12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel, and told them, “Go and select 5 for yourselves a lamb or young goat 6 for your families, and kill the Passover animals. 7
1 tn Heb “and they will take for them a man a lamb.” This is clearly a distributive, or individualizing, use of “man.”
2 tn The שֶּׂה (seh) is a single head from the flock, or smaller cattle, which would include both sheep and goats.
3 tn Heb “according to the house of their fathers.” The expression “house of the father” is a common expression for a family.
sn The Passover was to be a domestic institution. Each lamb was to be shared by family members.
4 tn Heb “house” (also at the beginning of the following verse).
5 tn Heb “draw out and take.” The verb has in view the need “to draw out” a lamb or goat selected from among the rest of the flock.
6 tn The Hebrew noun is singular and can refer to either a lamb or a goat. Since English has no common word for both, the phrase “a lamb or young goat” is used in the translation.
7 tn The word “animals” is added to avoid giving the impression in English that the Passover festival itself is the object of “kill.”