Passover Lamb
Exod 12:1-14 Now the LORD spoke to
Moses and
Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, "This month shall be your beginning of months;
it shall be the first month of the year to you. "Speak to all the congregation
of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for
himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 'And
if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to
his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each
man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. 'Your lamb shall be without
blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the
sheep or from the goats.
'Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 'And they
shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel
of the houses where they eat it. 'Then they shall eat the flesh on that night;
roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat
it. . . roasted in fire . . . 'You shall let none of it remain until morning, and
what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
'And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your
feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD'S
Passover. 'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will
strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against
all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. 'Now the blood
shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I
will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I
strike the land of Egypt. 'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall
keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations.