16 July 2021, General Week 15 - Friday
FIRST READING
“The lamb will be sacrificed at sunset. I will see the blood, and I will pass by ”
A Reading from the book of Exodus (11, 10 - 12, 14)
In those days
Moses and Aaron performed all kinds of wonders
before Pharaoh;
but the Lord had caused Pharaoh to persist;
and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.
In the land of Egypt,
the Lord said to Moses and to his brother Aaron:
“This month will be for you the first of months,
it will mark for you the beginning of the year.
Speak thus to the whole community of Israel:
on the tenth of this month,
let one take one lamb per family,
one lamb per house.
If the household is too small for a lamb,
it will take it with its nearest neighbor,
depending on the number of people.
You will choose the lamb based on what everyone can eat.
It will be a flawless beast, a male, of the year.
You will take a lamb or a kid.
You will keep it until the fourteenth day of the month.
In the whole assembly of the community of Israel,
they will sacrifice themselves at sunset.
Blood
will be taken and put on the two uprights and on the lintels
of the houses where it will be eaten.
Their flesh shall be eaten that night, and shall
be eaten roasted in the fire,
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
You will not eat any part of it that is half-cooked
or that is boiled;
everything will be fire roasted,
including the head, shanks and innards.
You will not keep anything for the next day;
what would remain for the next day,
you will destroy it by burning it.
You will eat like this: the waist belt,
sandals on feet, stick in hand.
You will eat in haste:
it is the Lord's Passover.
I will pass through the land of Egypt that night;
I will smite every firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast.
Against all the gods of Egypt I will exercise my judgments:
I am the Lord.
The blood will be a sign to you
on the houses where you are.
I will see the blood, and I will pass over;
you shall not be
struck by the plague with which I will strike the land of Egypt.
That day will be a memorial to you.
You will make it a feast of pilgrimage for the Lord.
It is a perpetual decree: from age to age you will celebrate it. "
- Word of the Lord.