The Bible

Exodus Chapter 12

¹Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ²"This month will be the beginning of months for you. It'll be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth day of this month, they must each take a lamb, every man according to their fathers' houses; a lamb for each household; ⁴and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his next door neighbor will take one [large] enough for the number of souls. Make your count for the lamb according to what everyone can eat. ⁵Your lamb must be without defect, a male a year old. Take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶Keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill it in the evening. ⁷They must take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, on the houses where they'll eat it. ⁸That night they must eat the flesh, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread. They must eat it with bitter herbs. ⁹Don't eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts. ¹⁰Let none of it remain until morning; but if any does remain in the morning, you must burn it with fire. ¹¹This is how you must eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste: it is Yahweh's Passover. ¹²For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh. ¹³The blood will be to you as a token 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. ¹⁴This day will be a memorial for you. Keep it as a feast to Yahweh. Keep it as a feast throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

¹⁵"'For seven days eat unleavened bread; on the first day throw away yeast from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul will be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day there is to be a holy convocation for you, and on the seventh day a holy convocation. No kind of work may be done in them, except what every man must eat, only that may be done by you. ¹⁷Observe the feast of unleavened bread, for this is the day I brought your armies from the land of Egypt. Therefore observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. ¹⁸In the first month on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month eat unleavened bread, until the evening of the twenty first day of the month. ¹⁹There must be no yeast found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats what is leavened, that soul will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner, or one who is born in the land. ²⁰Don't eat anything leavened. In all your habitations eat unleavened bread.'"

²¹Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover. ²²Take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you may go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two doorposts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. ²⁴Observe this thing as an everlasting ordinance for you and your sons. ²⁵When you have come to the land which Yahweh will give you as he has promised, keep this service. ²⁶When your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this service?' ²⁷Say, 'It is the sacrifice of Yahweh's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.'" The people bowed their heads and worshiped. ²⁸The children of Israel went and did so; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

²⁹At midnight, Yahweh 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. ³⁰Pharaoh 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 one dead. ³¹He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said! ³²Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!"

³³The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them away from the land in haste, for they said, "We are all dead men." ³⁴The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. ³⁵The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing. ³⁶Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so they let them have what they asked for. They plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, in addition to children. ³⁸A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and even very much livestock. ³⁹They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought from Egypt. It wasn't leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn't wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves. ⁴⁰Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. ⁴¹At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day, all of Yahweh's armies left the land of Egypt. ⁴²It is a night to be much observed to Yahweh for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is Yahweh's night, to be much observed by all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

⁴³Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may eat of it, ⁴⁴but every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. ⁴⁵A foreigner or a hired servant may not eat of it. ⁴⁶It must be eaten in one house. Don't carry any of the meat outside of the house. Don't break any of its bones. ⁴⁷All the congregation of Israel must keep it. ⁴⁸When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, and would like to keep Yahweh's Passover, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. Let him be as one who is born in the land; but no uncircumcised person may eat of it. ⁴⁹There will be one law, to him who is born at home and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you." ⁵⁰All the children of Israel did so. As Yahweh commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. ⁵¹that same day, Yahweh brought the children of Israel from the land of Egypt by their armies.