A Night to Remember
Each household takes a flawless lamb, marks the doorposts with its blood, and eats in haste, dressed to travel. Our Father passes over the blood-marked houses and strikes the rest, and Egypt drives Israel out overnight. The night becomes a permanent feast, retold every year to children who ask.
12 1 Our Father said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2 This month is your beginning of months, the year's first month. 3 Tell all Israel's assembly: on this month's tenth day, each man is to take a lamb per family, a lamb per household. 4 If the household is too small for a lamb, he and his nearest neighbor shall take one lamb by the number of people, counting for it by how much each eats. 5 Your lamb must be flawless, a year-old male; take it from the sheep or the goats. 6 Keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; the whole assembly of Israel's congregation shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They will take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 That night they must eat the meat, fire-roasted, with bread made without yeast and bitter herbs — they must eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over fire — head, legs, and inner parts. 10 Don't leave any of it until morning; burn whatever remains until morning. 11 Eat it this way: belt fastened, sandals on your feet, staff in hand, eating in haste. It is the Passover of our Father. 12 That night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, man and beast, and execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am your Father. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you—no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. a a v13 The blood on the doorway that turns away judgment points to Jesus, our Passover lamb, whose blood shelters all who trust in him.
14 This day is a memorial for you; celebrate it as a feast to your Father, a rule forever for all your generations—celebrate it. 15 Eat bread without yeast seven days. Remove all yeast from your houses on the first day, for whoever eats anything made with yeast, from the first day to the seventh, will be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a holy gathering, and on the seventh day a holy gathering. Do no work then, except preparing what each person eats — that alone you may do. 17 Keep the Feast of Bread Without Yeast, for on this exact day I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt. Keep this day, generation after generation, as a lasting statute. 18 In the first month, eat bread without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days, no yeast is to be found in your houses; whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from Israel's community, whether foreigner or native of the land. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast; eat bread without yeast everywhere you live.
21 Moses called all Israel's elders and said to them, 'Pick out lambs for your families, then slaughter the Passover lamb.' 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the basin, and touch the lintel and both doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you may leave his house door until morning. 23 For our Father will pass through to strike Egypt. Seeing the blood on the lintel and two doorposts, our Father will pass over the entrance and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall keep this command as a lasting statute for you and for your children. 25 When you enter the land our Father promised, keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, 'What does this service mean to you?' 27 you shall say, 'It is our Father's Passover sacrifice: he passed over the houses of Israel's people in Egypt, striking the Egyptians but sparing our houses.' Then the people bowed and worshiped.
28 The Israelites went and did just as our Father commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did.
29 At midnight our Father struck every firstborn in Egypt, from Pharaoh's firstborn on his throne to the prisoner's firstborn in the dungeon, and every firstborn animal. 30 Pharaoh got up that night—he, his officials, all Egypt—and a great cry rose in Egypt, for every house had someone dead.
Pharaoh Lets Them Go
31 He summoned Moses and Aaron that night: "Get up, leave my people—you and the Israelites—go, serve God as you said." 32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you said, and go — bless me too.
33 The Egyptians urged the Israelites to leave the land quickly, saying, "We're all dead." 34 The people carried their dough before it rose, kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 Israel did as Moses said: they asked the Egyptians for silver, gold, and clothing. 36 And our Father gave the people favor with the Egyptians, so they granted their request; thus the people plundered the Egyptians.
37 Israel set out from Rameses to Succoth—about six hundred thousand men on foot, plus women and children. 38 A large mixed crowd also went up with them, with flocks, herds, and abundant livestock. 39 They baked the dough they'd brought from Egypt into flat cakes without yeast, since it hadn't risen — driven out of Egypt, with no time to wait or prepare food for themselves. 40 The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 After four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the armies of our Father left the land of Egypt. 42 This was a night our Father watched, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; this same night, all Israel's people keep watch for our Father, generation after generation.
Who May Eat the Passover
43 Our Father told Moses and Aaron, "This is the Passover's rule: no foreigner may eat it," 44 but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. 45 No temporary resident or hired worker may eat of it. 46 Eat it in one house; carry none of the meat outside the house, and break none of its bones. b b v46 Not one of the lamb's bones was to be broken — the very thing said of Jesus on the cross, the true Passover lamb. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 If a foreigner living with you wants to keep the Passover to our Father, circumcise all his males; then he may come near and keep it—he becomes like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. 49 There shall be one law for the native and for the foreigner who resides among you."
50 All Israel's sons did as our Father commanded Moses and Aaron; they did it. 51 That very day our Father brought Israel's people out of the land of Egypt by their armies.
