Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 12:2

2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year unto you.

The first moneth after the vernal Equinox, called Abib, Exod. 13. 4. and 23. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. Deut. 16. 1. and Nisan▪ Neh. 2. 1. Esth. 3. 7. containing part of our March, and part of April.

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 moneths, as the Sabbath hath been called by some, the queen of days. And justly must they prefer this moneth before the rest, whether they looked backward to their prodigious deliverance from Egypt therein, or forward to their spiritual redemption by Christ, and to the acceptable year of the Lord, Luk. 4. 19. for in this very moneth our Lord Jesus suffered, Ioh. 18. 28.

Heretofore your first moneth for all affairs hath been Tisri, which in part answers to our September, and is the first moneth after the Autumnal Equinox; and so it shall be to you still as to civil affairs, as it appears from Exod. 23. 16. and 34. 22. and Levit. 25. 8, 9, 10. but as to Sacred and Ecclesiastical matters this shall henceforth be your first moneth.