Exodus 12:3-13 ▼

3 Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth [day] of this month each man must take a lamb or a young goat for his family-one animal per household.

4 A household may be too small to eat a whole animal. That household and the one next door can share one animal. Choose your animal based on the number of people and what each person can eat.

5 Your animal must be a one-year-old male that has no defects. You may choose a lamb or a young goat.

6 Take care of it until the fourteenth [day] of this month. |Then at dusk, all the assembled people from the community of Israel must slaughter their animals.

7 They must take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they will eat the animals.

8 The meat must be eaten that same night. It must be roasted over a fire and eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.

9 Don't eat any of it raw or boiled but roast the whole animal over a fire.

10 Don't leave any of it until morning. Anything left over in the morning must be burned up.

11 This is how [you should be dressed when] you eat it: with your belt on, your sandals on your feet, and your shepherd's staff in your hand. You must eat it in a hurry. It is the LORD's Passover.

12 |On that same night I will go throughout Egypt and kill every firstborn male, both human and animal. I will severely punish all the gods of Egypt, [because] I am the LORD.

13 But the blood on your houses will be a sign for your protection. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Nothing will touch or destroy you when I strike Egypt.