Exodus 12–13

12TH CHAPTER

Passover

¹The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ²“This month will be the very first month of the year for you. ³Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth ⸤day⸥ of this month each man must take a lamb or a young goat for his family—one animal per household. ⁴A household may be too small to eat a whole animal. That household and the one next door can share one animal. Choose your animal based on the number of people and what each person can eat. ⁵Your animal must be a one-year-old male that has no defects. You may choose a lamb or a young goat. ⁶Take care of it until the fourteenth ⸤day⸥ of this month. 

“Then at dusk, all the assembled people from the community of Israel must slaughter their animals. ⁷They must take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they will eat the animals. ⁸The meat must be eaten that same night. It must be roasted over a fire and eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. ⁹Don’t eat any of it raw or boiled but roast the whole animal over a fire. ¹⁰Don’t leave any of it until morning. Anything left over in the morning must be burned up. ¹¹This is how ⸤you should be dressed when⸥ you eat it: with your belt on, your sandals on your feet, and your shepherd’s staff in your hand. You must eat it in a hurry. It is the Lord’s Passover. 

¹²“On that same night I will go throughout Egypt and kill every firstborn male, both human and animal. I will severely punish all the gods of Egypt, ⸤because⸥ I am the Lord. ¹³But the blood on your houses will be a sign for your protection. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Nothing will touch or destroy you when I strike Egypt. 

¹⁴“This day will be one for you to remember. This is a permanent law for generations to come: You will celebrate this day as a pilgrimage festival in the Lord’s honor. ¹⁵For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the very first day you must remove any yeast that you have in your houses. Whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh day must be excluded from Israel. ¹⁶You must have a holy assembly on the first day and another one on the seventh. You must not work on these days except to prepare your own meals. That’s all you may do. 

¹⁷You must celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread because it was on this very day that I brought you out of Egypt in organized family groups. This is a permanent law for future generations: You must celebrate this day. ¹⁸From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day you must eat unleavened bread. ¹⁹There should be no yeast in your houses for seven days. Whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be excluded from the community of Israel, whether he is an Israelite or not. ²⁰Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat ⸤only⸥ unleavened bread.” 

²¹Then Moses called for all the leaders of Israel. He said to them, “Pick out a lamb or a young goat for your families, and kill the Passover animal. ²²Take the branch of a hyssop plant, dip it in the blood which is in a bowl, and put some of the blood on the top and sides of the doorframes ⸤of your houses⸥. No one may leave the house until morning. ²³The Lord will go throughout Egypt to kill the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, he will pass over that doorway, and he will not let the destroyer come into your home to kill you. 

²⁴“You must follow these instructions. They are a permanent law for you and your children. ²⁵When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶When your children ask you what this ceremony means to you, ²⁷you must answer, ‘It’s the Passover sacrifice in the Lord’s honor. The Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he killed the Egyptians.’ ” 

Then the people knelt, bowing with their faces touching the ground. ²⁸The Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 

²⁹At midnight the Lord killed every firstborn male in Egypt from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who ruled the land to the firstborn son of the prisoner in jail, and also every firstborn animal. ³⁰Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the ⸤other⸥ Egyptians got up during the night. There was loud crying throughout Egypt because in every house someone had died. 

Pharaoh Allows the Israelites to Leave Egypt

³¹Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night. He said, “You and the Israelites must leave my people at once. Go, worship the Lord as you asked. ³²Take your flocks and herds, too, as you asked. Just go! And bless me, too!” 

³³The Egyptians begged the people to leave the country quickly. They said, “Soon we’ll all be dead!” ³⁴So the people picked up their bread dough before it had risen and carried it on their shoulders in bowls, wrapped up in their clothes. 

³⁵The Israelites did what Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for gold and silver jewelry and for clothes. ³⁶The Lord made the Egyptians generous to the people, and they gave them what they asked for. So the Israelites stripped Egypt of its wealth. 

The Israelites Leave Egypt

³⁷The Israelites left Rameses to go to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, plus all the women and children. ³⁸Many other people also went with them, along with large numbers of sheep, goats, and cattle. 

