21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passoverb lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop,c dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the bloodd on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strikee down the Egyptians, he will see the bloodf on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass overg that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyerh to enter your houses and strike you down.

24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinancei for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the landj that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your childrenk ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passoverl sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ”m Then the people bowed down and worshiped.n 28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commandedo Moses and Aaron.

29 At midnightp the Lordq struck down all the firstbornr in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestocks as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailingt in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

The Exodus

31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worshipu the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds,v as you have said, and go. And also blessw me.”

33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurryx and leavey the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!”z 34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughsa wrapped in clothing. 35 The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and goldb and for clothing.c 36 The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposedd toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plunderede the Egyptians.

37 The Israelites journeyed from Ramesesf to Sukkoth.g There were about six hundred thousand menh on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other peoplei went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven outj of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egyptb was 430 years.k 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisionsl left Egypt.m