Tag: 14th Passover

Defining ‘BOQER’ (Morning)

covenantrevalationteam

Editors Note:

We have included this article, and the article ‘When was the Exodus?’, from a guest contributor, for extra information as they reveal the time the Israelites left Egypt as recorded in the BIBLE. This is important as doctrines are formed on the information presented.

An understanding of the meaning of ‘Boqer’ will change some perceptions we have of the time and day the Israelites left ie night of the 14th, not the night of the 15th, and also the ‘night of watching by the Lord’ in Exod 12:42 which many celebrate as the ‘Night to be Much Observed’. The night of the 15th is the first Holy night of the Days of Unleavened Bread and should be a special occasion but the night before, the 14th was the one the Lord told the Israelites to be kept. They had their bowls strapped to their backs, sandals on and their staff in hand, ready to leave at a moments notice after the death angel struck at midnight. They left at night (Deut 16:1). ‘Boqer’ has a ‘dark time’ period as described, and a morning component too.

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BY GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Did the Israelites leave Egypt on the fourteenth or the fifteenth?

(KJV throughout)

The Bible tells us they were to eat the Passover on the night of the fourteenth and were to remain indoors till morning (“BOQER” in Hebrew.) But we are also told they went out “by night”. Which suggests they left on the fifteenth. That conclusion is based on “BOQER” meaning only the period after dawn, when it is light. But as we shall see, “BOQER” cannot be that easily defined, and there is no reason not to conclude they went out on the fourteenth.

The following examples show BOQER being used in ways that throw doubt on whether it always meant a period of light, following the dawn.

Gen 44:3 “As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away they and their asses". [if BOQER always meant a time of light after dawn, the phrase used here, “as soon as the morning was light” would not be necessary]

Exodus 14:24 “And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians”. [ The pillar of fire was present only at night time, so the morning watch [BOQER watch] must have included a period of darkness.]

Judges 9:33 “And it shall be, as soon as the sun is up in the morning, that you shall rise early and rush upon the city. [BOQER (morning) is qualified by “as soon as the sun is up”. But if BOQER meant only the dawn, the qualification would not be necessary.

Judges 16:2 “When the Gazites were told “Samson has come here!” they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “in the morning, when it is light, we will kill him.” [Same comment, BOQER must not be self-explanatory in the Hebrew, since it was necessary to add “when it is daylight” to give the exact meaning.]

Judges 19 :25-27 “But the men would not heed him.  So, the man took his concubine and brought her out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until morning; and when the day begin to break, they let her go.” Then the woman came as the day was dawning and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, till it was light.” When her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.”

There are several steps in this story.

  1. They abused her till BOQER.
  2. When the day began to break, they let her go. This daybreak seems to be the first glimmer of light. It is translated sometimes as dayspring; and is also translated as dawn; but it is not the sunrise.
  3. Then the woman came when the day was dawning. The phrase in Hebrew is literally “at the turning of the morning” (BOQER)” Which possibly means sunrise, since that is a turning point.
  4. The woman fell at the door TILL it was light. “Light” in this sentence means bright, and thus indicates the sun was up by then. The master arose in the morning [BOQER]and found his concubine on his doorstep. So BOQER is used thrice in these verses to mean different times. The first seems to be a time before the first glimmer of light, the second seems to be sunrise, and the third seems to be daylight.

Ruth 3:14 “So she lay at his feet until morning, and she arose before one could recognize another. Then he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” [BOQER in this verse seems to indicate at least semi darkness.]

1 Sam 14 :36 “Now Saul said, “” Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until morning light;” [ it is necessary to qualify BOQER in this verse with “light”. But if BOQER was always associated with light anyway, it would be redundant to in include the word “light”]

1 Sam 25:22 “May God do so and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.” [Same comment]

1 Sam 25:10 “Now therefore, rise early in the morning with your master’s servants who have come with you. And as soon as you are up early in the morning and have light, depart. [There are two things to note in this verse. 1: BOQER is qualified by “early”, so BOQER must be an extended period of time; if it was a single point of time, such as “sunrise”, early wouldn’t be necessary. 2: They were up early in BOQER, but they still had to wait for the light before they departed. So BOQER can include a time before there was sufficient light to travel.

