Exodus
Chapter 12
1 God spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, saying,
2 This month will be the start of months for you: It will be your first month of the year.
3 Tell all the people of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each family must choose a lamb for their household.
4 If the family is too small for a whole lamb, they must share with a nearby neighbor based on the number of people. Everyone should have enough lamb to eat.
5 Choose a one-year-old male lamb without any defects, from either the sheep or the goats.
6 You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month. Then the whole community of Israel will slaughter it at twilight.
7 They will take some of the blood and put it on the two side posts and above the door frame of the houses where they will eat it.
8 They will eat the meat that night, cooked over fire, along with bread without yeast and bitter herbs.
9 Do not eat it raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire with its head, legs, and inner parts.
10 Do not leave any of it until morning; whatever is left until morning, you must burn.
11 Eat it ready to travel, with belts on, shoes on your feet, and staffs in hand. Eat quickly, it is God’s Passover.
12 Tonight, I will go through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both people and animals, and I will judge all the gods of Egypt. I am God.
13 The blood will be a sign on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. The plague will not touch you to destroy you when I strike Egypt.
14 Remember this day and celebrate it as a feast to God for all generations; it is a forever feast by God’s rule.
15 Eat bread without yeast for seven days; on the first day, remove all yeast from your homes. Anyone who eats bread with yeast from the first to the seventh day will be separated from Israel.
16 On the first day, you will have a special gathering, and on the seventh day, another special gathering. You must not do any work on those days, except for preparing food that everyone needs to eat.
17 You must celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I led your groups out of Egypt. So, you must keep this day as a lasting rule for all time in your generations.
18 On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening, you must eat bread without yeast until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month.
19 For seven days, you must not have any yeast in your homes. Anyone who eats anything with yeast will be separated from the community of Israel, whether they are a visitor or born in the country.
20 You must not eat anything with yeast; in all the places you live, eat bread without yeast.
21 Moses gathered all the Israelite leaders and said to them, “Pick out and take a lamb for each family, and slaughter it for the Passover.”
22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the bowl, and touch the top and both sides of the doorframe with the blood in the bowl. Do not leave your house until morning.
23 God will go through to hit the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the top and sides of the door frame, God will skip the door, and won’t let the destroyer enter your homes to hit you.
24 You must always follow this rule, you and your children.
25 When you arrive in the land that God will give you, as He promised, you must perform this service.
26 When your children ask you, “What does this service mean to you?”
27 You should say, “It is the sacrifice of God’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians and saved our houses.” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 The Israelites left and did what God told Moses and Aaron to do.
29 At midnight, God struck down every firstborn in Egypt, from Pharaoh’s firstborn who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon; and every firstborn of the animals too.
30 Pharaoh and all his officials and Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud crying in Egypt because every house had someone who had died.
31 During the night, he asked Moses and Aaron to come and told them, “Get up, leave my people with all of you and the Israelites, and go worship God, as you wanted.”
32 Take your livestock and your cattle, as you mentioned, and leave; and give me a blessing too.
33 The Egyptians strongly urged the people to hurry and leave the land because they said, “We are all going to die.”
34 The people took their dough before it rose, their kneading bowls wrapped in their clothes on their shoulders.
35 The Israelites did what Moses told them; they asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and clothes.
36 God made the Egyptians kind to the people, so they borrowed what they needed. And they took valuable things from the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, with about six hundred thousand men walking, not counting children.
38 A diverse group also went with them, along with flocks, herds, and many cattle.
39 They made flat bread without yeast from the dough they took from Egypt. It was unleavened because they had to leave Egypt quickly and had no time to wait or prepare food.
40 The time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.
41 On the very day after 430 years, all of God’s people left Egypt.
42 This is a special night to honor God for leading them out of Egypt: this is the night for all Israelites to remember throughout their generations.
43 God told Moses and Aaron, “This is the rule of the Passover: No outsider may eat it.”
44 If you buy a man as a servant, after you circumcise him, he can eat of it.
45 A foreigner and a paid worker shall not eat it.
46 Eat it in one house; do not take any of the meat outside; and do not break any of its bones.
47 Every group in Israel must celebrate it.
48 When a foreigner stays with you and wants to celebrate the Passover to God, have all his males circumcised. Then he can join in and celebrate. He will be like someone born in the country. No uncircumcised person may eat the Passover meal.
49 The same law applies to everyone born at home and to foreigners living with you.
50 All the Israelites did as God told Moses and Aaron to do.
51 On that very day, God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, organized by their groups.