EXODUS 12

Then Yehowah spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, said, 2 This month shall be the beginning of the months for you; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, and say that on the tenth day of this month they shall all take for themselves a lamb* for their fathers' house, a lamb for each household; 4 and if the household is too small for the lamb, then a man and his neighbour in the next house shall take it according to the number of the persons; according to what each one can eat you shall reckon for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without a blemish, a male in its first year; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 And you shall keep it apart until the fourteenth day of this month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it when night has fallen.** 7 Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh during that night; roasted by fire and with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, or boiled in any way with water, but roasted by fire, its head upon its legs and its entrails. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; but whatever does remain of it until the morning you shall burn in the fire. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste; it is a Passover to Yehowah. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt during that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am Yehowah. 13 And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you and destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. * That is a lamb or a kid ** lit between the two evenings

14 And this shall be for a memorial day for you, and you shall keep it as a feast to Yehowah; throughout your generations you shall keep it as a feast by a statute for ever. 15 For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even on the first day you shall put leaven out of your houses; if anyone eats anything leavened from the first day till the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 And on the first day you shall have a holy convocation, and on the seventh day a holy convocation; no work shall be done on them; only what every person eats may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I will bring your hosts out of the land of Egypt; and you shall observe this day throughout your generations by a statute for ever. 18 In the first month, when night has fallen on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for if anyone eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a settler or one born in the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; wherever you live you shall eat unleavened bread.

21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Select lambs for yourselves and take them according to your families, and slaughter the Passover. 22 Then take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of the house until the morning. 23 For Yehowah will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, Yehowah will pass over the door, and will not permit the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you down. 24 And you shall maintain this practice as a statute to you and your sons for ever. 25 And so when you come into the land which Yehowah will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep up this practice. 26 And when your sons say to you, What is meant by this practice? 27 you shall say, It is the sacrifice of a Passover to Yehowah, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he struck down the Egyptians, and saved our houses. And the people bowed their heads in worship.

28 Then the sons of Israel went and did so; they did just as Yehowah had commanded Moses and Aaron.

29 And at midnight Yehowah struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh's firstborn who was to sit on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the animals. 30 And Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 31 And he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night, and said, Be off! Get away from my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go and serve Yehowah, as you have said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, too, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.

33 And the Egyptians were urgent with the people, hastening to send them out of the land; for they said, We are all dead men. 34 So the people took their dough before it had been leavened, their kneading-troughs being wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders. 35 And the sons of Israel did as Moses had said; and they asked the Egyptians for jewels of silver and gold, and for clothing. 36 And Yehowah gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them. And they despoiled the Egyptians.

37 And the sons of Israel travelled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 And a mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much cattle, both flocks and herds. 39 And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it had not been leavened, because they had been thrust out of Egypt, and could not delay, and they had not made any provisions for themselves.

40 Now the length of time during which the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And then at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the hosts of Yehowah went Out of the land of Egypt. 42 This was the night when Yehowah kept watch to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this is that night for all the sons of Israel to keep watch to Yehowah throughout their generations.

43 And Yehowah said to Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the Passover: no son of a foreigner shall eat of it; 44 but every man's slave who was bought for silver shall eat of it after you have circumcised him; 45 no guest or hired servant shall eat of it; 46 it shall be eaten in one house; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house; and you shall not break a bone of it; 47 all the congregation of Israel shall observe it. 48 And when a settler stays with you and would keep the Passover to Yehowah, let all his males be circumcised, and then let them come near and keep it; and he shall he like one who was born in the land. But no one uncircumcised shall eat of it. 49 There shall be one law for both the homeborn and the settler who stays among you.

50 And all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as Yehowah had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day Yehowah brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.