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"These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim
at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight
is the LORD's Passover."
(Leviticus 23:4-5)
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
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. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all
with water, but roasted in fire--its head with its legs and its entrails.
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.
You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance."
(Exodus 12:1-10)
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Pick out
and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the
Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood
that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the
blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his
house until morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians;
and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD
will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses
to strike you. And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and
your sons forever. It will come to pass when you come to the land which
the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this
service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, "What do you mean
by this service?' that you shall say, "It is the Passover sacrifice of the
LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when
He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households."' So the people bowed
their heads and worshiped. Then the children of Israel went away and did so;
just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
(Exodus 12:21-28)
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