Exodus 12:9

Exodus 12:9. Eat not of it raw, &c.— Particular caution is here given, that the lamb should be roasted with fire; that he should be roasted whole: his head, with his legs, and all which pertains to him. It was not to be eaten raw; that is rare, or half-roasted: it was to be thoroughly done, none of the blood remaining in it; in opposition (as Spencer thinks) to what the Egyptians did in the worship of Bacchus, i.e. Osiris, when they ate raw flesh: nor sodden with water, as they used in their sacrifices, says he, to their god Hori. It is particularly expressed, that it was to be roasted with fire; in opposition, as some think, to the custom of roasting their sacrifices in the sun; which was usual among some heathen nations. And it was to be roasted whole with its entrails; in opposition to the superstitious custom of the pagans, who used to consult the entrails of the victims; and to teach the Jews, that, in the paschal lamb, all was sacred, and to be considered as such.