12:14-20* — Lev 23:4–8; Nu 28:16–25; Dt 16:1–8
12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2“This month is to be for you the first month,a the first month of your year. 3Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb*b for his family, one for each household.c 4If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,d and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,e when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.f 7Then they are to take some of the bloodg and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8That same nighth they are to eat the meat roastedi over the fire, along with bitter herbs,j and bread made without yeast.k 9Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs.l 10Do not leave any of it till morning;m if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste;n it is the Lord’s Passover.o
12“On that same night I will pass throughp Egypt and strike downq every firstbornr of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the godss of Egypt. I am the Lord.t 13The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass overu you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.v
14“This is a day you are to commemorate;w for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.x 15For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.y On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut offz from Israel. 16On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no worka at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
17“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread,b because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.c Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.d 18In the first monthe you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreignerf or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut offg from the community of Israel. 20Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live,h you must eat unleavened bread.”i
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 Passoverj lamb. 22Take a bunch of hyssop,k dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the bloodl 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 strikem down the Egyptians, he will see the bloodn on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass overo that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyerp to enter your houses and strike you down.
24“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinanceq for you and your descendants. 25When you enter the landr that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26And when your childrens ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27then tell them, ‘It is the Passovert sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ”u Then the people bowed down and worshiped.v 28The Israelites did just what the Lord commandedw Moses and Aaron.
29At midnightx the Lordy struck down all the firstbornz 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 livestocka as well. 30Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailingb in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
31During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worshipa the Lord as you have requested. 32Take your flocks and herds,b as you have said, and go. And also blessc me.”
33The Egyptians urged the people to hurryd and leavee the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!”f 34So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughsg wrapped in clothing. 35The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and goldh and for clothing.i 36The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposedj toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plunderedk the Egyptians.
37The Israelites journeyed from Ramesesl to Sukkoth.m There were about six hundred thousand menn on foot, besides women and children. 38Many other peopleo went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven outp of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
40Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt* was 430 years.q 41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisionsr left Egypt.s 42Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.t
43The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover:a
“No foreignerb is to eat of it. 44Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcisedc him, 45but a temporary resident or a hired workerd may not eat of it.
46“It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.e 47The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48“A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land.f No uncircumcisedg male may eat of it. 49The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreignerh residing among you.”
50All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commandedi Moses and Aaron. 51And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egyptj by their divisions.k