Exodus 12

1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the beginning of months; it is the first for you among the months of the year. 3 Speak to the whole gathering of the children of Israel and say: On the tenth of this month let each man take a sheep for his father’s household, one for each house. 4 And if the people in the house are too few for a whole sheep, let him bring in with him his nearest neighbor, by the number of persons; each is to be counted in for the sheep by what he can eat. 5 The sheep must be perfect, male, a year old; you may take it from the lambs or from the kids. [e] 6 And you are to keep it until the fourteenth of this month, and the whole assembled multitude of the children of Israel are to kill it toward evening. 7 And they are to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the beam above the door, in the houses where they eat it. 8 And they are to eat the meat that night — roasted over fire, with bread made without yeast, and with bitter herbs. 9 You are not to eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but only roasted over fire: the head with the legs and the inner parts. 10 You are to leave none of it until morning, and you are not to break a bone of it; whatever is left of it until morning you are to burn in the fire. 11 And this is how you are to eat it: your belts tied, your sandals on your feet, your staffs in your hands. You are to eat it in a hurry. It is the Lord’s Passover. [a] 12 And I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from people to animals; and on all the gods of the Egyptians I will carry out punishment. I am the Lord. 13 And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and shelter you, and there will be no blow among you to wipe you out when I strike in the land of Egypt. [b] 14 And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations. You are to keep it as a lasting practice.

15 “For seven days you are to eat bread without yeast; from the first day you are to clear the yeast out of your houses. Anyone who eats anything with yeast in it, that person will be cut off from Israel, from the first day to the seventh day. 16 And the first day is to be called holy, and the seventh day is to be held holy for you. You are to do no ordinary work on those days, except what has to be done so that everyone can eat — that alone may be done by you. 17 And you are to keep this command, because on this very day I am bringing your army out of the land of Egypt; you are to keep this day through your generations as a lasting practice. 18 Beginning on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, you are to eat bread without yeast until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. Anyone who eats anything leavened, that person will be cut off from the gathering of Israel — settlers and native-born alike. 20 You are to eat nothing leavened; wherever you live, you are to eat bread without yeast.”

21 Then Moses called all the council of elders of the children of Israel and said to them, “Go and take a sheep for yourselves, by your families, and kill the Passover. 22 And take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is beside the door, and touch the beam above the door and both doorposts with the blood that is beside the door. And none of you is to go out of the door of his house until morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and he will see the blood on the beam above the door and on both doorposts, and the Lord will pass by the door and will not let the destroyer come into your houses to strike. 24 And you are to keep this word as a practice for yourself and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come into the land the Lord will give you, as he has said, you are to keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What is this service?’ 27 you are to tell them: This is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who sheltered the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and rescued our houses.” And the people bowed low and worshiped. 28 And the children of Israel went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron — so they did.

29 And in the middle of the night the Lord struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the captive woman in the pit, and every firstborn of the cattle. [c] 30 And Pharaoh got up in the night, and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in all the land of Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 31 And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron in the night and said to them, “Get up and get out from among my people — you and the children of Israel. Go and serve the Lord your God, as you have said. 32 And take your sheep and your oxen and go — and bless me too.” 33 And the Egyptians pressed hard on the people to hurry them out of the land, for they said, “We are all dying.” 34 So the people took up their dough before it was leavened, the lumps of it bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did as Moses had told them: they asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, 36 and the Lord gave his people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they lent to them. And they stripped the Egyptians of their spoil.

37 And the children of Israel set out from Rameses for Succoth — about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides their households. 38 And a great mixed crowd went up with them, and sheep and oxen and very much livestock. 39 And they baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into flat cakes without yeast, for it had not been leavened: the Egyptians had thrown them out, and they could not wait, and they had made no food for the road. 40 The time the children of Israel lived in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan was four hundred and thirty years; [d] 41 and at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, all the Lord’s army went out of the land of Egypt. 42 That night is a watch kept for the Lord, for bringing them out of the land of Egypt; that same night is a watch kept for the Lord by all the children of Israel through their generations.

43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the law of the Passover. No foreigner is to eat of it. 44 And every man’s household servant, or one bought with money, you are to circumcise, and then he may eat of it. 45 A foreigner living among you, or a hired worker, is not to eat of it. 46 It is to be eaten in one house; you are not to carry any of the meat outside the house, and you are not to break a bone of it. 47 The whole gathering of the children of Israel is to keep it. 48 And if a newcomer comes to live with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, circumcise every male of his household, and then he may come and keep it, and he will be like the native-born of the land; but no uncircumcised man is to eat of it. 49 There is to be one law for the native and for the newcomer who has come to live among you.” 50 And the children of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron — so they did. 51 And on that very day the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt with their army.