2010-01-14: Secular Passover

2 Exodus 12:5-56
⁵The lamb will be without blemish, a male of the 1st year; you will take it from the lambs or from the kids,
⁶and you will keep it until the 14th day of this same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill it at sunset.

⁷And they will take some of the blood and sprinkle it on the 2 doorposts and on the lintel and on the houses in which they will eat it.
⁸And they will eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they will eat it.
⁹You will not eat any of it raw, nor cooked with water, but roasted with fire; its head with its legs, and the entrails.
¹⁰And you will leave none of it remaining until morning; and what remains of it until the morning you will burn with fire.
¹¹And thus you will eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you will eat it in haste; for it is Yahvah's passover.
¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and all the firstborn of the land of Egypt will die, both man and animal; and against all the idols of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am Yahvah.
¹³And the blood will be to you for a sign on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will make you glad, and the plague will not be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴And this day will be to you for a memorial; and you will keep it a feast to Yahvah, a festival throughout your generations; you will keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
¹⁵7 days you will eat unleavened bread; and from the 1st day you will put away leaven out of your houses; for whoever eats leavened bread from your houses from the 1st day until the 7th day, that person will perish from Israel.
¹⁶On the 1st day there will be a holy convocation and on the 7th day there will be a holy convocation to you; no manner of work will be done in them; except what every man must eat, that only may be prepared by you.
¹⁷And you will observe the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very day I have brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt; therefore you will observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.
¹⁸In the 1st month, on the 14th day of the month at evening, you will eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening.
¹⁹7 days leaven will not be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person will perish from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.
²⁰You will eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations you will eat unleavened bread.

²¹Then Moses called all the elders of the children of Israel and said to them, Hurry, take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the passover lamb.
²²And you will take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood of the lamb and sprinkle the lintel and the 2 side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you will go out of the door of his house until the morning.
²³For Yahvah will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the 2 side posts, Yahvah will bring joy to the doors and will not permit the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.
²⁴And you will observe this rite and this ordinance for yourselves and your sons forever.
²⁵And it will come to pass, when you come to the land which Yahvah will give you, as he has promised, you will observe this service.
²⁶And it will come to pass when your children will say to you, What is the meaning of this service?
²⁷You will say, It is the sacrifice of Yahvah's passover, who brought joy to the house of the children of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and delivered our houses. Then the people bowed their heads and worshiped Yahvah.

²⁸And the children of Israel went away and did as Yahvah had commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹And it came to pass that at midnight Yahvah slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison; and all the firstborn of cattle.
³⁰And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was a great wailing in the land of Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not 1 dead.
³¹And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron that night, and said to them, Rise up and get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Yahvah, as you have said.
³²Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and also bless me.

³³And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might get them out of the land of Egypt in haste; for they said, We will all die.
³⁴And the people took their kneading dough before it was leavened and their cold kneading dough wrapped up in their mantles on their shoulders.
³⁵And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and clothing;
³⁶and Yahvah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them whatever they asked. And thus they stripped the Egyptians.

³⁷Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot, besides the little ones.
³⁸And a mixed multitude also went up with them; and their flocks, and herds, and many cattle.
³⁹And they baked on a griddle unleavened bread of the dough which they had brought forth out of the land of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because the Egyptians drove them out. They could not make it into flat loaves, nor had they prepared for themselves any provisions for the journey.

⁴⁰Now the temporary residence of the children of Israel, who lived in Egypt, was 430 years.
⁴¹And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, on this very day, that all the divisions of Yahvah went out from the land of Egypt.
⁴²It was a night to be observed to Yahvah for bringing them out of the land of Egypt; therefore this very night is to be observed to Yahvah by all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

⁴³Then Yahvah said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover; no foreigner will eat of it;
⁴⁴but every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he will eat of it.
⁴⁵An alien and a hired worked will not eat of it.
⁴⁶In 1 house it will be eaten; you will not take any of the meat outside of the house nor will you break a bone of it.
⁴⁷All the congregation of Israel will keep the feast.
⁴⁸And when a stranger will stay with you, who would keep the passover to Yahvah, when he has circumcised every male in his house, then he may draw near to take part in it; and he will be considered as a native of the land; for no uncircumcised person will eat of it.
⁴⁹There will be 1 law for the natives and for the strangers who stay among you.

⁵⁰Thus all the children of Israel did; as Yahvah had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
⁵¹And it came to pass on that very day that Yahvah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt with all their divisions.

¹And Yahvah spoke to Moses saying,