The Lord’s Passover
1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month will be the beginning of months for you. It will be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they must each select a lamb, according to their fathers’ households, one lamb per household. 4 If the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his next door neighbor must take one according to the number of people, dividing the lamb according to what everyone can eat.
5 Your lamb must be without defect, a one year old male. You may take it from either the sheep, or from the goats. 6 You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel must kill it at evening.
7 They must take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it. 8 They must eat the meat on that night, roasted with fire and unleavened bread. They must eat it with bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boil any of it with water, but roast it with fire, with its head, its legs and its inner parts.
10 You must let nothing of it remain until the morning, but that which remains of it until the morning you must burn with fire. 11 This is how you must eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you must eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
12 For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
13 The blood must be a token for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.’ ”
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
14 ” ‘This day must be a memorial for you. You must keep it as a feast to the Lord. You must keep it as a feast throughout your generations as an ordinance forever.
15 Seven days you must eat unleavened bread, from the first day you must remove yeast from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person must be cut off from Israel.
16 On the first day you must hold a sacred assembly and again on the seventh day. No kind of work may be done on those days, except to prepare what each man needs to eat. Only that may be done by you.
17 You must observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you must observe this day throughout your generations as an ordinance forever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you must eat unleavened bread, until the 21st day of the month at evening. 19 There must be no yeast found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that person must be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner, or one who is born in the land. 20 You must eat nothing leavened. In all your households you must eat unleavened bread.’ ”
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. 22 You must take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two door posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you. 24 You must observe this thing as an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.
25 And it shall come to pass, when you have entered into the land which the Lord will give you, as he has promised, that you must observe this ceremony. 26 And it shall come to pass, when your children ask you, ‘What is the meaning of this ceremony?’ 27 that you must say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our households.’ ”
The people bowed their heads and worshiped. 28 The Israelites went and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight, the 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 in the dungeon and all the firstborn of livestock. 30 Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and 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 someone dead.
The Exodus Begins
31 Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, serve the Lord, as you have said! 32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said and be gone, and also bless me!”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to leave the land in haste, for they said, “We will all die.” 34 The people took their dough before it was leavened, and they bound their kneading troughs up in their clothing and carried them on their shoulders. 35 The Israelites did according to the word of Moses and they asked the Egyptians for jewels of silver and jewels of gold and clothing. 36 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot, in addition to children. 38 A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and a very large number of livestock. 39 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt. It was not leavened because they were driven out of Egypt in haste and could not wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves. 40 Now the time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of 430 years, to the day, all of the Lord’s armies went out from the land of Egypt.
42 It is a night of vigil unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, to be observed by all the Israelites throughout their generations.
Instructions for the Passover
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner must eat of it, 44 but every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he must eat of it. 45 A foreigner and a hired servant must not eat of it. 46 It must be eaten in one house. You must not carry any of the meat outside of the house. Do not break any of its bones. 47 All the congregation of Israel must keep it. 48 When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you and would like to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised and then let him come near and keep it. He must be like one who is born in the land, but no uncircumcised person must eat of it. 49 One law must be for him who is born at home and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you.”
50 All the Israelites did this. As the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. 51 That same day, the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their armies.