‏ Exodus 12:2-39

2 ^a“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb ^baccording to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5Your lamb shall be ^cwithout blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6and you shall keep it until the ^dfourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. ▼

▼Hebrew between the two evenings

7“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the ^ftwo doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with ^gunleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^hroasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10And ⁱyou shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11In this manner you shall eat it: with ^jyour belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. ^kIt is the Lord’s Passover. 12For ^lI will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on ^mall the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: ⁿI am the Lord. 13 ^oThe 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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14“This day shall be ^pfor you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a ^qstatute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 ^rSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, ^sthat person shall be cut off from Israel. 16On the first day you shall hold a ^tholy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ^uon this very day I brought your ^vhosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 ^wIn the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 ^xFor seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, ^ythat person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, ^zwhether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

21Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves ^aaaccording to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22Take a bunch of ^abhyssop and ^acdip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch ^adthe lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. ^aeNone of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 ^afFor the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on ^agthe lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^ahwill not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, ^aias he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26And ^ajwhen your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27you shall say, ^ak‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people ^albowed their heads and worshiped.

28Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

29 ^amAt midnight the ^anLord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, ^aofrom the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was ^apa great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 31Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, ^aqboth you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 32 ^arTake your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

The Exodus

33 ^asThe Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had ^atasked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 ^auAnd the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that ^avthey let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

37And the ^awpeople of Israel journeyed from ^axRameses to Succoth, ^ayabout six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38A ^azmixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 39And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because ^bathey were thrust out of Egypt and ^bbcould not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.