Exodus 12:2 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

This month was the first month after the vernal equinox, called Abib, Exodus 13:4, Exodus 23:15 Deuteronomy 16:1, and Nissan, Nehemiah 2:1 Esther 3:7; containing part of our March, and part of April. The beginning; Heb. the head; which, I conceive, notes not so much the order, which is more plainly mentioned in the following words, as the eminency of it, that it shall be accounted the chief and principal of all months; as the sabbath hath been called by some the queen of days. And justly must they prefer this month before the rest, whether they looked back to their prodigious deliverance from Egypt therein, or forward to their spiritual redemption by Christ, and to the acceptable year of the Lord, Luke 4:19; for in this very month our Lord Jesus suffered, 1 Thessalonians 18:28. It shall be the first month: heretofore your first month for all affairs hath been Tisri, which in part answers to our September, and is the first month after the autumnal equinox; and so it shall be to you still as to civil affairs, as it appears from Exodus 23:16, Exodus 34:22 Leviticus 25:8-10; but as to sacred and ecclesiastical matters, this shall henceforth be your first month.