Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 12:26
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
Verse 26. What mean ye by this service?] The establishment of this service annually was a very wise provision to keep up in remembrance this wonderful deliverance. From the remotest antiquity the institution of feasts, games, c., has been used to keep up the memory of past grand events. Hence God instituted the Sabbath, to keep up the remembrance of the creation and the passover to keep up the remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. All the other feasts were instituted on similar reasons. The Jews never took their sons to the tabernacle or temple till they were twelve years of age, nor suffered them to eat of the flesh of any victim till they had themselves offered a sacrifice at the temple, which they were not permitted to do before the twelfth year of their age. It was at this age that Joseph and Mary took our blessed Lord to the temple, probably for the first time, to offer his sacrifice. See Calmet.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Or, part of Divine worship. God expects this even from the Jewish children, and much more from Christian men, that they should inquire and understand what is said or done in the public worship or service of God, and therefore not to rest in dumb signs, whereof they neither inquire nor know the meaning, or in the service of God in a language which they understand not.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. when your children shall say, .. . What mean ye by this serviceIndependently of someobservances which were not afterwards repeated, the usages practisedat this yearly commemorative feast were so peculiar that thecuriosity of the young would be stimulated, and thus parents had anexcellent opportunity, which they were enjoined to embrace, forinstructing each rising generation in the origin and leading facts ofthe national faith.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service?] Of killing and roasting a lamb, and eating it with bitter herbs, and of abstaining from leavened bread.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Reader! if you are a parent, learn from hence how to encourage your little ones to seek information concerning the great things of God. If they ask you what is meant by the Christian passover (I mean the service of the Lord’s Supper?) Oh! tell them that it commemorates his precious sufferings and death, by whose stripes we are healed. Tell them of the distinguishing mercies of God in Christ, that while we merited death as much as any Egyptian, the Lord passed by and saved us when Egypt was destroyed. And do, my brother, if you can, tell your children also, how in numberless instances, both in providence and in grace, the Lord hath passed over you and your house, and not suffered the destroying angel to come in, while you have seen many on the right hand and on the left, swept away in sudden destruction. Oh! how sweet is the contemplation of distinguishing mercy!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 12:26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
Ver. 26. When your children. ] Children are to be carefully catechised and informed. Eph 6:4 See Trapp on “ Eph 6:4 “ Luther scorned not to profess himself discipulura catechism, a catechism scholar.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
your children: Exo 13:8, Exo 13:9, Exo 13:14, Exo 13:15, Exo 13:22, Deu 6:7, Deu 11:19, Deu 32:7, Jos 4:6, Jos 4:7, Jos 4:21-24, Psa 78:3-6, Psa 145:4, Isa 38:19, Eph 6:4
Reciprocal: Gen 21:29 – General Exo 13:5 – thou shalt keep Deu 6:20 – when thy son Deu 16:3 – mayest Psa 111:4 – He hath Eze 17:12 – Know