Exodus 12

VIN^{(i) 1} The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² Let this month be to you the first of months, the first month of the year. 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 If a household is too small for a lamb, then it and its closest neighbor are to obtain one based on the number of individuals {— } dividing the lamb based on what each person can eat. ⁵ Your lamb is to be a year old male without blemish. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ "You will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and all the assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter it at twilight. ⁷ They're to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat the lamb. ⁸ That very night they're to eat the meat, roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹ Don't eat any of it raw or boiled in water. Instead, roast it over the fire, with its head, legs, and internal organs. ¹⁰ And you must not leave any of it until morning; anything left from it until morning you must burn in the fire. ¹¹ "'This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it hurriedly it's the LORD's Passover. ¹² For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord. 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 And this day shall be for a memorial to you; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord in your generations, with an everlasting observance. 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 And the first day is a holy convocation and the seventh day becomes a holy convocation to you; work not therein, except what every soul eat - only work that: ¹⁷ "And you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought out your divisions from the land of Egypt, and you will keep this day for your generations as a lasting statute. ¹⁸ On the first day, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat unleavened bread until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. ¹⁹ For seven days yeast must not be found in your houses, because anyone eating food with yeast will be cut off from the community of Israel—whether an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰ You will eat no food with yeast; in all of your dwellings you will eat unleavened bread." ²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Choose sheep for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bundle of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. None of you is to go out of the doorway of his house until morning, ²³ "the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the LORD 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 a perpetual ordinance for you and your children forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the LORD will give you, just as he promised, you are to observe this ritual. ²⁶ »When your children ask you: What does this rite mean to you? ²⁷ you shall say, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped. ²⁸ and the Israelites went and did as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. ²⁹ And so at midnight the LORD struck down every 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 dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. ³⁰ Pharaoh got up during the night, he, all his officials, and all the Egyptians, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead in it. ³¹ And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up! Get away from my people, both you and the sons of Israel! And go serve the LORD, as you have said. ³² Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go. And bless me also. ³³ The Egyptians begged the people to leave the country quickly. They said: "We will all be dead soon!" ³⁴ The people picked up their bread dough before it had risen. They carried it on their shoulders in bowls and wrapped up in their clothes. ³⁵ Meanwhile, the Israelites had done as Moses said; they had asked the Egyptians for objects of silver and objects of gold, and for clothes. ³⁶ The LORD had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they requested; and so they plundered the Egyptians. ³⁷ The Israelites left Rameses to go to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, plus all the women and children. ³⁸ Many other people also went with them, along with large numbers of sheep, goats, and cattle. ³⁹ With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked round, flat bread. The dough had not risen because they had been thrown out of Egypt and had no time to prepare food for the trip. ⁴⁰ Now the time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the tribal divisions of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴² That was for the LORD a night of vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night belongs to the LORD, and shall be a vigil for all the Israelites from generation to generation. ⁴³ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it, ⁴⁴ though any slave purchased with money may eat it after you have circumcised him. ⁴⁵ A temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat it. ⁴⁶ "The meal must be eaten inside one house. Never take any of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. ⁴⁷ "The entire community of Israel must celebrate the Passover. ⁴⁸ If an alien who resides with you wants to observe the Passover to the LORD, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may come near to observe it. He shall be like a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat it. ⁴⁹ There shall be one law to the native, and to the proselyte coming among you. ⁵⁰ All the Israelites obeyed. They did what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ And on that very day, the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their tribal divisions.