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ADONAI spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt; he said,
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"You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you.
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Speak to all the assembly of Isra'el and say, 'On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household -
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except that if the household is too small for a whole lamb or kid, then he and his next-door neighbor should share one, dividing it in proportion to the number of people eating it.
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Your animal must be without defect, a male in its first year, and you may choose it from either the sheep or the goats.
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"'You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then the entire assembly of the community of Isra'el will slaughter it at dusk.
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They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame at the entrance of the house in which they eat it.
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That night, they are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire; they are to eat it with matzah and maror.
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Don't eat it raw or boiled, but roasted in the fire, with its head, the lower parts of its legs and its inner organs.
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Let nothing of it remain till morning; if any of it does remain, burn it up completely.
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"'Here is how you are to eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand; and you are to eat it hurriedly. It is ADONAI's Pesach [Passover].
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For that night, I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt; I am ADONAI.
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The blood will serve you as a sign marking the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over [Hebrew: pasach] you - when I strike the land of Egypt, the death blow will not strike you.
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"'This will be a day for you to remember and celebrate as a festival to ADONAI; from generation to generation you are to celebrate it by a perpetual regulation.
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"'For seven days you are to eat matzah - on the first day remove the leaven from your houses. For whoever eats hametz [leavened bread] from the first to the seventh day is to be cut off from Isra'el.
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On the first and seventh days, you are to have an assembly set aside for God. On these days no work is to be done, except what each must do to prepare his food; you may do only that.
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You are to observe the festival of matzah, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you are to observe this day from generation to generation by a perpetual regulation.
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From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat matzah.
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During those seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. Whoever eats food with hametz in it is to be cut off from the community of Isra'el - it doesn't matter whether he is a foreigner or a citizen of the land.
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Eat nothing with hametz in it. Wherever you live, eat matzah.'"
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Then Moshe called for all the leaders of Isra'el and said, "Select and take lambs for your families, and slaughter the Pesach lamb.
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Take a bunch of hyssop leaves and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame. Then, none of you is to go out the door of his house until morning.
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For ADONAI will pass through to kill the Egyptians; but when he sees the blood on the top and on the two sides, ADONAI will pass over the door and will not allow the Slaughterer to enter your houses and kill you.
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You are to observe this as a law, you and your descendants forever.
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"When you come to the land which ADONAI will give you, as he has promised, you are to observe this ceremony.
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When your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this ceremony?'
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say, 'It is the sacrifice of ADONAI's Pesach [Passover], because [ADONAI] passed over the houses of the people of Isra'el in Egypt, when he killed the Egyptians but spared our houses.'"The people of Isra'el bowed their heads and worshipped.
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Then the people of Isra'el went and did as ADONAI had ordered Moshe and Aharon - that is what they did.