The
Lord
said
to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for
you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month1
of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on
the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a
lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole
lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb
shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of
it.2
Your lamb shall be without blemish,3
a year-old male;4
you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it
until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled
congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall
take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel
of the houses5
in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they
shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter
herbs.6
Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the
fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs.7
You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that
remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat
it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in
your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly.8
It is the passover of the Lord.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will
strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings
and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements:9
I am the Lord.10
The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when
I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy
you when I strike the land of Egypt.11
This day shall
be a day of remembrance for you.12
You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord;
throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual
ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread;13
on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for
whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day
shall be cut off from Israel.14
On the first day you shall hold a solemn assembly, and on the
seventh day a solemn assembly;15
no work shall be done on those days; only what everyone must eat,
that alone may be prepared by you. You shall observe the festival of
unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out
of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your
generations as a perpetual ordinance. In the first month, from the
evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first
day, you shall eat unleavened bread. For seven days no leaven shall
be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be
cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native
of the land.16
You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall
eat unleavened bread.Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb.17 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this observance?” you shall say, “It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.”’ And the people bowed down and worshipped.18
The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.19
1 The event is being positioned not just as a one-off thing, but as a foundational moment in the people's history.
2
Very practical details in a very intense circumstance.
3
To make it a worthy sacrifice.
4
To symbolize the firstborn.
5
A bloody ritual, probably appeared less out-of-place in their
culture than it does in ours.
6
Unleavened bread seems a sign of urgency, bitter herbs a sign of the
bitterness of the day.
7
Some of these details appear arbitrary to me – do they have
inherent meaning?
8
More symbolism for the urgency of the moment
9
Judgment is not just on the people and the animals being killed, but
on the gods of that land.
10
In a feast celebrating God's dominion, the degree of death and
violence involved is still striking.
11
Interesting that the blood is a sign now, when God didn't need a
sign before to pass over the Israelites in other plagues. So is the
sign really for the angel passing over them, or for the Israelites
to recognize who is in charge?
12
The direction once again moves from the moment to the placement of
the moment in their history.
13
Spread not just from the moment to a longer observance.
14
Extremely strong consequences for not observing a symbolic
observation.
15
Assemblies marking the event are both “solemn”.
16
The cutting off is emphasized again.
17
Brought back out of history into the present moment. The
instructions are all repeated again. My study Bible attributes this
new set of instructions to the JE author, while the previous set of
instructions were from the P author.
18
The ordinances of God are responded to with worship.
19
They have been reluctant and/or questioning at times, but in the
most important moments, the Israelities have obeyed the Lord.
Take-home: Unlike other plagues, where the Israelites did nothing and Moses, Aaron, and the Lord alone acted, the preparation for this plague is accompanied with specific rituals for the Israelites. These rituals give the events a place in the history of the Israelite people and a regular focus through which to remember what God had done for them.
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