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The Passover Lamb

¹ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,² "^(C1)This ^(F1)month shall be the beginning of months to you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.³ "Tell all the congregation of Israel, 'On the tenth day of this month they are to take a lamb or young goat for themselves, according to the size of the household of which he is the father, a lamb or young goat for each household.⁴ 'Now if the household is too small for a lamb to be consumed, let him and his next door neighbor take one according to the number of people in the households; according to what each man can eat, you are to divide the lamb.⁵ 'Your lamb or young goat shall be perfect ^(C1)without blemish or bodily defect, a male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ^(VR1)6 'You shall keep it until the ^(C1)fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it ^(F1)(C2)at twilight.⁷ '^(C1)Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel above the door of the houses in which they eat it. ^(VR1)8 'They shall eat the meat ^(C1)that same night, ^(C2)roasted in fire, and they shall eat it with ^(C3)unleavened bread and ^(C4)bitter herbs.⁹ 'Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^(C1)roasted in fire—both its head and its legs, along with ^(C2)its inner parts.¹⁰ '^(C1)You shall let none of the meat remain until the morning, and anything that remains left over until morning, you shall burn completely in the fire.¹¹ 'Now you are to eat it in this manner: be prepared for a journey with your ^(F1)loins girded that is, with the outer garment tucked into the band, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it quickly—it is ^(C1)the LORD'S Passover.¹² 'For ^(C1)I the LORD will pass through the land of Egypt on this night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal; ^(C2)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments exhibiting their worthlessness. ^(C3)I am the LORD.¹³ '^(C1)The blood shall be a sign for you on the doorposts of the houses where you live; when I see the blood I shall pass over you, and no affliction shall happen to you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. ^(VR1)

Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴ 'Now ^(C1)this day will be ^(C2)a memorial to you, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as ^(C3)an ordinance forever.¹⁵ 'In the celebration of the Passover in future years, ^(C1)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the ^(F1)leaven from your houses because it represents the spread of sin; for whoever eats leavened bread on the first day through the seventh day, ^(C2)that person shall be cut off and excluded from the atonement made for Israel.¹⁶ '^(C1)On the first day of the feast you shall have a holy and solemn assembly, and on the seventh day there shall be another holy and solemn assembly; no work of any kind shall be done on those days, except for the preparation of food which every person must eat—only that may be done by you.¹⁷ 'You shall also observe ^(C1)the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this ^(C2)very day I brought your hosts grouped according to tribal armies out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as ^(C3)an ordinance forever.¹⁸ '^(C1)In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, and continue until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.¹⁹ '^(C1)Seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; whoever eats what is leavened ^(C2)shall be cut off and excluded from the atonement made for the congregation of Israel, whether a stranger or native-born. ^(VR1)20 'You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.'"

²¹ Then ^(C1)Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and ^(C2)take a lamb for yourselves according to the size of your families and slaughter ^(C3)the Passover lamb.²² "^(C1)You shall take a bunch of ^(F1)hyssop, dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch some of the blood to the lintel above the doorway and to the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

A Memorial of Redemption

²⁸ Then the Israelites went and did as they had been told: just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

²⁹ Now it happened at ^(C1)midnight that ^(C2)the LORD struck every ^(C3)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 ^(F1)dungeon, and all the firstborn of the ^(C4)cattle.³⁰ Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was ^(C1)a great cry of heartache and sorrow in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not someone dead.^31 (C1)Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, "Get up, ^(C2)get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites; and go, serve the LORD, as you said.³² "Take both your ^(C1)flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and ask your God to bless me also."

Exodus of Israel

^35 (C1)Now the Israelites had acted in accordance with the word of Moses; and they had asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing.³⁶ The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they asked. And so they ^(C1)plundered the Egyptians of those things.

³⁷ Now the ^(C1)Israelites journeyed from ^(C2)Rameses to Succoth, about ^(C3)six hundred thousand men on foot, besides the women and the children.³⁸ A ^(C1)mixed multitude of non-Israelites from foreign nations also went with them, along with both flocks and herds, ^(C2)a very large number of livestock. ^(VR1)39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought from Egypt; it was not leavened, since they were ^(C1)driven quickly from Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any food for themselves.

⁴⁰ Now the period of time the children of Israel lived in Egypt was ^(C1)four hundred and thirty years. ^(VR1)41 At the end of the four hundred and thirty years, ^(C1)to that very day, ^(C2)all the hosts of the LORD gathered into tribal armies left the land of Egypt.

Ordinance of the Passover

⁴³ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of ^(C1)the Passover: no ^(F1)(C2)foreigner is to eat it;⁴⁴ but every man's ^(C1)slave who is bought with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.⁴⁵ "^(C1)No stranger (temporary resident, foreigner) or hired servant shall eat it.⁴⁶ "It is to be eaten inside one house; you shall not take any of the meat outside the house, ^(C1)nor shall you break any of its bones. ^(VR1)47 "^(C1)The entire congregation of Israel shall keep and celebrate it.⁴⁸ "If a ^(C1)stranger living temporarily among you wishes to celebrate the Passover to the LORD, all his males must be circumcised, and then he may participate and celebrate it like one that is born in the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.⁴⁹ "^(C1)The same law shall apply to the native-born and to the stranger who lives temporarily among you."

⁵⁰ Then all the Israelites did so; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.⁵¹ And on that very same day ^(C1)the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt ^(C2)by their hosts (tribal armies).