the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis);   Head;   Passover;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Abib;   Calendar;   Chronology;   Commandments, the 613;   Festivals;   Flood, the;   Hafṭarah;   Horology;   Law, Reading from the;   Month;   Musa of Tiflis;   Parashiyyot, the Four;   Passover Sacrifice;   Priestly Code;   Talmud;   Yiẓḥaḳ (Isaac);  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
"This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
King James Version
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Lexham English Bible
"This month will be the beginning of months; it will be for you the first of the months of the year.
New Century Version
"This month will be the beginning of months, the first month of the year for you.
New English Translation
"This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year.
Amplified Bible
"This month shall be the beginning of months to you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.
New American Standard Bible
"This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you.
Geneva Bible (1587)
This moneth shalbe vnto you the beginning of moneths: it shalbe to you the first moneth of the yere.
Legacy Standard Bible
"This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.
Contemporary English Version
This month is to be the first month of the year for you.
Complete Jewish Bible
"You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you.
Darby Translation
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
English Standard Version
"This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
George Lamsa Translation
This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Good News Translation
"This month is to be the first month of the year for you.
Christian Standard Bible®
“This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.
Literal Translation
This month shall be the chief of months for you. It shall be the first of the months of the year for you.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
This moneth shal be with you ye first moneth & at it ye shall begynne the monethes of the yeare.
American Standard Version
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Bible in Basic English
Let this month be to you the first of months, the first month of the year.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
This moneth shalbe vnto you ye begynnyng of monethes, and the first moneth of the yere shall it be vnto you.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.
King James Version (1611)
This moneth shalbe vnto you the beginning of moneths: it shall be the first moneth of the yeere to you.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it is the first to you among the months of the year.
English Revised Version
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Berean Standard Bible
"This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
This monethe, the bigynnyng of monethis to you, schal be the firste in the monethis of the yeer.
Young's Literal Translation
`This month [is] to you the chief of months -- it [is] the first to you of the months of the year;
Update Bible Version
This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Webster's Bible Translation
This month [shall be] to you the beginning of months: it [shall be] the first month of the year to you.
World English Bible
"This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
New King James Version
"This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.
New Living Translation
"From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you.
New Life Bible
"This month will be the beginning of months. It will be the first month of the year to you.
New Revised Standard
This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
This month, is, to you, a beginning of months, - the first, it is, to you, of the months of the year.
Douay-Rheims Bible
This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year.
Revised Standard Version
"This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

Contextual Overview

1 While Moses and Aaron were still in Egypt, the Lord spoke to them. He said, 2 "This month will be the first month of the year for you. 3 This command is for the whole community of Israel: On the tenth day of this month each man must get one lamb for the people in his house. 4 If there are not enough people in his house to eat a whole lamb, then he should invite some of his neighbors to share the meal. There must be enough lamb for everyone to eat. 5 The lamb must be a one-year-old male, and it must be completely healthy. This animal can be either a young sheep or a young goat. 6 You should watch over the animal until the 14th day of the month. On that day all the people of the community of Israel must kill these animals just before dark. 7 You must collect the blood from these animals and put it on the top and sides of the doorframe of every house where the people eat this meal. 8 "On this night you must roast the lamb and eat all the meat. You must also eat bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. 9 You must not eat the lamb raw or boiled in water. You must roast the whole lamb over a fire. The lamb must still have its head, legs, and inner parts. 10 You must eat all the meat that night. If any of the meat is left until morning, you must burn it in the fire.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 2513, bc 1491, An, Exod, Isr, 1, Abib or Nisan, Exodus 13:4, Exodus 23:15, Exodus 34:18, Leviticus 23:5, Numbers 28:16, Deuteronomy 16:1, Esther 3:7

Reciprocal: Exodus 11:2 - borrow Exodus 19:1 - the third Exodus 40:2 - the first month Numbers 9:11 - fourteenth Numbers 33:3 - in the first Joshua 4:19 - first month 2 Chronicles 29:17 - the sixteenth Ezekiel 45:18 - In the first month

