Today's verse comes from the Book of Exodus. Israelite households prepare a lamb on the night before their escape from Egypt. A family slaughters a yearling, marks its blood on the doorframe, and eats standing dressed for travel.
A man selects a yearling lamb or goat on the tenth day and keeps it inside his house for four days. At dusk on the fourteenth day, he slaughters the animal at the doorway. He dips a bundle of hyssop into the blood and strikes it onto the two side posts and the upper door post of his house. He roasts the whole animal over fire, head and legs and internal organs intact. He bakes flat bread without yeast and gathers bitter herbs. He ties his belt, laces his sandals, grips his walking staff, and eats the meat standing. Nothing remains by morning.
Exodus 12:3-11 gives the first Passover rules for Israelite families in Egypt. This happened on the night of the tenth plague against the Egyptians. Exodus 12:21-28 tells how Moses gave these rules to the elders of Israel. The people obeyed and put blood on their doorposts. Numbers 9:1-14 makes the Passover a lasting law for all generations. The people kept it in the wilderness at Sinai. Deuteronomy 16:1-8 changes the practice for life in Canaan. The slaughter had to happen at the central shrine. It was no longer done at each home.
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