The manner of preparing, and eating the paschal lamb: the firstborn of
Egypt are all slain: the Israelites depart.
12:1. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
12:2. This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be
the first in the months of the year.
12:3. Speak ye to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, and say
to them: On the tenth day of this month let every man take a lamb by
their families and houses.
12:4. But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the lamb, he
shall take unto him his neighbour that joineth to his house, according
to the number of souls which may be enough to eat the lamb.
12:5. And it shall be a lamb without blemish, a male, of one year;
according to which rite also you shall take a kid.
A kid... The phase might be performed, either with a lamb or with a kid:
and all the same rites and ceremonies were to be used with the one as
with the other.
12:6. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; and
the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it in the
evening.
12:7. And they shall take of the blood thereof, and put it upon both the
side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they
shall eat it.
12:8. And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted at the fire, and
unleavened bread with wild lettuce.
12:9. You shall not eat thereof any thing raw, nor boiled in water, but
only roasted at the fire; you shall eat the head with the feet and
entrails thereof.
12:10. Neither shall there remain any thing of it until morning. If
there be any thing left, you shall burn it with fire.
12:11. And thus you shall eat it: you shall gird your reins, and you
shall have shoes on your feet, holding staves in your hands, and you
shall eat in haste; for it is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the
Lord.
12:12. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will
kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast: and
against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments; I am the Lord.
12:13. And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where
you shall be; and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you; and
the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the
land of Egypt.
12:14. And this day shall be for a memorial to you; and you shall keep
it a feast to the Lord in your generations, with an everlasting
observance.
12:15. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread: in the first day there
shall be no leaven in your houses; whosoever shall eat any thing
leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall
perish out of Israel.
12:16. The first day shall be holy and solemn, and the seventh day shall
be kept with the like solemnity: you shall do no work in them, except
those things that belong to eating.
12:17. And you shall observe the feast of the unleavened bread: for in
this same day I will bring forth your army out of the land of Egypt, and
you shall keep this day in your generations by a perpetual observance.
12:18: The first month, the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening,
you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the
same month, in the evening.
Unleavened bread... By this it appears, that our Saviour made use of
unleavened bread, in the institution of the blessed sacrament, which was
on the evening of the paschal solemnity, at which time there was no
leavened bread to be found in Israel.
12:19. Seven days there shall not be found any leaven in your houses: he
that shall eat leavened bread, his soul shall perish out of the assembly
of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.
12:20. You shall not eat any thing leavened: in all your habitations you
shall eat unleavened bread.
12:21. And Moses called all the ancients of the children of Israel, and
said to them: Go take a lamb by your families, and sacrifice the Phase.
12:22. And dip a bunch of hyssop in the blood that is at the door, and
sprinkle the transom of the door therewith, and both the door cheeks:
let none of you go out of the door of his house till morning.
Sprinkle, etc... This sprinkling the doors of the Israelites with the
blood of the paschal lamb, in order to their being delivered from the
sword of the destroying angel, was a lively figure of our redemption by
the blood of Christ.
12:23. For the Lord will pass through striking the Egyptians: and when
he shall see the blood on the transom, and on both the posts, he will
pass over the door of the house, and not suffer the destroyer to come
into your houses and to hurt you.
12:24. Thou shalt keep this thing as a law for thee and thy children for
ever.
12:25. And when you have entered into the land which the Lord will give
you, as he hath promised, you shall observe these ceremonies.
12:26. And when your children shall say to you: What is the meaning of
this service?
12:27. You shall say to them: It is the victim of the passage of the
Lord, when he passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt,
striking the Egyptians, and saving our houses. And the people bowing
themselves, adored.
12:28. And the children of Israel going forth, did as the Lord had
commanded Moses and Aaron.
12:29. And it came to pass at midnight, the Lord slew every firstborn in
the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharao, who sat on his throne,
unto the firstborn of the captive woman that was in the prison, and all
the firstborn of cattle.
12:30. And Pharao arose in the night, and all his servants, and all
Egypt: and there arose a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house
wherein there lay not one dead.
12:31. And Pharao calling Moses and Aaron, in the night, said: Arise and
go forth from among my people, you and the children of Israel: go,
sacrifice to the Lord as you say.
12:32. Your sheep and herds take along with you, as you demanded, and
departing bless me.
12:33. And the Egyptians pressed the people to go forth out of the land
speedily, saying: We shall all die.
12:34. The people therefore took dough before it was leavened; and tying
it in their cloaks, put it on their shoulders.
12:35. And the children of Israel did as Moses had commanded: and they
asked of the Egyptians vessels of silver and gold, and very much
raiment.
12:36. And the Lord gave favour to the people in the sight of the
Egyptians, so that they lent unto them: and they stripped the Egyptians.
12:37. And the children of Israel set forward from Ramesse to Socoth,
being about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.
12:38. And a mixed multitude, without number, went up also with them,
sheep and herds, and beasts of divers kinds, exceeding many.
12:39. And they baked the meal, which a little before they had brought
out of Egypt in dough: and they made hearth cakes unleavened: for it
could not be leavened, the Egyptians pressing them to depart, and not
suffering them to make any stay; neither did they think of preparing any
meat.
12:40. And the abode of the children of Israel that they made in Egypt,
was four hundred and thirty years.
12:41. Which being expired, the same day all the army of the Lord went
forth out of the land of Egypt.
12:42. This is the observable night of the Lord, when he brought them
forth out of the land of Egypt: this night all the children of Israel
must observe in their generations.
12:43. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the service of the
Phase; no foreigner shall eat of it.
12:44. But every bought servant shall be circumcised, and so shall eat.
12:45. The stranger and the hireling shall not eat thereof.
12:46. In one house shall it be eaten, neither shall you carry forth of
the flesh thereof out of the house, neither shall you break a bone
thereof.
12:47. All the assembly of the children of Israel shall keep it.
12:48. And if any stranger be willing to dwell among you, and to keep
the Phase of the Lord, all his males shall first be circumcised, and
then shall he celebrate it according to the manner: and he shall be as
he that is born in the land: but if any man be uncircumcised, he shall
not eat thereof.
12:49. The same law shall be to him that is born in the land, and to the
proselyte that sojourneth with you.
12:50. And all the children of Israel did as the Lord had commanded
Moses and Aaron.
12:51. And the same day the Lord brought forth the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt by their companies.