Exodus 12

1In the land of Egypt, the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 2“From now on this month is to head your calendar: count it as the first month of your year. 3Speak to the whole community of Israel and tell them: ‘On the tenth day of this month the head of every family is to pick out a lamb, one lamb to a household. 4Should a household be too small for a whole lamb, the man is to join with the neighbor who lives closest and take one between them, counting the people in both homes. Divide the lamb by how much each one will eat. 5It must be a sound, unblemished male in its first year, picked from either the sheep or the goats. 6Look after it until the fourteenth day of this month. On that day, as evening falls, the whole assembled community of Israel is to slaughter their lambs. 7Some of the blood is to go on the two doorposts and on the lintel of each house where the lamb is eaten. 8The meat is to be eaten that night, fire-roasted, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9None of it is to be eaten raw or stewed in water. It must be roasted in the fire whole, with its head, its legs, and its inner organs. 10None of it may be kept until morning; whatever is still uneaten at daybreak must be burned in the fire. 11When you eat it, be ready to set out: robes tucked into your belts, sandals on, staffs in hand. Eat it quickly. It is the LORD’s Passover. 12This very night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn in it, human and animal alike. Against all the gods of Egypt I will carry out judgments. I am the LORD. 13The blood will mark the houses where you are staying; it will be a sign for you. I will see the blood and pass over you, and the plague that destroys will not fall on you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14This day is to be one you remember. Hold a feast to the LORD on it, generation after generation, as a statute for all time. 15Unleavened bread is to be your food for seven days. On the first day, without fail, rid your houses of leaven. Anyone who eats leavened bread at any time from the first day to the seventh will be cut off from Israel. 16The first day and the seventh day are each to be a holy convocation for you, days when no work is done. The only work allowed is getting food ready, so that everyone can eat. 17Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, since this is the very day I led your ranks out of the land of Egypt. Keep this day in every generation as a statute for all time. 18From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month to the evening of the twenty-first, you are to eat unleavened bread. 19For seven days there must be no leaven anywhere in your houses. Anyone who eats food made with leaven will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner living among you or one born in the land. 20Nothing leavened is to be eaten; in every place where you live, your bread is to be unleavened.’”

21So Moses summoned all the elders of Israel. “Go and choose lambs from the flock, one for each of your clans,” he told them, “and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22Dip a bundle of hyssop into the blood in the basin, and with it brush the blood onto the lintel and the two doorposts. Then no one is to step outside the house until morning. 23The LORD will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on both doorposts, he will pass over that doorway and not allow the destroyer into your houses to strike you. 24You and your descendants are to keep this command as a statute for all time. 25And once you have come into the land that the LORD will give you, just as he has said, you are to go on keeping this service. 26In time your children will say to you, ‘What is this service of yours about?’ 27Then you are to tell them, ‘This is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover. When he struck Egypt, he passed over the houses of the Israelites there and rescued our homes.’” At this the people bowed low and worshiped. 28Then the Israelites went and did it. They did exactly as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

29In the middle of the night the LORD struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, the king on his throne, down to the firstborn of the captive locked in the dungeon, along with every firstborn among the animals. 30Pharaoh got up in the night, and so did all his officials and every Egyptian. A great cry of grief went up across Egypt, because no house was without its dead. 31While it was still night, Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Get out from among my people, you and the Israelites with you! Go and serve the LORD, as you have been saying. 32Take your flocks and your herds as well, as you demanded, and be gone. And ask a blessing for me too.” 33The Egyptians pressed the people to leave the land with all speed. “We are as good as dead, every one of us!” they said. 34So the people picked up their dough before it had a chance to rise and carried it on their shoulders, the kneading bowls tied up in their cloaks. 35The Israelites acted on Moses’ word: they asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing. 36The LORD had made the Egyptians look kindly on the people, and they granted what was asked. So Israel stripped Egypt of its wealth.

37The Israelites set out from Rameses for Succoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, not counting the little ones. 38A large crowd of people of mixed descent went with them as well, and great numbers of animals, flocks and herds alike. 39From the dough they had carried out of Egypt they baked flat cakes of unleavened bread. It had not risen, since they had been driven out of Egypt with no chance to linger, and they had not got any food ready for the road. 40The time the Israelites spent living in Egypt came to 430 years. 41When the 430 years were over, on that very same day, all the ranks of the LORD marched out of the land of Egypt. 42That was a night when the LORD kept watch, so as to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night belongs to the LORD, and all the Israelites are to keep watch on it, generation after generation.

43The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute for the Passover. No foreigner is to eat of it. 44A slave bought with money may share in it, but only after you have circumcised him. 45Neither a settler nor a hired laborer is to eat it. 46It is to be eaten within one house. No meat is to be carried outside the house, and you must not break a bone of it. 47The whole community of Israel is to keep it. 48Suppose a foreigner living among you wants to hold a Passover for the LORD. Every male in his household must first be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it, and he will count as one born in the land. But anyone uncircumcised is not to eat of it. 49One law is to govern both the native-born and the foreigner living among you.” 50All the Israelites carried out exactly what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

51On that same day the LORD led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, company by company.