Exodus 12–13

The Passover

12^*The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt: ^2*“This month is to be the first month of the year for you. ^3*Give these instructions to the whole community of Israel: on the tenth day of this month each man must choose either a lamb or a young goat for his household. ^4*If his family is too small to eat a whole animal, he and his next-door neighbour may share an animal, in proportion to the number of people and the amount that each person can eat. ^5*You may choose either a sheep or a goat, but it must be a one-year-old male without any defects. ^6*Then, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, the whole community of Israel will kill the animals. ^7*The people are to take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and above the doors of the houses in which the animals are to be eaten. ^8*That night the meat is to be roasted, and eaten with bitter herbs and with bread made without yeast. ^9*Do not eat any of it raw or boiled, but eat it roasted whole, including the head, the legs, and the internal organs. ^10*You must not leave any of it until morning; if any is left over, it must be burnt. ^11*You are to eat it quickly, for you are to be dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your stick in your hand. It is the Passover Festival to honour me, the Lord.

^12*“On that night I will go through the land of Egypt, killing every firstborn male, both human and animal, and punishing all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ^13*The blood on the doorposts will be a sign to mark the houses in which you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you and will not harm you when I punish the Egyptians. ^14*You must celebrate this day as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the Lord, have done. Celebrate it for all time to come.”

The Festival of the Unleavened Bread

^15*The Lord said, “For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast—eat only unleavened bread. On the first day you are to get rid of all the yeast in your houses, for if anyone during those seven days eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people. ^16*On the first day and again on the seventh day you are to meet for worship. No work is to be done on those days, but you may prepare food. ^17*Keep this festival, because it was on this day that I brought your tribes out of Egypt. For all time to come you must celebrate this day as a festival. ^18*From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month to the evening of the twenty-first day, you must not eat any bread made with yeast. ^19–20*For seven days no yeast must be found in your houses, for if anyone, native-born or foreign, eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people.”

The First Passover

²¹Moses called for all the leaders of Israel and said to them, “Each of you is to choose a lamb or a young goat and kill it, so that your families can celebrate Passover. ²²Take a sprig of hyssop, dip it in the bowl containing^k the animal’s blood, and wipe the blood on the doorposts and the beam above the door of your house. Not one of you is to leave the house until morning. ^23*When the Lord goes through Egypt to kill the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the beams and the doorposts and will not let the Angel of Death enter your houses and kill you. ²⁴You and your children must obey these rules for ever. ²⁵When you enter the land that the Lord has promised to give you, you must perform this ritual. ²⁶When your children ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean?’ ²⁷you will answer, ‘It is the sacrifice of Passover to honour the Lord, because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians, but spared us.’ ”

The Israelites knelt down and worshipped. ²⁸Then they went and did what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Death of the First-Born

^29*At midnight the Lord killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt, from the king’s son, who was heir to the throne, to the son of the prisoner in the dungeon; all the firstborn of the animals were also killed. ³⁰That night, the king, his officials, and all the other Egyptians were awakened. There was loud crying throughout Egypt, because there was not one home in which there was not a dead son. ³¹That same night the king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “Get out, you and your Israelites! Leave my country; go and worship the Lord, as you asked. ³²Take your sheep, goats, and cattle, and leave. Also pray for a blessing on me.”

³³The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country; they said, “We will all be dead if you don’t leave.” ³⁴So the people filled their baking pans with unleavened dough, wrapped them in clothing, and carried them on their shoulders. ^35*The Israelites had done as Moses had said, and had asked the Egyptians for gold and silver jewellery and for clothing. ^36*The Lord made the Egyptians respect the people and give them what they asked for. In this way the Israelites carried away the wealth of the Egyptians.

The Israelites Leave Egypt

³⁷The Israelites set out on foot from Rameses for Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men, not counting women and children. ³⁸A large number of other people and many sheep, goats, and cattle also went with them. ³⁹They baked unleavened bread from the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for they had been driven out of Egypt so suddenly that they did not have time to get their food ready or to prepare leavened dough.

^40*The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years. ⁴¹On the day the 430 years ended, all the tribes of the Lord’s people left Egypt. ⁴²It was a night when the Lord kept watch to bring them out of Egypt; this same night is dedicated to the Lord for all time to come as a night when the Israelites must keep watch.

Regulations about Passover

⁴³The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the Passover regulations: no foreigner shall eat the Passover meal, ⁴⁴but any slave that you have bought may eat it if you circumcise him first. ⁴⁵No temporary resident or hired worker may eat it. ^46*The whole meal must be eaten in the house in which it was prepared; it must not be taken outside. And do not break any of the animal’s bones. ⁴⁷The whole community of Israel must celebrate this festival, ⁴⁸but no uncircumcised man may eat it. If a foreigner has settled among you and wants to celebrate Passover to honour the Lord, you must first circumcise all the males of his household. He is then to be treated like a native-born Israelite and may join in the festival. ⁴⁹The same regulations apply to native-born Israelites and to foreigners who settle among you.” ⁵⁰All the Israelites obeyed and did what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹On that day the Lord brought the Israelite tribes out of Egypt.

Dedication of the First-Born

13The Lord said to Moses, ^2*“Dedicate all the firstborn males to me, for every firstborn male Israelite and every firstborn male animal belongs to me.”

The Festival of Unleavened Bread

³Moses said to the people, “Remember this day—the day on which you left Egypt, the place where you were slaves. This is the day the Lord brought you out by his great power. No leavened bread is to be eaten. ⁴You are leaving Egypt on this day in the first month, the month of Abib. ⁵The Lord solemnly promised your ancestors to give you the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. When he brings you into that rich and fertile land, you must celebrate this festival in the first month of every year. ⁶For seven days you must eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to honour the Lord. ⁷For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast; there must be no yeast or leavened bread anywhere in your land. ⁸When the festival begins, explain to your sons that you do all this because of what the Lord did for you when you left Egypt. ⁹This observance will be a reminder, like something tied on your hand or on your forehead; it will remind you to continue to recite and study the Law of the Lord, because the Lord brought you out of Egypt by his great power. ¹⁰Celebrate this festival at the appointed time each year.

The First-Born

¹¹“The Lord will bring you into the land of the Canaanites, which he solemnly promised to you and your ancestors. When he gives it to you, ^12*you must offer every firstborn male to the Lord. Every firstborn male of your animals belongs to the Lord, ¹³but you must buy back from him every firstborn male donkey by offering a lamb in its place. If you do not want to buy back the donkey, break its neck. You must buy back every firstborn male child of yours. ¹⁴In the future, when your son asks what this observance means, you will answer him, ‘By using great power the Lord brought us out of Egypt, the place where we were slaves. ¹⁵When the king of Egypt was stubborn and refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both human and animal. That is why we sacrifice every firstborn male animal to the Lord, but buy back our firstborn sons. ¹⁶This observance will be a reminder, like something tied on our hands or on our foreheads; it will remind us that the Lord brought us out of Egypt by his great power.’ ”

The Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire

¹⁷When the king of Egypt let the people go, God did not take them by the road that goes up the coast to Philistia, although it was the shortest way. God thought, “I do not want the people to change their minds and return to Egypt when they see that they are going to have to fight.” ¹⁸Instead, he led them in a roundabout way through the desert towards the Red Sea.^l The Israelites were armed for battle.

^19*Moses took the body of Joseph with him, as Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly promise to do. Joseph had said, “When God rescues you, you must carry my body with you from this place.”

²⁰The Israelites left Sukkoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹During the day the Lord went in front of them in a…