And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts ... This was intended to give a pledge of safety to the inmates of every house on which this sign of blood was visible. The posts must be considered of tents, in which the Israelites generally lived, though some were also in houses. х beeyt (H1004) is sometimes used in the sense of a moveable dwelling or tent (cf. Gen. 27:55; Genesis 33:17).] It may be objected to the adoption of this meaning of the word here that the Israelites are described (Exodus 12:6) as in their ordinary dwellings during the Passover, and commingled to a certain extent with the Egyptians. But if we suppose that the large section of them to which Moses addressed himself were engaged in completing the fortified city of Rameses, the supposition that multitudes of them were in tents, while it is supported by the occasional use of the word, is more likely to be correct, than that 'the posts' refer to the special structure of their houses at the entrance.
Though the Israelites were sinners as well as the Egyptians, God was pleased to accept the substitution of a lamb-the blood of which being seen sprinkled on the entrance posts, procured them mercy. It was to be inscribed on the side posts and upper door posts, where it might be looked to-not on the threshold, where it might be trodden under foot, This was an emblem of the blood of sprinkling (Hebrews 12:24; Hebrews 12:29).