Ver. 7. And thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents— Moses speaks of tents here, because they had no other dwellings when these precepts were delivered. It means, however, their habitations in general. These words are to be considered barely as a permission, not a command. Thou shalt turn, or thou mayest turn; i.e. "after you have eaten the paschal lamb at the sanctuary, you are allowed to return home, if you please." Yet pious people, who were able to bear so great a charge, were wont, no doubt, to stay the whole seven days before they returned home. It is inferred likewise from ver. 8 that those who went home after celebrating the passover, returned again to the place of public worship against the seventh day of the feast, to keep the solemn assembly to the Lord, unless they lived at too great a distance; in which case, their presence might be dispensed with. See Lowth and Kidder.
REFLECTIONS.—God charges them here carefully to observe his solemnities, as nothing would serve more effectually to secure them in their allegiance to him. The first and chief of these is the passover; which was typical of that divine Lamb, whose sacrifice is the price of our eternal redemption, Seven days they did eat unleavened bread in remembrance of their bondage, and the haste with which they were thrust out of Egypt. And this signal mercy they must not only once a year, but all their days, remember, as a constant motive to love and serve God. Note: A dying Jesus, and our redemption by him, must be continually in our eye; and his love towards us every day fresh in our memory, and warm upon our hearts.