'And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land
of Egypt, saying, 2. This month shall be unto you the
beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the
year to you. 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of
Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they
shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the
house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4. And if
the household be too little for the lamb, let him and
his neighbour next unto his house take it according to
the number of the souls; every man according to his
eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5. Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye
shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
6. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of
the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7. And they shall
take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts
and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they
shall eat it. 8. And they shall eat the flesh in that
night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with
bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9. Eat not of it raw,
nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his
head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
10. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the
morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning
ye shall burn with fire. 11. And thus shall ye eat it;
with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and
your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste:
it is the Lord's passover. 12. For I will pass through
the land of Egypt this night, and will smite 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. 13. And the blood shall be to you for a
token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the
blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be
upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and
ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your
generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance
for ever.'--EXODUS xii. 1-14.
The Passover ritual, as appointed here, divides itself into two main
parts--the sprinkling of the sacrificial blood on the door-posts and
lintels, and the feast on the sacrifice. These can best be dealt with
separately. They were separated in the later form of the ritual; for,
when there was a central sanctuary, the lambs were slain there, and the
blood sprinkled, as in other expiatory sacrifices, on the altar, while
the domestic feast remained unaltered. The former was more especially
meant to preserve the Israelites from the destruction of their
first-born; the latter as a permanent memorial of their deliverance.
But both have perpetual fitness as prophetic of varying aspects of the
Christian redemption.