Exodus 12
12
Instructions for the Passover
1The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2“This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year. # 12:2 Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; Dt 16:1 3Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. 4If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat. 5You must have an unblemished # 12:5 Lv 22:19–21; Mal 1:8,14 animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. # 12:6 Lv 23:5; Nm 9:3; Dt 16:6 7They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. 8They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. # 12:8 Ex 34:25; Nm 9:11; Dt 16:3; 1Co 5:8 9Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling # 12:9 Or or boiled at all in water, but only roasted # 12:9 Dt 16:7; 2Ch 35:13 over fire — its head as well as its legs and inner organs. 10You must not leave any of it until morning; # 12:10 Ex 23:18; 34:25 any part of it left until morning you must burn. 11Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, # 12:11 Lit must have your waist girded your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover. # 12:11 Ex 12:27; Dt 16:5
12“I will pass through # 12:12 Ex 11:4–5; Am 5:17 the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. # 12:12 Ex 6:2; Nm 33:4 13The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute. # 12:14 Ex 12:17,43; 13:9–10; 2Kg 23:21 15You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast # 12:15 Ex 13:6–7; 23:15; 34:18; Lv 23:6; Dt 16:3,8 from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off # 12:15 Gn 17:14; Nm 9:13 from Israel. 16You are to hold a sacred assembly # 12:16 Lv 23:7–8; Nm 28:18,25 on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat — you may do only that.
17“You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your military divisions out of the land of Egypt. # 12:17 Ex 12:41,51; 13:3 You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. 18You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, # 12:18 Lv 23:5–8; Nm 28:16–25 from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.” # 12:20 Or settlements
21Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. # 12:21 Ex 12:3; Mk 14:12–16 22Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood # 12:22 Ex 12:7; Heb 11:28 that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. 23When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you. # 12:23 Ezk 9:6; 1Co 10:10; Rv 7:3
24“Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. 25When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony. 26When your children # 12:26 Ex 10:2; 13:8,14; Dt 6:20; 32:7; Jos 4:6,21; Ps 78:3–6 ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you? ’ 27you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice # 12:27 Ex 4:31; 12:11 to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, and he spared our homes.’ ” So the people knelt low and worshiped. 28Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
The Exodus
29Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male 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 dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock. # 12:29 Ex 4:23; 11:4; Nm 8:17; 33:4; Ps 78:51; 135:8 30During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing # 12:30 Ex 11:6; Am 5:17 throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead. 31He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get out immediately from among my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship the Lord as you have said. 32Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”
33Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die! ” # 12:33 Ex 11:8; Ps 105:38 34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.
35The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing. # 12:35 Gn 15:14; Ex 3:21; Ps 105:37 36And the Lord gave the people such favor with the Egyptians that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.
37The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, # 12:37 Gn 47:11; Nm 33:3,5 about six hundred thousand # 12:37 Ex 38:26; Nm 1:46; 11:21 able-bodied men on foot, besides their families. 38A mixed crowd also went up with them, along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39The people baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, since it had no yeast; for when they were driven # 12:39 Ex 6:1; 12:33 out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared provisions for themselves.
40The time that the Israelites lived in Egypt # 12:40 LXX, Sam add and in Canaan was 430 years. # 12:40 Gn 15:13–16; Ac 7:6; Gl 3:17 41At the end of 430 years, on that same day, all the Lord’s military divisions went out from the land of Egypt. 42It was a night of vigil in honor of the Lord, because he would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the Lord, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations. # 12:42 Ex 13:10; Dt 16:1,6
Passover Instruction
43The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it. 44But any slave a man has purchased may eat it, after you have circumcised him. 45A temporary resident or hired worker may not eat the Passover. # 12:43–45 Gn 17:11–13; Lv 22:10; Nm 9:14 46It is to be eaten in one house. You may not take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of its bones. # 12:46 Nm 9:12; Ps 34:20; Jn 19:33,36 47The whole community of Israel must celebrate # 12:47 Lit do it. 48If an alien resides among you and wants to observe the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; # 12:48 Lit may come near to do it he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. 49The same law will apply to both the native and the alien who resides among you.” # 12:49 Nm 9:14; 15:15–16,19; Gl 3:28
50Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51On that same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their military divisions. # 12:51 Ex 6:26; 12:41
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Exodus 12: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Exodus 12
12
The Passover
1Some time later the LORD said to Moses and Aaron:#Lv 23.5; Nu 9.1-5; 28.16; Dt 16.1-2.
2This month#12.2 This month: Abib (also called Nisan), the first month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-March to mid-April. is to be the first month of the year for you. 3Tell the people of Israel that on the tenth day of this month the head of each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for his family to eat. 4-5If any family is too small to eat the whole animal, they must share it with their next door neighbours. Choose either a sheep or a goat, but it must be a one-year-old male that has nothing wrong with it. And it must be large enough for everyone to have some of the meat.
