Exodus 12:5

12:5 Your lamb must be ¹  perfect, ²  a male, one year old; ³  you may take ⁴  it from the sheep or from the goats.

Leviticus 12:6

12:6 “‘When ⁵  the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she must bring a one year old lamb ⁶  for a burnt offering ⁷  and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering ⁸  to the entrance of the Meeting Tent, to the priest.

[12:5]  ¹ tn The construction has: “[The] lamb…will be to you.” This may be interpreted as a possessive use of the lamed, meaning, “[the] lamb…you have” (your lamb) for the Passover. In the context instructing the people to take an animal for this festival, the idea is that the one they select, their animal, must meet these qualifications.

[12:5]  ² tn The Hebrew word תָּמִים (tamim) means “perfect” or “whole” or “complete” in the sense of not having blemishes and diseases – no physical defects. The rules for sacrificial animals applied here (see Lev 22:19-21; Deut 17:1).

[12:5]  ³ tn The idiom says “a son of a year” (בֶּן־שָׁנָה, ben shanah), meaning a “yearling” or “one year old” (see GKC 418 §128.v).

[12:5]  ⁴ tn Because a choice is being given in this last clause, the imperfect tense nuance of permission should be used. They must have a perfect animal, but it may be a sheep or a goat. The verb’s object “it” is supplied from the context.

[12:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “And when” (so KJV, NASB). Many recent English versions leave the conjunction untranslated.

[12:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “a lamb the son of his year”; KJV “a lamb of the first year” (NRSV “in its first year”); NAB “a yearling lamb.”

[12:6]  ⁷ sn See the note on Lev 1:3 regarding the “burnt offering.”

[12:6]  ⁸ sn See the note on Lev 4:3 regarding the term “sin offering.”