PASSOVER — the name of the night, the rite, and the lamb. ⚠️ The verb's meaning is genuinely uncertain and three readings are old: (1) to PASS OVER, skip, spare — the traditional rendering and that of the Greek Old Testament; (2) to PROTECT or hover over defensively, supported by Isaiah 31:5, where Jehovah 'protects and delivers, PASSES OVER and rescues' Jerusalem as a bird over its nest; (3) to LIMP or leap, the verb's plain sense elsewhere (1 Kings 18:21, 26 — the prophets 'limping' at their altar). The difference is not trivial: one has God stepping past a door, another has him standing over it. The New Testament makes the identification directly — 'Christ our PASSOVER has been sacrificed' (1 Corinthians 5:7). ⭐ Deuteronomy 16 changes the rite in two ways the Torah never reconciles. Exodus 12:5 takes the animal from the sheep or the goats; Deuteronomy 16:2 says flock AND herd, which admits cattle, and eleven of the thirteen versions keep the conjunction while two turn it into a choice. And Exodus 12:9 forbids boiling it in water where 16:7 commands the verb bashal — see that entry. ⚠ Deuteronomy also takes the meal out of the house: it may not be sacrificed within any one of your gates, only at the one chosen place. → first discussed at Exod 12:11