The Book Of Jubilees Chapter 49

Remember the commandment of the Passover

1 Remember the commandment which YAHWEH commanded you concerning the Passover, that you should celebrate it in its season on the fourteenth of the first month, that you should kill it before it is evening, and that they should eat it by night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of the setting of the sun.

2 For on this night -the beginning of the festival and the beginning of the joy- you were eating the Passover in Egypt, when all the powers of Mastema had been let loose to slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh to the first-born of the captive maid-servant in the mill, and to the cattle.

3 And this is the sign which YAHWEH gave them: Into every house on the lintels of which they saw the blood of a lamb of the first year, into that house they should not enter to slay, but should pass by it, that all those should be saved that were in the house because the sign of the blood was on its lintels.

4 And the powers of YAHWEH did everything according as YAHWEH commanded them, and they passed by all the children of Yisrael, and the plague came not upon them to destroy from amongst them any soul either of cattle, or man, or dog.

5 And the plague was very grievous in Egypt, and there was no house in Egypt where there was not one dead, and weeping and lamentation.

6 And all Yisrael was eating the flesh of the paschal lamb, and drinking the wine, and was lauding, and blessing, and giving thanks to YAHWEH ALMIGHTY of their fathers, and was ready to go forth from under the yoke of Egypt, and from the evil bondage.

7 And remember you this day all the days of your life, and observe it from year to year all the days of your life, once a year, on its day, according to all the Torah thereof, and do not adjourn it from day to day, or from month to month.

8 For it is an eternal ordinance, and engraved on the heavenly tablets regarding all the children of Yisrael that they should observe it every year on its day once a year, throughout all their generations; and there is no limit of days, for this is ordained forever.

9 And the man who is free from uncleanness, and does not come to observe it on occasion of its day, so as to bring an acceptable offering before YAHWEH, and to eat and to drink before YAHWEH on the day of its festival, that man who is clean and close at hand shall be cut off: because he offered not the oblation of YAHWEH in its appointed season, he shall take the guilt upon himself.

10 Let the children of Yisrael come and observe the Passover on the day of its fixed time, on the fourteenth day of the first month, between the evenings, from the third part of the day to the third part of the night, for two portions of the day are given to the light, and a third part to the evening.

11 This is that which YAHWEH commanded you that you should observe it between the evenings.

12 And it is not permissible to slay it during any period of the light, but during the period bordering on the evening, and let them eat it at the time of the evening, until the third part of the night, and whatever is left over of all its flesh from the third part of the night and onwards, let them burn it with fire.

13 And they shall not cook it with water, nor shall they eat it raw, but roast on the fire: they shall eat it with diligence, its head with the inwards thereof and its feet they shall roast with fire, and not break any bone thereof; for of the children of Yisrael no bone shall be crushed.

14 For this reason YAHWEH commanded the children of Yisrael to observe the Passover on the day of its fixed time, and they shall not break a bone thereof; for it is a festival day, and a day commanded, and there may be no passing over from day to day, and month to month, but on the day of its festival let it be observed.

15 And do you command the children of Yisrael to observe the Passover throughout their days, every year, once a year on the day of its fixed time, and it shall come for a memorial well pleasing before YAHWEH, and no plague shall come upon them to slay or to smite in that year in which they celebrate the Passover in its season in every respect according to His command.

16 And they shall not eat it outside the sanctuary of YAHWEH, but before the sanctuary of YAHWEH, and all the people of the congregation of Yisrael shall celebrate it in its appointed season.

17 And every man who has come upon its day shall eat it in the sanctuary of your ALMIGHTY before YAHWEH from twenty years old and upward; for thus is it written and ordained that they should eat it in the sanctuary of YAHWEH.

18 And when the children of Yisrael come into the land which they are to possess, into the land of Canaan, and set up the tabernacle of YAHWEH in the midst of the land in one of their tribes until the sanctuary of YAHWEH has been built in the land, let them come and celebrate the Passover in the midst of the tabernacle of YAHWEH, and let them slay it before YAHWEH from year to year.

19 And in the days when the house has been built in the NAME of YAHWEH in the land of their inheritance, they shall go there and slay the Passover in the evening, at sunset, at the third part of the day.

20 And they shall offer its blood on the threshold of the altar, and shall place its fat on the fire which is upon the altar, and they shall eat its flesh roasted with fire in the court of the house which has been sanctified in the NAME of YAHWEH.

21 And they may not celebrate the Passover in their cities, nor in any place save before the tabernacle of YAHWEH, or before His house where His NAME has dwelt; and they shall not go astray from YAHWEH.

22 And do you, Mosheh, command the children of Yisrael to observe the ordinances of the Passover, as it was commanded to you; declare you unto them every year and the day of its days, and the festival of unleavened bread, that they should eat unleavened bread seven days, and that they should observe its festival, and that they bring an oblation every day during those seven days of joy before YAHWEH on the altar of YAHWEH your ALMIGHTY.

23 For you celebrated this festival with haste when you went forth from Egypt till you entered into the wilderness of Shur; for on the shore of the sea you completed it.