Exodus 11–12

CHAPTER 11

Yahweh Says One More Plague

¹Then Yahweh said to Moses, “One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; ^aafter that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely.

²“Speak now in the ¹hearing of the people so that ^aeach man may ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.”

^3a(And Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. ^bMoreover, the man Moses himself was very great in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.)

⁴So Moses said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘About ^amidnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt,

⁵and ^aall the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the millstones; and all the firstborn of the cattle.

⁶‘Moreover, there shall be ^aa great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again.

⁷‘^aBut for any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even ¹bark, whether against man or beast, that you may know how Yahweh makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’

⁸“^aThen all these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves ¹before me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who ²follow you,’ and after that I will go out.” ^bAnd he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

⁹Then Yahweh said to Moses, “^aPharaoh will not listen to you, so ^bthat My miraculous wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

^10aNow Moses and Aaron did all these miraculous wonders before Pharaoh; yet ^bYahweh ¹hardened Pharaoh’s heart with strength, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

CHAPTER 12

The Passover Lamb

¹Now Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of ¹Egypt,

²“^aThis month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

³“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a ¹lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a ²lamb for ³each household.

⁴‘Now if the household is too small for a ¹lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the ²number of persons in them; according to ³what each man should eat, you are to ⁴apportion the lamb.

⁵‘Your ¹lamb shall be ^aa male, without blemish, a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

⁶‘¹And you shall keep it until the ^afourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it ^2bat twilight.

⁷‘^aMoreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel ¹of the houses in which they eat it.

⁸‘And they shall eat the flesh ^athat night, ^broasted with fire, and they shall eat it with ^cunleavened bread ^1dand bitter herbs.

⁹‘Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather ^aroasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with ^bits entrails.

¹⁰‘^aAnd you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.

¹¹‘Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is ^athe Passover of Yahweh.

¹²‘And ^aI will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and ^bagainst all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—^cI am Yahweh.

¹³‘^aAnd the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague among you ¹to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴‘Now ^athis day will be ^ba memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as ^1ca perpetual statute.

¹⁵‘^aSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall ¹remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, ^bthat ²person shall be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶‘^aNow on the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten ¹by every person, that alone may be done by you.

¹⁷‘You shall also keep ^athe Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this ^bvery day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as ^1ca perpetual statute.

¹⁸‘^aIn the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

¹⁹‘^aSeven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that ^1bperson shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.

²⁰‘You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your places of habitation you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

²¹Then ^aMoses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “¹Bring out and ^btake for yourselves ²lambs according to your families and slaughter ^cthe Passover lamb.

²²“^aAnd you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and ¹touch some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the doorway of his house until morning.

²³“And ^aYahweh will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and Yahweh will pass over the doorway and will ^bnot allow the ^cdestroyer to come into your houses to smite you.

²⁴“And ^ayou shall keep this event as a statute for you and your children forever.

²⁵“And it will be, when you enter the land which Yahweh will give you, as He has ¹promised, you shall keep this new ²slavery.

²⁶“^aAnd it will be when your children say to you, ‘¹What is the meaning of this new slavery to you?’

²⁷that you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to ^aYahweh who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but delivered our homes.’” ^bAnd the people bowed low and worshiped.

²⁸Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Death of the Firstborn of Egypt

²⁹Now it happened at ^amidnight that ^bYahweh struck all ^cthe firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the ¹dungeon, and all the firstborn of ^dcattle.

³⁰Then Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was ^aa great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead.

³¹Then ^ahe called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, ^bget out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, ¹serve Yahweh, as you have spoken.

³²“Take ^aboth your flocks and your herds, as you have spoken, and go, and bless me also.”

Israel Goes Out From Egypt

^33aAnd the Egyptians strongly pressed the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We will all be dead.”

³⁴So the people took up ^atheir dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders.

^35aNow the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses—they had asked from the Egyptians for articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing;

³⁶and Yahweh had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they ^aplundered the Egyptians.

³⁷And the ^asons of Israel journeyed from ^bRameses to Succoth, about ^csix hundred thousand men on foot, aside from the little ones.

³⁸A ^1aforeign multitude also went up with them, ²along with flocks and herds, a ^bvery ³large number of livestock.

³⁹And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had not become leavened, since they were ^adriven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they ¹prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰Now the time ¹that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was ^a430 years.

⁴¹And it happened at the end of 430 years, ¹to ^athe very day, that ^ball the hosts of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt.

^42aIt is a night to be kept for Yahweh for having brought them out from the land of Egypt; this night is for Yahweh, to be kept ¹by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.

The Statute of the Passover

⁴³And Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of ^athe Passover: no ^1bforeigner shall eat of it;

⁴⁴but every man’s ^aslave purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it.

⁴⁵“^aA foreign resident or a hired person shall not eat of it.

⁴⁶“It shall be eaten in a single house; you shall not bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, ^aand you shall not break any bone of it.

⁴⁷“^aAll the congregation of Israel shall ¹celebrate this.

⁴⁸“But ^aif a sojourner sojourns with you and ¹celebrates the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to ²celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

⁴⁹“^1aThe same law shall ²apply to the native as to the sojourner who sojourns among you.”

⁵⁰So all the sons of Israel did; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, thus they did.

⁵¹And on that same day ^aYahweh brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt ^1bby their hosts.