Remember the commandments which the Lord gave you regarding the passover so that you may celebrate it at its time on the fourteenth of the first month, that you may sacrifice it before evening, and so that they may eat it at night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of sunset.

For on this night — it was the beginning of the festival and the beginning of joy — you were eating the passover in Egypt when all the forces of Mastema were sent to kill every first-born in the land of Egypt — from the pharaoh’s first-born to the first-born of the captive slave-girl at the millstone and to the cattle as well.

This is that which the Lord gave them: into each house on whose door they saw the blood of a year-old lamb, they were not to enter that house to kill but were to pass over (it) in order to save all who were in the house because the sign of the blood was on its door.

The Lord’s forces did everything that the Lord ordered them. They passed over all the Israelites. The plague did not come on them to destroy any of them — from cattle to mankind to dogs.

The plague on Egypt was very great. There was no house in Egypt in which there was no corpse, crying, and mourning.

All Israel was eating the paschal meat, drinking the wine, and glorifying, blessing, and praising the Lord God of their fathers. They were ready to leave the Egyptian yoke and evil slavery.

Now you remember this day throughout all your lifetime. Celebrate it from year to year throughout all your lifetime, once a year on its day in accord with all of its law. Then you will not change a day from the day or from month to month.

For it is an eternal statute and it is engraved on the heavenly tablets regarding the Israelites that they are to celebrate it each and every year on its day, once a year, throughout their entire history. There is no temporal limit because it is ordained forever.

The man who is pure but does not come to celebrate it on its prescribed day — to bring a sacrifice that is pleasing before the Lord and to eat and drink before the Lord on the day of his festival — that man who is pure and nearby is to be uprooted because he did not bring the Lord’s sacrifice at its time. That man will bear responsibility for his own sin.

The Israelites are to come and celebrate the passover on its specific day — on the fourteenth of the first month — between the evenings, from the third part of the day until the third part of the night. For two parts of the day have been given for light and its third part for the evening.

This is what the Lord commanded you — to celebrate it between the evenings.

It is not to be sacrificed at any hour of the daylight but in the hour of the boundary of the evening. They will eat it during the evening hour(s) until the third part of the night. Any of its meat that is left over from the third part of the night and beyond is to be burned.

They are not to boil it in water nor eat it raw but roasted on a fire, cooked with care on a fire — the head with its internal parts and its feet. They are to roast it on a fire. There will be no breaking of any bone in it because no bone of the Israelites will be broken.

Therefore the Lord ordered the Israelites to celebrate the passover on its specific day. No bone of it is to be broken because it is a festal day and a day which has been commanded. From it there is to be no passing over a day from the day or a month from the month because it is to be celebrated on its festal day.

Now you order the Israelites to celebrate the passover each year during their times, once a year on its specific day. Then a pleasing memorial will come before the Lord and no plague will come upon them to kill and to strike (them) during that year when they have celebrated the passover at its time in every respect as it was commanded.

It is no longer to be eaten outside of the Lord’s sanctuary but before the Lord’s sanctuary. All the people of the Israelite congregation are to celebrate it at its time.

Every man who has come on its day, who is 20 years of age and above, is to eat it in the sanctuary of your God before the Lord, because this is the way it has been written and ordained — that they are to eat it in the Lord’s sanctuary.

When the Israelites enter the land which they will possess — the land of Canaan — and set up the Lord’s tabernacle in the middle of the land in one of their tribal groups (until the time when the Lord’s temple will be built in the land), they are to come and celebrate the passover in the Lord’s tabernacle and sacrifice it before the Lord from year to year.

At the time when the house is built in the Lord’s name in the land which they will possess, they are to go there and sacrifice the passover in the evening when the sun sets, in the third part of the day.

They will offer its blood on the base of the altar. They are to place the fat on the fire which is above the altar and are to eat its meat roasted on a fire in the courtyard of the sanctuary in the name of the Lord.

They will not be able to celebrate the passover in their cities or in any places except before the Lord’s tabernacle or otherwise before the house in which his name has resided. Then they will not go astray from the Lord.

Now you, Moses, order the Israelites to keep the statute of the passover as it was commanded to you so that you may tell them its year each year, the time of the days, and the festival of unleavened bread so that they may eat unleavened bread for seven days to celebrate its festival, to bring its sacrifice before the Lord on the altar of your God each day during those seven joyful days.

For you celebrated this festival hastily when you were leaving Egypt until the time you crossed the sea into the wilderness of Sur, because you completed it on the seashore.