Cross-References

Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you. I will use you to bless all the people on earth."
Genesis 12:4
So Abram left Haran just like the Lord said, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.
Genesis 12:6
Abram traveled through the land as far as the town of Shechem and then to the big tree at Moreh. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time.
Genesis 12:8
Then he left that place and traveled to the mountains east of Bethel. He set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. Abram built another altar at that place to honor the Lord , and he worshiped the Lord there.
Genesis 12:9
Then he moved on toward the Negev, stopping for a time at several places on the way.
Genesis 12:10
During this time there was not enough food in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live.
Genesis 12:14
So when Abram went into Egypt, the Egyptian men saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.
Genesis 12:16
Pharaoh was kind to Abram because he thought Abram was Sarai's brother. He gave Abram sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and men and women servants.
Genesis 12:17
Pharaoh took Abram's wife, so the Lord caused Pharaoh and all the people in his house to have very bad diseases.
Genesis 12:18
Pharaoh called Abram and said to him, "You have done a very bad thing to me! Why didn't you tell me Sarai was your wife?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months,.... Not only the first, as after expressed, but the chief and principal of them, now famous for their coming out of Egypt in it, and would be more so for the sufferings and death of the Messiah, and redemption by him from sin, Satan, and the world, law, hell, and death, for he suffered at the time of the passover. This month was called Abib, Exodus 13:4, which signifies an ear of corn, and at this time we find that the barley was in ear, Exodus 9:31 which clearly shows in what month the above things were transacted; afterwards it was called Nisan, which seems to be the Chaldean name for it, Nehemiah 2:1: it shall be the first month of the year to you; which before was the seventh; while the Israelites were in Egypt they observed the same beginning of the year and course of months as the Egyptians, as Josephus z intimates; and with the Egyptians, the month Thot was the first month, which answered to Tisri with the Jews, and both to our September, or a part of it, so that the beginning of the year was then in the autumnal equinox, at which season it is thought the world was created; but now to the Israelites it was changed unto the vernal equinox, for this month of Abib or Nisan answers to part of our March and part of April; though indeed both beginnings of the year were observed by them, the one on ecclesiastic, the other on civil accounts; or, as Josephus a expresses it, the month of Nisan was the beginning with respect to things divine, but in buying and selling, and such like things, the ancient order was observed; and so the Targum of Jonathan here paraphrases it,

"from hence ye shall begin to reckon the feasts, the times, and the revolutions.''

Indeed the Jews had four beginnings of the year according to their Misnah b; the first of Nisan (or March) was the beginning of the year for kings and for festivals; the first of Elul (or August) for the tithing of cattle; the first of Tisri (or September) for the sabbatical years, jubilees, and planting of trees and herbs; and the first of Shebet (or January) for the tithing the fruit of trees.

z Antiqu. l. 1. c. 3. sect. 3. a Antiqu. l. 1. c. 3. sect. 3. b Misn. Roshhashanah, c. 1. sect. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This month - Abib Exodus 13:4. It was called “Nisan” by the later Hebrews, and nearly corresponds to our April. The Israelites are directed to take Abib henceforth as the beginning of the year; the year previously began with the month Tisri, when the harvest was gathered in; see Exodus 23:16. The injunction touching Abib or Nisan referred only to religious rites; in other affairs they retained the old arrangement, even in the beginning of the Sabbatic year; see Leviticus 25:9.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 12:2. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months — It is supposed that God now changed the commencement of the Jewish year. The month to which this verse refers, the month Abib, answers to a part of our March and April; whereas it is supposed that previously to this the year began with Tisri, which answers to a part of our September; for in this month the Jews suppose God created the world, when the earth appeared at once with all its fruits in perfection. From this circumstance the Jews have formed a twofold commencement of the year, which has given rise to a twofold denomination of the year itself, to which they afterwards attended in all their reckonings: that which began with Tisri or September was called their civil year; that which began with Abib or March was called the sacred or ecclesiastical year.

As the exodus of the Israelites formed a particular era, which is referred to in Jewish reckonings down to the building of the temple, I have marked it as such in the chronology in the margin; and shall carry it down to the time in which it ceased to be acknowledged.

Some very eminently learned men dispute this; and especially Houbigant, who contends with great plausibility of argument that no new commencement of the year is noted in this place; for that the year had always begun in this month, and that the words shall be, which are inserted by different versions, have nothing answering to them in the Hebrew, which he renders literally thus. Hic mensis vobis est caput mensium; hic vobis primus est anni mensis. "This month is to you the head or chief of the months; it is to you the first month of the year." And he observes farther that God only marks it thus, as is evident from the context, to show the people that this month, which was the beginning of their year, should be so designated as to point out to their posterity on what month and on what day of the month they were to celebrate the passover and the fast of unleavened bread. Hi words are these: "Ergo superest, et Hebr. ipso ex contextu efficitur, non hic novi ordinis annum constitui, sed eum anni mensem, qui esset primus, ideo commemorari, ut posteris constaret, quo mense, et quo die mensis paseha et azyma celebranda essent."


 
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