Jubilees 49

1Remember the command that the LORD commanded you concerning the Passover: that you should observe it at its appointed time, on the fourteenth day of the first month; that you should slaughter it before evening and that they should eat it.

2In the night, at the evening of the fifteenth, from the setting of the sun. For on this night the beginning of the feast came, and the beginning of rejoicing came. You were dwelling in Egypt, eating the Passover, while all the powers of Mastema were sent to strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive maidservant who was in the mill-house, and upon the cattle. And this is the sign that the LORD gave them: in every house where they saw the blood of a year-old lamb on the doorposts, they should not enter that house to kill, but should pass over it so that all who were in the house might be saved, because the sign of the blood was on its doorposts. And the powers of the LORD did everything just as the LORD commanded them, and they passed over all the sons of Israel, and no plague came upon them to destroy from among them any life, from livestock to man and even to dogs. And the plague in Egypt was very great, and there was no house in Egypt in which there was not one dead, and mourning and lamentation. But all Israel was dwelling while eating the flesh of the Passover and drinking wine and praising and blessing and giving thanks to the LORD, the God of their fathers, and they were ready to go out from under the yoke of Egypt and from the evil bondage. And you also, remember this day all the days of your life, and observe it from year to year all the days of your life, once each year, on its day, according to all its law; and do not move the day from day to day or from month to month. For it is an everlasting statute, and it is written and ordained on the heavenly tablets for all the children of Israel, that they should observe it in every year, year by year, on its day, once each year, throughout all their generations; and there is no end of days, for this is ordained forever. And the man who is clean and comes to observe it on its day, to bring an acceptable offering before the LORD and to eat and drink before the LORD on the day of its feast—that man, being clean and near, shall be cut off because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time, that man shall bear his sin. Therefore the children of Israel shall come and observe the Passover at its appointed time, on the fourteenth day of the first month, between the evenings, from the middle of the day until the third part of the night; for two parts of the day are given to the light, and a third part belongs to the evening. This is what the LORD commanded you to observe in the middle of the evening. And it shall not be slaughtered during any time of the light except at the time of evening, and they shall eat it at the time of evening until the third part of the night; and whatever remains of all its flesh after the third part of the night they shall burn with fire. And they shall not eat it raw, nor shall they eat it boiled in water, but they shall eat it roasted with fire, with its head, with its inner parts, and with its feet they shall roast it with fire; and they shall not break any bone from it, for no bone is to be broken among the children of Israel. Because of this the LORD commanded the children of Israel to observe the Passover at its appointed time, and no bone is to be broken from it, because it is a day of festival and a day commanded; and they are not to shift it from day to day or from month to month, but it is to be observed on the day of its feast. And you, command the children of Israel to observe the Passover in their times, in every year, once each year, at its appointed time; and it shall come as a memorial acceptable before the LORD, and no plague shall come upon them for slaughter or for smiting in that year when they observe the Passover

16at its appointed time, in every respect according to its command. And it shall not be lawful to eat it outside the sanctuary of the LORD, but before the sanctuary of the LORD, and all the people of the assembly

17All of Israel shall observe it at its appointed time. And every man who comes on that day shall eat it in the house of the sanctuary of your God before the LORD, from twenty years old and upward, because

18Thus it is written and ordained that they should eat it in the sanctuary of the LORD. And when the children of Israel enter the land that they are to possess, in the land of Canaan, and they set up the tent of the LORD in the midst of the land, in one of their tribes, until the sanctuary of the LORD is built in the land, they shall come and observe the Passover in the midst of the tent of the LORD, and they shall slaughter it before the LORD.

19from year to year. And in the days when the house is built in the name of the LORD in the land of their inheritance, there they shall go and slaughter the Passover in the evening, at sunset,

20in the third part of the day. And they shall bring its blood to the base of the altar, and they shall place its fat on the fire that is upon the altar, and they shall eat its flesh roasted with fire in the court of the house

21that has been sanctified in the name of the LORD. And they shall not be able to observe the Passover in their cities, nor in any place except before the tent of the LORD, or before his house where he dwells.

22And you, Moses, command the children of Israel to keep the ordinance of the Passover as it was commanded to you; tell them year by year, and day by day, and concerning the feast of unleavened bread, that they should eat unleavened bread for seven days, that they should observe its feast, and that they should bring its offering day by day during those seven days of rejoicing.

23before the LORD, upon the altar of your God. For you observed this feast in haste when you came out from Egypt until you entered the wilderness of Shur, because at the shore of the sea you completed it.