Study Desk

Then Moses called for all the leaders of Israel. He said to them, "Go and choose lambs for your families, and kill the Passover lamb.

For the Lord will pass through to kill the Egyptians. But when He sees the blood around your door, the Lord will pass over the door. He will not let the one who destroys come into your houses to kill you.

You must remember this as a law for you and your children forever.

Pharaoh got up in the night, he and his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a loud cry in Egypt. For there was no home where there was not someone dead.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron at night. He said, "Get up and go away from my people, both you and the people of Israel. Go and worship the Lord, as you have said.

The Egyptians were trying to make the people hurry out of the land. For they said, "We will all be dead."

The people of Israel had done what Moses had said. They had asked the Egyptians for things made of silver and gold and for clothes.

And the Lord had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. So the Egyptians let them have whatever they asked for. And they took the best things of Egypt.

They made the dough they had brought out of Egypt into loaves of bread without yeast. Yeast was not added to the dough because they had been sent out of Egypt and could not wait. They could not make ready any food for themselves.

It was a night to be remembered for the Lord for having brought them out of the land of Egypt. This night is for the Lord, to be remembered by all the people of Israel for all time.

The same law is for the one who is born in the land and for the stranger who stays among you."

Then Moses said to the people, "Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the land where you were made to stay and work. For the Lord brought you out of this place by a powerful hand. No bread made with yeast will be eaten.

For seven days you will eat bread without yeast. On the seventh day there will be a special supper to the Lord.

Bread without yeast will be eaten for seven days. Nothing made with yeast will be seen among you. No yeast will be seen among you in all your country.

You will say to your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

It will be a special mark on your hand and on your forehead to make people remember, that the Law of the Lord is to be in your mouth. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a powerful hand.

So you must keep this Law at the time given for it from year to year.

But you may buy every first-born donkey by giving a lamb for it. But if you do not buy it, then you must break its neck. You must buy with a gift of money every first-born male among your sons.

So it will be like a special mark on your hand and on your forehead. For the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a powerful hand."

When Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even when that was nearer. For God said, "The people may change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt."