< Exodus 12 >
1 Now Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2 "This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall 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 shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;
4 and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male in its first year. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.
7 They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
8 They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.
10 You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
11 This is how you shall eat it: with your waist girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Jehovah's Passover.
12 For 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. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Jehovah.
13 The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Jehovah: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
15 "'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.
17 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day have I brought your regiments out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.
19 For seven days yeast must not be found in your houses, 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 places where you live you must eat unleavened bread.'"
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of the children of Israel, and said to them, "Go and select lambs according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.
22 And you are to take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply it on the top and on both sides of the doorframe with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you is to go out of the door of his house until morning.
23 For Jehovah will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, Jehovah will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
24 And you must observe this as an ordinance for you and your children forever.
25 And it shall come to pass when you enter the land which Jehovah will give you, as he has promised, you must keep this ceremony.
26 And it shall be, when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this ceremony?'
27 that you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of Jehovah's Passover, because he passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed down and worshiped.
28 Then the children of Israel went away and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
29 And it came to pass at midnight that Jehovah killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of livestock.
30 And Pharaoh got up during the night, he, and all his servants, and all Egypt, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not someone dead.
31 Then he summoned for Moses and Aaron during the night, and said, "Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, as you have requested.
32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have requested, and be gone, but bless me also."
33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land quickly, for they said, "We will all be dead."
34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped in their clothing on their shoulders.
35 Now the children of Israel did according to what Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing.
36 And Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they gave them whatever they wanted. And so they plundered Egypt.
37 And the children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides their dependents.
38 And a mixed crowd also went up with them, and a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds.
39 And they baked unleavened loaves using the dough that they had brought out of Egypt; for it wasn't leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn't wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
40 Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
41 And it came to pass at the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day, it came to pass that all the regiments of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt.
42 It was a night when Jehovah kept vigil to bring them out from the land of Egypt. So on this night all the children of Israel must keep a vigil to Jehovah throughout their generations.
43 And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may eat of it,
44 but every man's servant who is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may he eat of it.
45 A foreigner and a hired servant must not eat of it.
46 It is to be eaten in one house. You must not take any of the meat outside the house, and you are not to break any of its bones.
47 All the congregation of Israel is to keep it.
48 If a foreigner lives with you and wants to keep the Passover to Jehovah, all his males must be circumcised, and then he may take part and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.
49 The same law will apply to the native-born and to the foreigner who lives among you."
50 So all the children of Israel did as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
51 And it happened on this very day that Jehovah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.
