Exodus 12:21–30

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.