Exodus 12:21–30

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

²⁴“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinanceⁱ for you and your descendants. ²⁵When you enter the land^j that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶And when your children^k ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷then tell them, ‘It is the Passover^l 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 commanded^o Moses and Aaron.

²⁹At midnight^p the Lord^q struck down all the firstborn^r 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 livestock^s as well. ³⁰Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing^t in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.