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The Ordinances Concerning the Passover
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
v. 2. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. This was the first and fundamental law for the congregation of Jehovah. Up to that time the children of Israel had reckoned their year in a different manner, even as they begin their civil year in the fall to this day. By God's order their church-year was to begin with the month of which He was then speaking, and all their church festivals were reckoned according to this new division of time.
v. 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 (or kid), according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. From this time the children of Israel were considered the congregation of Jehovah. Every housefather was to take, to separate from the flock, a lamb or a kid. The practise was afterward narrowed to include lambs only.
v. 4. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor 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. If the number of members in anyone household, including the children and the servants, was so small as to make their disposing of an entire lamb improbable, then two small families having about the same number of souls might unite. Custom afterwards fixed the number of participants at the meal at about ten to twelve, but the fundamental unit was the family.
v. 5. Your lamb shall be without blemish, sound in body and limb, a male of the first year, literally, a son of a year, one born the previous year; ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats; the choice at that time was immaterial.
v. 6. And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, separated from the rest of the flock, in order to keep it from contamination and infection; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel, all the housefathers as household priests and representatives of the children of Israel, shall kill it in the evening, literally, "between the two evenings," at twilight. Custom later fixed the time at between three in the afternoon and sundown.
v. 7. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. The blood of the animal was drawn, kept from coagulating by constant stirring, and then applied to the door-posts by sprinkling or painting.
v. 8. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Those were the three dishes expressly commanded by God, the bitter herbs being a salad of wild lettuce, endive, and other vegetables with which the roast meat apparently was garnished.
v. 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, whole, not cut in pieces, no bone broken, and the entrails in place, although, of course, cleaned. The animal, as a whole, represented the unity of Israel.
v. 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. Down to the very last morsel the meat should, if possible, be eaten, that which remained in spite of all the efforts of the assembled household being consigned to the fire. The instructions were purposely exact and detailed, in order that there might be no misunderstanding.