In order to make a 15th Passover plausible, this scripture has to be "redefined" by some academic sleight-of-hand. But, again, remember verse 28—" just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they."
Remember that this took place in the middle of night, when most people—the great overwhelming majority of people—would have been in their beds sleeping. Did God just have these people struck dead, silently, in their sleep? Did they just stop breathing? Consider this: If that had occurred, it is very likely that most of the people would not have found that somebody had died, until they got up in the morning and found "Oh! We've got a dead person here."
No, I do not think it happened that way. I think that the Death Angel went through, and these people died a very painful, anguish-filled death that made them rise up screaming in terror, and waking up everybody in the house. It says in Exodus 12 that, as the Death Angel went through, there was "a great cry" that went out of Egypt. That is because people knew immediately that somebody in their family was hurting. They were in pain. And who knows, if Satan was the Death Angel, he may have taken a great deal of pleasure in afflicting these people with a great deal of pain before they died. It was not just a gentle "passing away," as we might say. I think the dying would have been dramatic and demonstrative, rather than silent and peaceful.
Now, consider the Israelites. I see nothing where they were given any instructions where it says, "Well, this Death Angel passing through is only going to take fifteen minutes. So, after fifteen minutes, get on your mark, let's go. It will be safe to go out." No, I do not think God did that. I think that, again, He was giving His people a test to see whether they would obey Him. Would you stay in the house until morning? I think you would. He wanted to see if they would do it. I cannot see them even daring to go out before God said—not until morning. The children of Israel did as God commanded.
You know that just four chapters after this here in Exodus 12, God told us about people who went out and did something like trying to gather some manna, and He told us about it. Do you think that He would have overlooked telling us that some of the nuts—the Israelites—went out before morning and died because of it? No! He did not do that, and the reason He did not is because nobody did it. They were in terror, and they stayed in their house until morning. So, the answer for element 5 is that they stayed in their houses in Goshen the night of the 14th. They did not leave shortly after the Death Angel passed.
