Exodus 12

The Passover Lamb

1The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2“This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month each household shall take a lamb, a lamb for each household. 4And if a household is too small for a lamb, then the household and its nearest neighbor shall take one according to the number of persons; according to what each person can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.

7Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire; and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted with fire—its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn with fire. 11This is how you shall eat it: your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.

12For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human and animal; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. 13The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall be upon you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

14“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual statute. 15Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days, except what everyone must eat—that alone may be prepared by you.

17You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual statute. 18In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month, you shall eat unleavened bread. 19For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a resident alien or a native of the land. 20You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.”

Passover Instructions Given to Israel

21Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your households, and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until the morning. 23For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; when the LORD sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24You shall observe this as a statute for you and for your children forever. 25When you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as the LORD has promised, you shall keep this observance.

26And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ 27you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed down and worshiped. 28Then the Israelites went and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague

29At midnight the LORD struck down 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 the 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 someone dead.

31Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Rise up, go out from among my people—both you and the Israelites. Go, serve the LORD, as you have said. 32Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone. And bless me also.” 33The Egyptians urged the people to hasten their departure from the land, for they said, “We shall all be dead.”

34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35The Israelites had done as Moses told them; they asked the Egyptians for objects of silver and gold, and for clothing. 36And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that the Egyptians granted their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Israel Leaves Egypt

37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot—men, besides children. 38A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very many livestock, both flocks and herds. 39They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

40The time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. 41At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the divisions of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. 42It was a night of watching for the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; this same night is a night of watching kept to the LORD by all the Israelites throughout their generations.

Who May Eat the Passover

43The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it. 44But every slave who is bought for money may eat of it, after you have circumcised him. 45No resident alien or hired worker shall eat of it. 46It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. 47All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

48If a resident alien lives with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised; then he may come near and keep it; he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised male shall eat of it. 49There shall be one instruction for the native and for the resident alien who lives among you.” 50All the Israelites did just as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. 51And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.