Exodus 11–12

A Final Plague Threatened

11The Lord said to Moses, “Yet ^sone plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. ^tWhen he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. ²Speak now in the hearing of the people, that ^uthey ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” ^3vAnd the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

⁴So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ^w‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, ⁵and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is ^xbehind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. ^6yThere shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. ⁷But not a dog shall growl ^zagainst any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord ^amakes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ ⁸And ^ball these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. ⁹Then the Lord said to Moses, ^c“Pharaoh will not listen to you, that ^dmy wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

¹⁰Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord ^ehardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

The Passover

12The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ^2f“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb ^gaccording to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. ⁴And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. ⁵Your lamb shall be ^hwithout blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, ⁶and you shall keep it until the ⁱfourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.¹

⁷“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the ^jtwo doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with ^kunleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^lroasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. ¹⁰And ^myou shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹In this manner you shall eat it: with ⁿyour belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. ^oIt is the Lord’s Passover. ¹²For ^pI will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on ^qall the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: ^rI am the Lord. ^13sThe blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴“This day shall be ^tfor you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a ^ustatute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. ^15vSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, ^wthat person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day you shall hold a ^xholy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ^yon this very day I brought your ^zhosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. ^18aIn the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ^19bFor seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, ^bthat person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, ^cwhether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. ²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves ^daccording to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. ²²Take a bunch of ^ehyssop and ^fdip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch ^gthe lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. ^hNone of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. ²³ⁱFor the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on ^gthe lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^jwill not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. ²⁴You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. ²⁵And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, ^kas he has promised, you shall keep this service. ²⁶And ^lwhen your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷you shall say, ^m‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people ⁿbowed their heads and worshiped.

²⁸Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

^29oAt midnight the ^pLord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, ^qfrom the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. ³⁰And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was ^ra great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. ³¹Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, ^sboth you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. ^32tTake your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

The Exodus

^33uThe Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” ³⁴So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. ³⁵The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had ^vasked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. ^36wAnd the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that ^xthey let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷And the ^ypeople of Israel journeyed from ^zRameses to Succoth, ^aabout six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. ³⁸A ^bmixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because ^uthey were thrust out of Egypt and ^ccould not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹At the end of ^d430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴²It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a ^enight of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

Institution of the Passover

⁴³And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, ⁴⁴but every slave² that is ^fbought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. ^45gNo foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. ⁴⁶It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and ^hyou shall not break any of its bones. ⁴⁷ⁱAll the congregation of Israel shall keep it. ^48jIf a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he ^kshall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. ⁴⁹There shall be ^lone law for the native and for the ^jstranger who sojourns among you.”

⁵⁰All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹And on that very day the ^mLord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their ⁿhosts.