1 Kings 3 :21 “And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne. [When the woman arose in the BOQER to feed her son it must have been dark because she didn’t know the child was not hers. When later in the BOQER she examined him, she saw the child was not hers. So BOQER can include a period of darkness.]

Micah 2:1 “Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil on their beds! At morning light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. [Once again, BOQER is qualified by “light”, so BOQER must be able to mean a time when there is not light. Otherwise it wouldn’t be necessary to include the word “light”]

From the above examples we can conclude, at the very least, that BOQER is not confined to the narrow meaning which some give it. Probably, BOQER meant much the same to the Hebrews as our “morning” means to us. That is, an indefinite time following our sleep, up to the middle of the day. The Greek language seems to have the same, loose, meaning because we read of Jesus in Mark 1:35

“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”

The important point to grasp is that the meaning of BOQER cannot be easily pinned down. Consequently, no doctrines can be hung upon it. A fundamental rule of Bible study is to use the clear Scriptures to throw light on the unclear; not attempt to use the unclear Scriptures to undermine the clear.

When was the Exodus?

covenantrevalationteam

Editors Note:

We have included this article, and the article ‘Defining ‘Boqer’ (Morning)’, from a guest contributor, for extra information as they reveal the time the Israelites left Egypt as recorded in the BIBLE. This is important as doctrines are formed on the information presented.

An understanding of the meaning of ‘Boqer’ will change some perceptions we have of the time and day the Israelites left i.e. night of the 14th, not the night of the 15th, and also the ‘night of watching by the Lord’ in Exod 12:42 which many celebrate as the ‘Night to be Much Observed’. The night of the 15th is the first Holy night of the Days of Unleavened Bread and should be a special occasion but the night before, the 14th was the one the Lord told the Israelites to be kept. They had their bowls strapped to their backs, sandals on and their staff in hand, ready to leave at a moments notice after the death angel struck at midnight. They left at night (Deut 16:1). ‘Boqer’ has a ‘dark time’ period as described, and a morning component too.

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BY GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

When was the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt?

Most say it was on the fifteenth of Nisan, but was it?

(KJV Throughout)

The Bible does reveal when it occurred, as we shall see, but first we need to remember something that is easily overlooked. And that is, the time it took to complete the Exodus.

There were probably about three million people who left Egypt in the Exodus, together with about a million animals. We arrive at those figures from Exod 12:37-38 “Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.”

If each man had a wife, and each family had two children, add to them the ‘many other people’, and we easily get three million. Plus, their large herds and flocks. Moving a crowd that size would be a logistical nightmare, and obviously would take some considerable time.

This is an important point, because if the Exodus took some considerable time, (and the Bible indicates that it took about sixteen or seventeen hours), then there are two possible times to refer to it. We could refer to its beginning, or when it was completed. If we keep that in mind, we can understand scriptures that seem to contradict each other.

Now we can begin to put information together to find when the Exodus occurred: -

The starting point is the start of the Passover. We know this occurred on the evening of the fourteenth of Nisan, that is, the evening immediately following the end of the thirteenth.

On this night the Israelites were to eat a meal of roast lamb or kid goat, the blood of which was to be painted on the doorposts of their houses. At midnight, when the death angel went through the land, the houses with blood on them would be spared from having their firstborn slain. Exod 12:13 “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt”

They were to stay in their houses till morning. Exod 12:22 “… And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning..”

They were to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Exod 12:11 “And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.”

Now read the events of that night, which culminated in Pharaoh ordering them to get out of Egypt immediately: Exod 12:29-34 “ And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, 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. Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”

And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.”

The Egyptians’ urgency to get the Israelites out is very evident.

So, the Israelites began to leave. And when was this? As we have seen, sometime after midnight. It had to be before dawn, because Deuteronomy 16:1 tell us that God brought them out of Egypt ‘by night’.

But some find difficulty here. There are two points that must be clarified. The first is that the Israelites were not supposed to go out of their houses till morning. The second is that some say the Israelites had to have time to ‘plunder’ the Egyptians before they could leave.

Can morning include a period of darkness?

