The Douay-Rheims with the Glossa Ordinaria

¹And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

²This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year.

v.2–4

VERS. 2-4.-- *This month,* etc. This is April, which among the Hebrews is called Nisam, among the Macedonians Ξανθικός; and it is called *Aprilis* as it were *aperilis*, because then the earth is opened for the bringing forth of shoots, herbs and flowers: or *Aprilis* from Venus, as it were *Aphroditis*; for Venus in Greek is called *Aphrodite*. The Hebrews hold this month as the first, because the fifteenth of its Kalends was the first day of the world: the fourteenth, the second day; the thirteenth, the third; the twelfth, the fourth, on which the sun and the moon were made, and then was the first equinox; for the sun in the east and the moon in the west divided the sphere of the world equally. This is Nisan, according to the Hebrews, in which the world was made, whose full moon is always to be looked for after the vernal equinox: in which the people of Israel is freed from the servitude of Egypt, and the human race is snatched by the blood of Christ from the power of the devil. On the tenth day of the month the lamb is taken, on the fourteenth it is sacrificed: because in the law the passion of Christ is figured, and, the grace of the Gospel flashing forth, it is fulfilled; for the number ten, because of the decalogue, signifies the law, but the number four the four gospels.

³Speak ye to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them: On the tenth day of this month let every man take a lamb by their families and houses.

⁴But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the lamb, he shall take unto him his neighbour that joineth to his house, according to the number of souls which may be enough to eat the lamb.

⁵And it shall be a lamb without blemish, a male, of one year; according to which rite also you shall take a kid.

v.5–6

VERS. 5, 6.-- *And it shall be,* etc. That manner of speech may disturb a man, etc., *as far as* what was figured by that precept. *According to which rite,* etc. *Allegorically.* Because Christ took flesh of the just and of sinners, that no one might despair of pardon. Or because Christ was a kid to the Jews, who said: *This man is a sinner (Joan. IX)*, but to us a lamb without spot. Or because he appeared *in the likeness of sinful flesh* and *died for sin, whereas he had no sin*. On the tenth day of April he came to Jerusalem, and on the following day he was received by the crowds with branches of palms and with divine praises. Through the three remaining days he was watched by the Jews until the fourteenth day, that is, until the fifth day of the week, on which he supped with the apostles, and afterwards was betrayed.

⁶And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; and the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it in the evening.

⁷And they shall take of the blood thereof, and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

⁸And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted at the fire, and unleavened bread with wild lettuce.

⁹You shall not eat thereof any thing raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted at the fire; you shall eat the head with the feet and entrails thereof.

v.9–11

VERS. 9-11.-- *The head with the feet,* etc. * The head of Christ is God*. To devour therefore the head of the lamb, etc., *as far as* let no one be sluggish on the journey of this life, lest he lose his place in the fatherland. By those wrappings of things he admonishes us that through these riddles we should be willing to consider and to understand that this our life is a certain passing over. For after we have entered upon it, we are always driven by a certain necessity toward the going out, for which he wills us to be prepared with hands and feet and the remaining equipment for the journey. Lest therefore our feet be hurt by thorns on this steep journey of living, we ought to travel not with bare feet, but fortified with harder shoes. But the thorns, which, fixed in the feet, not only hold back and retard but also kill, are sins, from which the hardness of the shoes defends: namely a continent, spare and hard life, which weakens and breaks the points of the thorns, by which, from a small and slender beginning, sins so make their way onward to the things before them, that they slay utterly. To the leading of this life an ankle-length and flowing garment, that is, a voluptuous and vicious manner of living, which lies open most widely, is a hindrance: wherefore it is to be drawn in with a certain girdle and constrained, lest it flow about hither and thither. But the girdle is modesty and a careful manner of living, which admonishes us to use things for necessity, not for pleasure. The staff with which we drive off wild beasts, and by which we are sometimes supported, is hope. But the food set before us is only from the fire, since faith, which is signified by that food, ought to be most burning, possessing nothing moist or slippery. *Phase.* In Hebrew it is *Pesach* פסח, in Greek Πάσχα, that is, *a passing over;* because it was first celebrated by the children of Israel as they went out of Egypt: we also must pass over from things transitory to things eternal, from things earthly to things heavenly.

¹⁰Neither shall there remain any thing of it until morning. If there be any thing left, you shall burn it with fire.

¹¹And thus you shall eat it: you shall gird your reins, and you shall have shoes on your feet, holding staves in your hands, and you shall eat in haste; for it is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord.

¹²And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments; I am the Lord.

¹³And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be; and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴And this day shall be for a memorial to you; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord in your generations, with an everlasting observance.

¹⁵Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread: in the first day there shall be no leaven in your houses; whosoever shall eat any thing leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall perish out of Israel.

¹⁶The first day shall be holy and solemn, and the seventh day shall be kept with the like solemnity: you shall do no work in them, except those things that belong to eating.

¹⁷And you shall observe the feast of the unleavened bread: for in this same day I will bring forth your army out of the land of Egypt, and you shall keep this day in your generations by a perpetual observance.

¹⁸The first month, the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the same month, in the evening.

v.18–20

VERS. 18-20.-- *In the first month, the fourteenth day,* etc. *Mystically.* The evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, on which the Pasch is celebrated and the immolation of the lamb is accomplished, signifies the putting off of the old man and the beginning of the new, which is begun in baptism, that figures the death of Christ. Whence: *As many of us as are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized into his death,* etc.. From the evening therefore of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first, a whole week namely, we are commanded [jubentur] to eat unleavened bread, because from the receiving of baptism until the end of life we ought to live simply and without guile. Whence Peter: *Laying aside all malice and all guile and dissimulation, as newborn babes,* etc..

¹⁹Seven days there shall not be found any leaven in your houses: he that shall eat leavened bread, his soul shall perish out of the assembly of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.

²⁰You shall not eat any thing leavened: in all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.

²¹And Moses called all the ancients of the children of Israel, and said to them: Go take a lamb by your families, and sacrifice the Phase.

²²And dip a bunch of hyssop in the blood that is at the door, and sprinkle the transom of the door therewith, and both the door cheeks: let none of you go out of the door of his house till morning.

v.22

VERS. 22.-- *And a bunch of hyssop,* etc. Hyssop is a lowly herb, growing upon rocks, purging the breast and the lung: and it signifies true humility, of which Christ afforded us the example in himself. We dip therefore the bunch of hyssop in the blood, when, mindful of the humility of Christ, we study to imitate him. *Dip it in the blood,* etc. It is asked what blood he calls that which is beside the door, since he would have understood the blood of that lamb by whose immolation the Pasch is made. Or does he command that it be done in that manner consequently, although he has been silent of this, that the same lamb be slain beside the door? Or, which is the more credible, he therefore said *of the blood which is beside the door,* because he who is to anoint is about to set beside the door the very vessel in which he received the blood, that he may have it at hand while he dips.

²³For the Lord will pass through striking the Egyptians: and when he shall see the blood on the transom, and on both the posts, he will pass over the door of the house, and not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses and to hurt you.

v.23–29

VERS. 23-29.-- *And he will not suffer the destroyer,* etc. Whether the smiter was a good angel or an evil one, it is not necessary to inquire: for whoever he was, he obeyed the command of the Lord. Yet it is to be known that evil angels are wont to work such plagues, by the permission of God. The tenth precept is: *Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods,* etc. Contrary to this is the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. By another precept theft is forbidden, by which rapine also is condemned: for it is worse to snatch away by violence than by stealth. He therefore who wishes to take away openly or secretly has his own precept: but to covet a neighbour's goods, even if thou seek it by a just succession, is not lawful. For those who wish to possess other men's goods as it were justly, seek also to be heirs to them when they die. When thou praisest a thing left behind, as though the man possessed it by right, God condemns him who desires it unjustly. For thou who seekest to be made heir to another dost not wish that he should have heirs, among whom nothing is dearer than the firstborn. By right therefore art thou punished in thine own firstborn, thou who, by coveting other men's goods, seekest out as it were a shadow of right, and losest the firstborn of the heart, which are the better things. The firstborn indeed is faith. For no one does good things in whom faith has not gone before. All good works are spiritual sons, but among these faith is the firstborn. Whosoever therefore thou art that secretly covetest another's goods, thou losest faith within. For thou servest not by charity but by fraud, as one loving him whom thou desirest to die, that thou mayest succeed him.

²⁴Thou shalt keep this thing as a law for thee and thy children for ever.

²⁵And when you have entered into the land which the Lord will give you, as he hath promised, you shall observe these ceremonies.

²⁶And when your children shall say to you: What is the meaning of this service?

²⁷You shall say to them: It is the victim of the passage of the Lord, when he passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, striking the Egyptians, and saving our houses. And the people bowing themselves, adored.

²⁸And the children of Israel going forth, did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹And it came to pass at midnight, the Lord slew every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharao, who sat on his throne, unto the firstborn of the captive woman that was in the prison, and all the firstborn of cattle.

³⁰And Pharao arose in the night, and all his servants, and all Egypt: and there arose a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house wherein there lay not one dead.

³¹And Pharao calling Moses and Aaron, in the night, said: Arise and go forth from among my people, you and the children of Israel: go, sacrifice to the Lord as you say.

³²Your sheep and herds take along with you, as you demanded, and departing bless me.

³³And the Egyptians pressed the people to go forth out of the land speedily, saying: We shall all die.

³⁴The people therefore took dough before it was leavened; and tying it in their cloaks, put it on their shoulders.

³⁵And the children of Israel did as Moses had commanded: and they asked of the Egyptians vessels of silver and gold, and very much raiment.

³⁶And the Lord gave favour to the people in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them: and they stripped the Egyptians.

³⁷And the children of Israel set forward from Ramesse to Socoth, being about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.

³⁸And a mixed multitude, without number, went up also with them, sheep and herds, and beasts of divers kinds, exceeding many.

³⁹And they baked the meal, which a little before they had brought out of Egypt in dough: and they made hearth cakes unleavened: for it could not be leavened, the Egyptians pressing them to depart, and not suffering them to make any stay; neither did they think of preparing any meat.

⁴⁰And the abode of the children of Israel that they made in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

⁴¹Which being expired, the same day all the army of the Lord went forth out of the land of Egypt.

⁴²This is the observable night of the Lord, when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: this night all the children of Israel must observe in their generations.

⁴³And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the service of the Phase; no foreigner shall eat of it.

⁴⁴But every bought servant shall be circumcised, and so shall eat.

⁴⁵The stranger and the hireling shall not eat thereof.

⁴⁶In one house shall it be eaten, neither shall you carry forth of the flesh thereof out of the house, neither shall you break a bone thereof.

⁴⁷All the assembly of the children of Israel shall keep it.

⁴⁸And if any stranger be willing to dwell among you, and to keep the Phase of the Lord, all his males shall first be circumcised, and then shall he celebrate it according to the manner: and he shall be as he that is born in the land: but if any man be uncircumcised, he shall not eat thereof.

⁴⁹The same law shall be to him that is born in the land, and to the proselyte that sojourneth with you.

⁵⁰And all the children of Israel did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

⁵¹And the same day the Lord brought forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their companies.

Exodus 12

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