Your lamb shall be without blemish.

This line comes from the Hebrew Bible’s instructions for the first Passover on the eve of the Exodus. In Exodus 12, the Israelites in Egypt are commanded to select a year-old male lamb or kid “without blemish,” slaughter it at twilight, and mark their doorposts with its blood so the destroying plague will “pass over” their houses. The requirement reflects ancient sacrificial norms in which offerings to God were to be whole and unspoiled. In later Jewish tradition it remains part of the Passover narrative, and in Christian interpretation it is frequently read typologically as prefiguring Christ as a flawless sacrificial “lamb.”

On its face, the command is practical and ritual: the Passover animal must be physically perfect, signaling that what is offered to God should be the best, not the leftover or damaged. Symbolically, “without blemish” becomes a moral and spiritual ideal—integrity, wholeness, and purity—attached to acts of devotion and covenant identity. Because Passover is tied to deliverance, the unblemished lamb also underscores the seriousness of redemption: liberation is marked by a costly, carefully prepared rite. In Christian readings, the phrase gains further resonance as a template for the notion of an innocent, spotless victim whose sacrifice brings salvation.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.”
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.”
“Your lamb shall be a male without blemish, a year old.”