Exodus 11:1-12:32 Jehovah said to Moses: »I will send only one more punishment (plague) on the king of Egypt and his people. After that he will let you leave. In fact, he will drive all of you out of here.

NSB⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Jehovah said to Moses: »I will send only one more punishment (plague) on the king of Egypt and his people. After that he will let you leave. In fact, he will drive all of you out of here. ² »Speak to the people of Israel and tell all of them to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.« ³ Jehovah made the Egyptians respect the Israelites. Indeed, the officials and all the people considered Moses to be a very great man. ⁴ Moses approached the king. He said: »I have come to let you know what Jehovah is going to do. About midnight he will go through the land of Egypt, ⁵ and wherever he goes, the first-born son in every family will die. Your own son will die. So will the son of the lowest slave woman. Even the first-born males of cattle will die. ⁶ »Everywhere in Egypt there will be loud crying. Nothing like this has ever happened before or will ever happen again. ⁷ »But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast. This is so you may understand how Jehovah makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.« ⁸ All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me. They will say: »Go out, you and all the people who follow you. Then I will go out.« He went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. ⁹ Then Jehovah said to Moses: »Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my signs will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.« ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh. Yet Jehovah hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land. ¹² ¹ Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ² »This month shall be the beginning of months for you. It is to be the first month of the year to you. ³ »Tell the whole community of Israel: ‘On the tenth day of this month each man must take a sheep for his family, one animal per household. ⁴ »‘A household may be too small to eat a whole animal. That household and the one next-door can share one animal. Choose your animal based on the number of people and what each person can eat. ⁵ »‘Your animal must be a one-year-old male that has no defects. You may choose a lamb or a young goat. ⁶ »‘Take care of it until the fourteenth day of this month. Then at dusk, all the assembled people from the community of Israel must slaughter their animals. ⁷ »‘Some of the blood must be put on the two doorposts and above the door of each house where the animals are to be eaten. ⁸ »‘That night the animals are to be roasted and eaten, together with bitter herbs (greens) and unleavened bread made without yeast. ⁹ »‘Do not eat the meat raw or boiled. The entire animal, including its head, legs, and insides, must be roasted. ¹⁰ »‘Eat what you want that night, and the next morning burn whatever is left. ¹¹ »‘Eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s Passover.’« ¹² Jehovah said: »That night I will go through the land of Egypt. I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt! I am Jehovah! ¹³ »The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you. No plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴ »This day will be a memorial to you. You shall celebrate it as a feast to Jehovah. You are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance throughout your generations. ¹⁵ »You will eat unleavened bread for seven days. The first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day will be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ »You shall have a holy assembly on the first day. There should be another holy assembly on the seventh day. No work at all will be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷ »You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That was the day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Observe this day throughout your generations as a long lasting ordinance. 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 »There shall be no leaven found in your houses for seven days. Whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰ »You shall not eat anything leavened. Eat unleavened bread in all your dwellings.« ²¹ Moses called all the elders of Israel and said: »Take lambs according to your families and slay the Passover lamb. ²² »Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin. Apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. No one shall go outside the door of his house until morning. ²³ »Jehovah will pass through to strike the Egyptians. 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 come in to your houses to kill you. ²⁴ »You shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children from generation to generation. ²⁵ »When you enter the land Jehovah will give you, as he has promised, you shall observe this rite. ²⁶ »When your children ask you: What does this rite mean to you? ²⁷ »You shall say: ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to Jehovah who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He killed the Egyptians, but spared our homes. The people bowed low and worshiped.’« ²⁸ Then the sons of Israel did just as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron. ²⁹ At midnight Jehovah killed every firstborn male in Egypt from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who ruled the land to the firstborn son of the prisoner in jail, and also every firstborn animal. ³⁰ Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the other Egyptians got up during the night. There was loud crying throughout Egypt because in every house someone had died. ³¹ Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night. He said: »You and the Israelites must leave my people at once. Go serve Jehovah just as you requested. ³² »Take your flocks and herds, too, as you asked. Just go! And bless me, too!«