Exodus 12
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
2 “This month will be the beginning of months for you; it will be the first of the months of the year for you.
3 Tell the whole community of Israel: ‘On the tenth day of this month, each of you is to take a lamb for your family, one lamb per household.
4 If the household is too small for a lamb, then he and the nearest neighbor to his house are to take one together, according to the number of people; you are to apportion the lamb according to how much each person eats.
5 Your lamb must be without defect, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
6 You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter it at twilight.
7 They are to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
8 That night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire; they are to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roast it over the fire, with its head, legs, and entrails.
10 Do not leave any of it until morning; burn whatever remains until morning in the fire.
11 This is how you are to eat it: with your waist belted, sandals on your feet, and staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.
12 That night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals; I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no destructive plague will strike you when I strike the land of Egypt.’”
14 “‘This day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD. Throughout your generations, you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
15 For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. On the first day, remove the leaven from your houses, because anyone who eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh day is to be cut off from Israel.
16 On the first day there will be a holy assembly, and on the seventh day there will be a holy assembly for you. No work is to be done on those days, except preparing what each person will eat; that alone may be done by you.
17 Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, you are to eat unleavened bread until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month.
19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, because anyone who eats anything leavened is to be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreign resident or a native of the land.
20 You are not to eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.’”
21 Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take lambs for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the basin, and apply the blood from the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. None of you is to go out through the door of your house until morning.
23 The LORD will pass through to strike Egypt. When he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over that doorway and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
24 Observe this as a decree for you and your children forever.
25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you, as he promised, observe this rite.
26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’
27 you are to answer, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck Egypt and spared our houses.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
28 The Israelites went and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron; that is what they did.
29 At midnight the LORD struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the animals.
30 Pharaoh rose during the night, he and all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, because there was no house without someone dead.
31 He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up, leave my people, you and the Israelites too, and go worship the LORD, as you said.
32 Take your sheep and cattle too, as you said, and go. And bless me as well.”
33 The Egyptians pressed the people, hurrying them to send them out of the land, because they said, “We are all dying.”
34 The people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped in their clothes and carried on their shoulders.
35 The Israelites did as Moses had said and asked the Egyptians for silver objects, gold objects, and clothing.
36 The LORD made the people find favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, who gave them what they asked for. So they stripped Egypt of its wealth.
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting the children.
38 A large mixed crowd also went up with them, along with sheep and cattle, a very large herd.
39 With the dough they had brought out of Egypt, they baked unleavened cakes, because it had not risen; for they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay, and they had not prepared provisions for themselves.
40 The time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.
41 At the end of the 430 years, on that very day, all the divisions of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
42 It was a night of vigil for the LORD, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This is the LORD’s night, a vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations.
43 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner may eat of it.
44 But any slave bought with money may eat of it after you circumcise him.
45 A temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.
46 It is to be eaten in one house. Do not carry any of the meat outside the house, and do not break any of its bones.
47 The whole community of Israel is to celebrate it.
48 If a foreign resident living with you wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised; then he may come near and celebrate it, and he will be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.
49 There will be one law for the native and for the foreign resident living among you.”
50 All the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron; that is what they did.
51 On that very day, the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, in their divisions.
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