Exodus 12

Instructions for the Passover

12The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ²“This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year. ^k3Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ households, one animal per household. ⁴If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each person ^lwill eat. ⁵You must have an unblemished ^manimal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. ⁶You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. ⁿ⁷They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. ⁸They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ^o9Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling ^pwater, but only roasted ^qover fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. ¹⁰Do not let any of it remain until morning; ^ryou must burn up any part of it that does remain before morning. ¹¹Here is how you must eat it: you must be dressed for travel, ^syour sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover. ^t

¹²“I will pass through ^uthe land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. ^v13The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute. ^w15You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast ^xfrom your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off ^yfrom Israel. ¹⁶You are to hold a sacred assembly ^zon the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat—you may do only that.

¹⁷“You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. ^aYou must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. ¹⁸You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, ^bfrom the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreign resident or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.” ^c

²¹Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. ^d22Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood ^ethat is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, He will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you. ^f

²⁴“Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. ²⁵When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you are to observe this ritual. ²⁶When your children ^gask you, ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ ²⁷you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice ^hto the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and spared our homes.’ ” So the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Exodus

²⁹Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock. ⁱ³⁰During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing ^jthroughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead. ³¹He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship Yahweh as you have asked. ³²Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”

³³Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!” ^k34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.

³⁵The Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. ^l36And the Lord gave the people such favor in the Egyptians’ sight that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, ^mabout 600,000 ⁿsoldiers on foot, besides their families. ³⁸An ethnically diverse crowd also went up with them, along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹The people baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, since it had no yeast; for when they had been driven ^oout of Egypt they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰The time that the Israelites lived in Egypt ^pwas 430 years. ^q41At the end of 430 years, on that same day, all the Lord’s divisions went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴²It was a night of vigil in honor of the Lord, because He would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the Lord, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations. ^r

Passover Instruction

⁴³The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it. ⁴⁴But any slave a man has purchased may eat it, after you have circumcised him. ⁴⁵A temporary resident or hired hand may not eat the Passover. ^s46It is to be eaten in one house. You may not take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of its bones. ^t47The whole community of Israel must celebrate ^uit. ⁴⁸If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; ^vhe will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. ⁴⁹The same law will apply to both the native and the foreigner ^wwho resides among you.”

⁵⁰Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹On that same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their divisions. ^x