Exodus 12

¹The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt ,

²This month shall be for you the beginning of months . It shall be the first month of the year for you.

³Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers ’ houses , a lamb for a household .

⁴And if the household is too small for a lamb , then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons ; according to what each 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 ,

⁶and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month , when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs 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 night , roasted on the fire ; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.

⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water , but roasted , its head with its legs and its inner parts .

¹⁰And you shall let none of it remain until the morning ; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn .

¹¹In this manner you shall eat it: with 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 all the firstborn in the land of Egypt , both man and beast ; 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 . And when I see the blood , I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt .

¹⁴This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations , as a statute forever , you shall keep it as a feast .

¹⁵Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread . On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses , for if anyone eats what is leavened , 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. But what everyone needs to eat , that alone may be prepared by you.

¹⁷And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread , for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt . Therefore you shall observe this day , throughout your generations , as a statute forever .

¹⁸In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening , you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening .

¹⁹For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses . If anyone eats what is leavened , that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel , whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land .

²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened ; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread .

²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans , and kill 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 that is in the basin . None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning .

²³For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians , and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts , the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

²⁴You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever .

²⁵And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised , you shall keep this service .

²⁶And when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service ?

²⁷you shall say , It is the sacrifice of the Lord ’s Passover , for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt , when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses . And the people bowed their heads and worshiped .

²⁸Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron , so they did .

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 .

³⁰And Pharaoh 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 someone was not dead .

³¹Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said , Up , go out from among my people , both you and the people of Israel ; and 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 were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste . For they said , We shall all be dead .

³⁴So the people took their dough before it was leavened , their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders .

³⁵The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing .

³⁶And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians , so that they let them have what they asked . Thus they plundered the Egyptians .

³⁷And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth , about six hundred thousand men on foot , besides women and children .

³⁸A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock , both flocks and herds .

³⁹And they 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 any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years .

⁴¹At the end of 430 years , on that very day , all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt .

⁴²It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt ; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations .

⁴³And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron , This is the statute of the Passover : no foreigner shall eat of it,

⁴⁴but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him.

⁴⁵No foreigner or hired worker may 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 stranger shall sojourn 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 as a native of the land . But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

⁴⁹There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.

⁵⁰All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron .

⁵¹And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts .