Bible Strands
Exodus 12:43
And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks directly to Moses and Aaron, issuing the inaugural regulations for the Passover immediately following the description of the deliverance night.
The words — The Hebrew word חֻקּ֖ת (chuqqat) carries the literal sense of "statute" or "binding ordinance," marking the decree as non-negotiable. The phrase הַפֶּ֑סַח (haPesaḥ) explicitly names the ritual meal and its associated observance.
The thread — The baseline restriction appears alongside the circumcision exception in Exodus 12:48, while the broader principle for resident aliens is echoed in Numbers 9:14.
Why it lands — The text establishes a clear legal boundary around covenant participation, requiring readers to acknowledge that the Passover meal is restricted to the designated community and those fully integrated into its rituals.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:
Cross-references
- Exodus 12:48 If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.
- Numbers 9:14 If a foreigner dwelling among you wants to observe the Passover to the LORD, he is to do so according to the Passover statute and its ordinances. You are to apply the same statute to both the foreigner and the native of the land.’”
- Exodus 12:11 This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.
- Leviticus 22:10 No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired hand eat it.
- Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.