a solemn festival of the Jews, celebrated on the 14th day of the month next after the vernal equinox, and instituted in commemoration of their coming out of Egypt; because, on the night before their departure, the destroying angel, who put to death the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Hebrews, which were sprinkled with the blood of a lamb. The whole transaction is related in the sixth chapter of Exodus.