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.

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Footnotes

kdip it in the bowl containing; or put it on the threshold covered with.

Cross references

*12.23: He 11:28
*12.29: Ex 4:22–32