Some say that the word ‘morning’ always means dawn or after. But that is not correct. There are scriptures that clearly show the same Hebrew word being used to include the dark part of the morning. It probably can include the period following midnight, much the same as the English word ‘morning’. Notice these scriptures:

  • Exod 14:24 “Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians,”

We learn from Exodus 13:1 and several other scriptures, that the ‘pillar of fire’ was only there at night. So, the ‘morning watch’ had to include a period of darkness.

  • 1 Kings 3:21 “And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”

The first mention of morning in this verse obviously must have been a time of darkness, because the mother didn’t know that it wasn’t her baby. A different translation has it “the next morning, I got to nurse my son – and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.” NIV

So, we see that ‘morning’ can indeed include a period of darkness. There is a reference in the New Testament also. Although the language is different, it shows the Jewish usage of ‘morning’ –

  • Mark 1:35 “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”

When did the Israelites plunder the Egyptians?

Some say that this occurred on the day following the Passover, so therefore the Israelites couldn’t have left just after midnight. But the Bible is very clear that the plundering had taken place well before this time. It took place just after the plague of darkness, and probably about two weeks before the Passover. Read Exodus chapters one to twelve to see the progression and timing of the events, and notice these points:

  • The plundering took place before God told Moses that there would be one more plague.
  • It took place before God told Moses that it was the first month of the year, and that they were to do something on the tenth day of the month. So, it must have taken place at least before the tenth of the month, which was several days before they were to leave.
  • Some make the point that the Egyptians wouldn’t have given the Israelites anything at all in the days before the Passover because the Egyptians had not yet been ‘softened up’ by the final plague. But they ignore the fact that God said He gave the Israelites favour in the sight of the Egyptians. (Exod 11:3)

So, on the night of the Passover, just before they began to leave, we read this: Exod 12:35-36 “Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.”

Notice that they had already plundered the Egyptians.

So, we see that there are no objections in the scriptures to the conclusion that Israelites began leaving sometime after midnight on the fourteenth of Nisan.

But when was the Exodus completed? Read Exod: 12:17 “So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.”

This verse is speaking of the Feast, which began on the fifteenth day of the month, and notice that it says that on that day, “God will have brought them out”, that is, the Exodus was completed by the fifteenth.

Now read Deuteronomy 16:6 “but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.”

This verse tells us that they finished all came out as the sun was going down. That is, the Exodus was completed at the time.

Now the first stage of their journey was from Rameses to Succoth, and it isn’t clear whether the references to the completion of the Exodus refer to leaving Rameses, or the arrival at Succoth. Most probably it was the arrival at Succoth, since that fits in better with the fifteenth being a rest day, and a celebration. But either way, the timing is not altered.

But there is one scripture that seems to contradict this conclusion. Notice Numbers 33:3 “They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians”

This seems to say that they departed from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the month. But let’s examine it more carefully. The word “departed” can also mean “had departed” or “were departed”, that is, a completed action. It is translated thus in Exodus 19:2 “For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.”

So, Numbers 33:3 can legitimately read: “They departed from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month…”

Now notice the rest of the verse. If we are not careful, we assume that the last part of the verse is talking about the same time as the beginning. But after the first idea is expressed – the time of the Exodus was completed, it switches to the time when the Exodus actually occurred – the day after the night of the Passover.

There are two thoughts being expressed, but it is more understandable when they are clearly separated: 1. They were all out by the fifteenth, 2. The day after the Passover, they went out in the sight of the Egyptians.

So, Numbers 33:3 is saying: “On the fifteenth day of the first month, they were departed from Rameses. They came boldly out on the morning (and day) after the Passover, in the sight of the Egyptians.”

This makes sense, because while they were going out, the Egyptians were burying the dead. Some say that the Egyptians wouldn’t be burying the dead so soon after the actual deaths, but even if they weren’t burying their children (and they most likely were), there were still all the animals to bury.

To summarize, the Israelites began leaving a short time after midnight on the fourteenth. They were coming out all during the daylight part of the fourteenth, and the last of them came out at sunset, as the fourteenth was ending, and the fifteenth was beginning.

This is the only conclusion that fits all the information that the Bible gives.