Exodus 12:3

12:3 Tell the whole community of Israel, ‘In the tenth day of this month they each ¹  must take a lamb ²  for themselves according to their families ³  – a lamb for each household. ⁴ 

Exodus 12:21

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 

[12:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and they will take for them a man a lamb.” This is clearly a distributive, or individualizing, use of “man.”

[12:3]  ² tn The שֶּׂה (seh) is a single head from the flock, or smaller cattle, which would include both sheep and goats.

[12:3]  ³ tn Heb “according to the house of their fathers.” The expression “house of the father” is a common expression for a family.

[12:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “house” (also at the beginning of the following verse).

[12:21]  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.

[12:21]  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.

[12:21]  ⁷ tn The word “animals” is added to avoid giving the impression in English that the Passover festival itself is the object of “kill.”