Part 41 (2/2)

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 mult.i.tude 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 Pa.s.sage) of the Lord.

12:12. And I will pa.s.s 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 G.o.ds 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 pa.s.s 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 inst.i.tution 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 a.s.sembly 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 pa.s.s through striking the Egyptians: and when he shall see the blood on the transom, and on both the posts, he will pa.s.s 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?

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