The Death of the Egyptian Firstborn

(Ex 12:29–30; 14:26–31)

5 When they had resolved to kill the infants of your holy ones,

and one child had been abandoned and rescued,

you in punishment took away a multitude of their children;

and you destroyed them all together by a mighty flood.

6 That night was made known beforehand to our ancestors,

so that they might rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted.

7 The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies

were expected by your people.

8 For by the same means by which you punished our enemies

you called us to yourself and glorified us.

9 For in secret the holy children of good people offered sacrifices,

and with one accord agreed to the divine law,

so that the saints would share alike the same things,

both blessings and dangers;

and already they were singing the praises of the ancestors.f

10 But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back,

and their piteous lament for their children was spread abroad.

11 The slave was punished with the same penalty as the master,

and the commoner suffered the same loss as the king;

12 and they all together, by the one formg of death,

had corpses too many to count.

For the living were not sufficient even to bury them,

since in one instant their most valued children had been destroyed.

13 For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts,

yet, when their firstborn were destroyed, they acknowledged your people to be God’s child.

14 For while gentle silence enveloped all things,

and night in its swift course was now half gone,

15 your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne,

into the midst of the land that was doomed,

a stern warrior

16 carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command,

and stood and filled all things with death,

and touched heaven while standing on the earth.

17 Then at once apparitions in dreadful dreams greatly troubled them,

and unexpected fears assailed them;

18 and one here and another there, hurled down half dead,

made known why they were dying;

19 for the dreams that disturbed them forewarned them of this,

so that they might not perish without knowing why they suffered.