³⁹With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked round, flat bread. The dough hadn’t risen because they’d been thrown out of Egypt and had no time to prepare food for the trip. 

⁴⁰The Israelites had been living in Egypt for 430 years. ⁴¹After exactly 430 years all the Lord’s people left Egypt in organized family groups. ⁴²That night the Lord kept watch to take them out of Egypt. (All Israelites in future generations must keep watch on this night, since it is dedicated to the Lord.) 

Rules for the Passover

⁴³The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the rules for the Passover: 

“No foreigner may eat the Passover meal. 

⁴⁴“Any male slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him. 

⁴⁵“No foreigner visiting you may eat it. 

“No hired worker may eat it. 

⁴⁶“The meal must be eaten inside one house. Never take any of the meat outside the house. 

“Never break any of the bones. 

⁴⁷“The whole community of Israel must celebrate the Passover. 

⁴⁸“Foreigners may want to celebrate the Lord’s Passover. First, every male in the household must be circumcised. Then they may celebrate the Passover like native-born Israelites. But no uncircumcised males may ever eat the Passover meal. ⁴⁹The same instructions apply to native-born Israelites as well as foreigners.” 

⁵⁰All the Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹That very day the Lord brought all the Israelites out of Egypt in organized family groups. 

13TH CHAPTER

¹The Lord spoke to Moses, ²“Set apart every firstborn male for me. Every firstborn male offspring among the Israelites is mine, whether human or animal.” 

³Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day—the day when you left Egypt, the land of slavery. The Lord used his mighty hand to bring you out of there. Don’t eat anything made with yeast. ⁴Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving Egypt. ⁵The Lord swore to your ancestors that he would give you the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites. When he brings you into that land flowing with milk and honey, you must observe this ceremony in this month. 

⁶“For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. The seventh day will be a pilgrimage festival in the Lord’s honor. ⁷Only unleavened bread should be eaten during these seven days. No sourdough or yeast should be seen anywhere in your territory. ⁸On that day tell your children, ‘We do this because of what the Lord did for us when we left Egypt.’ ⁹This ⸤festival⸥ will be ⸤like⸥ a mark on your hand or a reminder on your forehead that the teachings of the Lord are ⸤always⸥ to be a part of your conversation. Because the Lord used his mighty hand to bring you out of Egypt, ¹⁰you must follow these rules every year at this time. 

Rules Concerning the Firstborn Child

¹¹“When the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he swore to you and your ancestors, ¹²sacrifice every firstborn male offspring to the Lord. The firstborn male offspring of each of your animals belongs to the Lord. ¹³It will cost you a sheep or a goat to buy any firstborn donkey back from the Lord. If you don’t buy it back, then you must break the donkey’s neck. You must also buy every firstborn son back from the Lord. 

¹⁴“In the future when your children ask you what this means, tell them, ‘The Lord used his mighty hand to bring us out of slavery in Egypt. ¹⁵When Pharaoh was too stubborn to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn male in Egypt—human and animal. This is why we sacrifice every firstborn male to the Lord and buy every firstborn son back from the Lord.’ ¹⁶So this ⸤festival⸥ will be ⸤like⸥ a mark on your hand and ⸤like⸥ a band on your forehead, because the Lord used his mighty hand to bring us out of Egypt.” 

God Leads the People out of Egypt

¹⁷When Pharaoh let the people go, God didn’t lead them on the road through Philistine territory, although that was the shortest route. God said, “If they see that they have to fight a war, they may change their minds and go back to Egypt.” ¹⁸So God led the people around the other way, on the road through the desert toward the Red Sea. The Israelites were ready for battle when they left Egypt. 

¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly swear to do this. Joseph had said, “God will definitely come to help you. When he does, take my bones with you.” 

²⁰They moved from Succoth and camped at Etham, on the edge of the desert. ²¹By day the Lord went ahead of them in a column of smoke to lead them on their way. By night he…