The Passover Instituted

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 a“This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the btenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be cwithout 1blemish, a male 2of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the dfourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that enight; froasted in fire, with gunleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but hroasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 iYou shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: 3with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. jIt is the Lord’s Passover.

12 ‘For I kwill pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and lagainst all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: mI am the Lord. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 ‘So this day shall be to you na memorial; and you shall keep it as a ofeast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast pby an everlasting ordinance. 15 qSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, rthat 4person shall be 5cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be sa holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ton this same day I will have brought your 6armies uout of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 vIn 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 For wseven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

21 Then xMoses called for all the yelders of Israel and said to them, z“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 aAnd you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and bstrike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. 23 cFor the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the dblood on the 7lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and enot allow fthe destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. 24 And you shall gobserve this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. 25 It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, hjust as He promised, that you shall keep this service. 26 iAnd it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 that you shall say, j‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people kbowed their heads and worshiped. 28 Then the children of Israel went away and ldid so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

29 mAnd it came to pass at midnight that nthe Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was 8in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of olivestock. 30 So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.