ExodusChapter 12

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¹The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt. He said, ²"This month will be the first month for you. It will be the first month of your year. ³Tell the whole community of Israel this. On the tenth day of this month, each man must pick out a lamb for his family. There must be one lamb for each household. ⁴If a household is too small to eat a whole lamb, they must share it with their nearest neighbor. They must count how many people there are. Then they must divide the lamb by how much each person will eat. ⁵Your lamb must be a male one year old. It must have nothing wrong with it. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶You must take care of it until the fourteenth day of the month. Then the whole community of Israel will kill the animals at sundown. ⁷They must take some of the blood. They must put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸That night they must eat the meat roasted over the fire. They must eat it with bread made without yeast and with bitter herbs. ⁹Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water. Eat it only roasted over the fire. Roast the head, the legs, and the inside parts. ¹⁰Do not leave any of it until morning. If any is left over, you must burn it up before morning. ¹¹This is how you must eat it. Be dressed and ready to travel. Have your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. Eat it quickly. It is the LORD's Passover. ¹²On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt. I will strike down every firstborn male, both people and animals. And I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. ¹³The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will touch you or destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴You must always remember this day. You must celebrate it as a feast to honor the LORD. This is a law for all time, for all the generations to come. ¹⁵For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day you must remove the yeast from your houses. Anyone who eats something with yeast from the first day to the seventh must be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day you must hold a holy meeting. You must hold another one on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days. You may only make your meals. That is all you may do. ¹⁷So you must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your army groups out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a law for all time, for all the generations to come.a ¹⁸In the first month you must eat bread made without yeast. Eat it from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹For seven days there must be no yeast found in your houses. If anyone eats something made with yeast, that person must be cut off from the community of Israel. This is true for a foreigner and for someone born in the land. ²⁰You must not eat anything made with yeast. Eat bread made without yeast in all your homes." ²¹Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel. He told them, "Go right away and pick out a lamb for each of your families. Kill the Passover lamb. ²²Take a bunch of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood in the bowl. Brush the blood on the top and sides of the door frame. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³The LORD will pass through to strike down the Egyptians. He will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame. Then he will pass over that doorway. He will not let the destroyer come into your houses and strike you down. ²⁴You must obey this command. It is a law for all time, for you and your children after you. ²⁵The LORD will give you the land, just as he promised. When you go into it, you must keep this ceremony. ²⁶Your children will ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' ²⁷Then you must answer, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD. He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. He struck down the Egyptians, but he spared our homes.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸The Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. ²⁹At midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt. He struck down the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne. He struck down the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon. He also struck down all the firstborn of the animals. ³⁰Pharaoh got up during the night. So did all his officials and all the Egyptians. There was loud crying in Egypt. There was not one house where someone was not dead. ³¹Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night. He said, "Get up! Leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you asked. ³²Take your flocks and herds too, just as you said, and go! And bless me too." ³³The Egyptians pushed the people to hurry. They wanted to send them out of the land quickly. "If you don't go," they said, "we will all die!" ³⁴So the people took their bread dough before the yeast was added. They wrapped their mixing bowls in clothes and carried them on their shoulders. ³⁵The Israelites also did what Moses had told them. They asked the Egyptians for things made of silver and gold, and for clothing. ³⁶And the LORD made the Egyptians so kind to the people that they gave them what they asked for. In this way the Israelites stripped the Egyptians of their riches. ³⁷The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot. Women and children were not counted. ³⁸A large crowd of other people also went up with them. They took large herds of animals too, both flocks and herds. ³⁹The dough they had brought out of Egypt had no yeast in it. So they baked it into flat loaves without yeast. They had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait. They had not even made food ready for the trip. ⁴⁰The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years. ⁴¹At the end of the 430 years, on that very day, all the LORD's army groups went out of the land of Egypt. ⁴²The LORD kept watch that night to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So this same night is to be a night of watching to honor the LORD. All the Israelites must keep it for all the generations to come. ⁴³The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the rules for the Passover. No foreigner may eat it. ⁴⁴But any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him. ⁴⁵A visitor who is staying only for a while may not eat the Passover. A hired worker may not eat it either. ⁴⁶It must be eaten inside one house. You must not take any of the meat outside the house. You must not break any of its bones. ⁴⁷The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. ⁴⁸If a foreigner lives among you and wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover, all the males in his household must be circumcised. After that he may come and celebrate it. He will be like someone born in the land. But no man who is not circumcised may eat it. ⁴⁹The same law is for the one born in the land and for the foreigner who lives among you." ⁵⁰Then all the Israelites did this. They did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹On that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, group by group, like an army.