The Passover Lamb

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This ^[a]month shall be the beginning of months to you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. ³ Tell all the congregation of Israel, ‘On the tenth [day] of this month they are to take a lamb or young goat for themselves, according to [the size of] the household of which he is the father, a lamb or young goat for each household. ⁴ Now if the household is too small for a lamb [to be consumed], let him and his next door neighbor take one according to the number of people [in the households]; according to what each man can eat, you are to divide the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb or young goat shall be [perfect] without blemish or bodily defect, a male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.^{(A) 6} You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it ^[b]at twilight. ⁷ Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel [above the door] of the houses in which they eat it.^{(B) 8} They shall eat the meat that same night, roasted in fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted in fire—both its head and its legs, along with its inner parts. ¹⁰ You shall let none of the meat remain until the morning, and anything that remains left over until morning, you shall burn completely in the fire. ¹¹ Now you are to eat it in this manner: [be prepared for a journey] with your ^[c]loins girded [that is, with the outer garment tucked into the band], your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it quickly—it is the Lord’s Passover. ¹² For I [the Lord] will pass through the land of Egypt on this night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal; against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments [exhibiting their worthlessness]. I am the Lord.