And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man's eating ye shall make your count for the lamb.

But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the lamb, he shall take unto him his neighbour that joineth to his house, according to the number of souls which may be enough to eat the lamb.

And if the household be too small for a lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; each according to the measure of his eating shall ye count for the lamb.

and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbour next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man's eating ye shall make your count for the lamb.

And if the household shall be too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

'(And if the household be too few for a lamb, then hath he taken, he and his neighbour who is near unto his house, for the number of persons, each according to his eating ye do count for the lamb,)

And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

And if the lamb is more than enough for the family, let that family and its nearest neighbour have a lamb between them, taking into account the number of persons and how much food is needed for every man.

But if the number is less than may suffice to be able to consume the lamb, he shall accept his neighbor, who has been joined with his house according to the number of souls that may suffice to be able to eat the lamb.

Quod si minor fuerit familia quam pro agno, assumet ipse vicinum suum qui propinquior fuerit domus suae, pro numero animarum, singuli ad mensuram cibi sui numerabitis pro agno.

Tradition specifies ten as the least number; but the matter was probably left altogether to the discretion of the heads of families.
The last clause should be rendered: "each man, according to his eating, ye shall count for the lamb."

If the household be too little - That is, if there be not persons enough in one family to eat a whole lamb, then two families must join together. The rabbins allow that there should be at least ten persons to one paschal lamb, and not more than twenty.
Take it, according to the number of the souls - The persons who were to eat of it were to be first ascertained, and then the lamb was to be slain and dressed for that number.

And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take [it] according to the number of the souls; every man according to his (d) eating shall make your count for the lamb.
(d) He will take as many as are needed to eat the lamb.

And if the household be too little for the lamb,.... That they cannot eat it up at once:
let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; which Josephus (e) says were never fewer than ten, and were often twenty, but no man might feast alone; with which agrees the Jewish canon (f),"they do not kill the passover lamb for a single person, nor even for a society consisting of one hundred, that cannot eat the quantity of an olive:"
every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb: that is, a man must reckon up how many he has in his own house to eat of the lamb, and what their appetites be, by which he will he able to judge whether he can dispense with a lamb himself, or whether he must take in some of his neighbours, and how many, so as to eat up the whole lamb, for, for such persons the lamb was to be slain. The rule is,"if a man slays it for those that do not eat of it, or for those that are not counted, for the uncircumcised, and the unclean, it was wrong, and not allowed of (g).''The taking in his neighbours may respect the call of the Gentiles to partake of Christ with the Jews, see Ephesians 3:5.
(e) De Bello Jude. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3. (f) Misn. Pesach. c. 8. sect. 7. (g) lbid. c. 5. sect. 3.

if the household be too little for the lamb, &c.--It appears from JOSEPHUS that ten persons were required to make up the proper paschal communion.
every man according to his eating--It is said that the quantity eaten of the paschal lamb, by each individual, was about the size of an olive.

But if "the house be too small for a lamb" (lit., "small from the existence of a lamb," מן comparative: משּׂה היות is an existence which receives its purpose from the lamb, which answers to that purpose, viz., the consumption of the lamb, i.e., if a family is not numerous enough to consume a lamb), "let him (the house-father) and his nearest neighbour against his house take (sc., a lamb) according to the calculation of the persons." מכסה computatio (Leviticus 27:23), from כּסס computare; and מכס, the calculated amount or number (Numbers 31:28): it only occurs in the Pentateuch. "Every one according to the measure of his eating shall ye reckon for the lamb:" i.e., in deciding whether several families had to unite, in order to consume one lamb, they were to estimate how much each person would be likely to eat. Consequently more than two families might unite for this purpose, when they consisted simply of the father and mother and little children. A later custom fixed ten as the number of persons to each paschal lamb; and Jonathan has interpolated this number into the text of his Targum.