6Each family must take care of its animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, when the animals are to be killed. 7Some of the blood must be put on the two doorposts and above the door of each house where the animals are to be eaten. 8That night the animals are to be roasted and eaten, together with bitter herbs and thin bread made without yeast. 9Don't eat the meat raw or boiled. The entire animal, including its head, legs, and insides, must be roasted. 10Eat what you want that night, and the next morning burn whatever is left. 11When you eat the meal, be dressed and ready to travel. Have your sandals on, carry your walking stick in your hand, and eat quickly. This is the Passover Festival in honour of me, your LORD.
12That same night I will pass through Egypt and kill the firstborn son in every family and the firstborn male of all animals. I am the LORD, and I will punish the gods of Egypt. 13The blood on the houses will show me where you live, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Then you won't be bothered by the terrible disasters I will bring on Egypt.
14Remember this day and celebrate it each year as a festival in my honour.#Ex 23.15; 34.18; Lv 23.6-8; Nu 28.17-25; Dt 16.3-8. 15For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. And on the first of these seven days, you must remove all yeast from your homes. If you eat anything made with yeast during this festival, you will no longer be part of Israel. 16Meet together for worship on the first and seventh days of the festival. The only work you are allowed to do on either of these two days is that of preparing the bread.
17Celebrate this Festival of Thin Bread as a way of remembering the day that I brought your families and tribes out of Egypt. And do this each year. 18Begin on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month by eating bread made without yeast. Then continue this celebration until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19During these seven days no yeast is allowed in anyone's home, whether they are native Israelites or not. If you are caught eating anything made with yeast, you will no longer be part of Israel. 20Stay away from yeast, no matter where you live. No one is allowed to eat anything made with yeast!
21Moses called the leaders of Israel together and said:
Each family is to pick out a sheep and kill it for Passover. 22Make a brush from a few small branches of a hyssop plant and dip the brush in the bowl that has the blood of the animal in it. Then brush some of the blood above the door and on the posts at each side of the door of your house. After this, everyone is to stay inside.
23During that night the LORD will go through the country of Egypt and kill the firstborn son in every Egyptian family. He will see where you have put the blood, and he will not come into your house. His angel that brings death will pass over and not kill your firstborn sons.#He 11.28.
24-25After you have entered the country promised to you by the LORD, you and your children must continue to celebrate Passover each year. 26Your children will ask you, “What are we celebrating?” 27And you will answer, “The Passover animal is killed to honour the LORD. We do these things because on that night long ago the LORD passed over the homes of our people in Egypt. He killed the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, but he saved our children from death.”
After Moses finished speaking, the people of Israel knelt down and worshipped the LORD. 28Then they left and did what Moses and Aaron had told them to do.
Death for the firstborn sons
29At midnight the LORD killed the firstborn son of every Egyptian family, from the son of the king#12.29 the king: See the note at 1.11. to the son of every prisoner in jail. He also killed the firstborn male of every animal that belonged to the Egyptians.#Ex 4.23.
30That night the king, his officials, and everyone else in Egypt got up and started crying bitterly. In every Egyptian home, someone was dead.
The people of Israel escape from Egypt
31During the night the king#12.31 the king: See the note at 1.11. sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “Get your people out of my country and leave us alone! Go and worship the LORD, as you have asked. 32Take your sheep, goats, and cattle, and get out. But ask your God to be kind to me.”
33The Egyptians did everything they could to get the Israelites to leave their country fast. They said, “Please hurry and leave. If you don't, we will all be dead.” 34So the Israelites quickly made some bread dough and put it in pans. But they did not mix any yeast in the dough to make it rise. They wrapped cloth around the pans and carried them on their shoulders.
35The Israelites had already done what Moses had told them to do. They had gone to their Egyptian neighbours and asked for gold and silver and for clothes.#Ex 3.21,22. 36The LORD had made the Egyptians friendly towards the people of Israel, and they gave them whatever they asked for. In this way they carried away the wealth of the Egyptians when they left Egypt.
37The Israelites walked from the city of Rameses to the city of Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand of them, not counting women and children. 38Many other people went with them as well, and there were also a lot of sheep, goats, and cattle. 39They left Egypt in such a hurry that they did not have time to prepare any food except the bread dough made without yeast. So they baked it and made thin bread.
40-41The LORD's people left Egypt exactly four hundred and thirty years after they had arrived.#Gn 15.13; Ga 3.17. 42On that night the LORD kept watch for them, and on this same night each year Israel will always keep watch in honour of the LORD.
Instructions for Passover
43The LORD gave Moses and Aaron the following instructions for celebrating Passover:
No one except Israelites may eat the Passover meal.
44Your slaves may eat the meal if they have been circumcised, 45but no foreigners who work for you are allowed to have any.
46The entire meal must be eaten inside, and no one may leave the house during the celebration.#Nu 9.12; Jn 19.36.
No bones of the Passover lamb may be broken. 47And all Israelites must take part in the meal.
48If anyone who isn't an Israelite wants to celebrate Passover with you, every man and boy in that family must first be circumcised. Then they may join in the meal, just like native Israelites. No uncircumcised man or boy may eat the Passover meal! 49This law applies both to native Israelites and to those foreigners who live among you.
50The Israelites obeyed everything the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron to tell them. 51And on that same day the LORD brought Israel's families and tribes out of Egypt.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012