Shemoth (Exodus) 12:1-30

And יהוה spoke to Mosheh and to Aharon in the land of Mitsrayim, saying, This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you. Speak to all the congregation of Yisra’ĕl, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this new moon each one of them is to take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the beings, according to each man’s need you make your count for the lamb. ‘Let the lamb be a perfect one, a year old male. Take it from the sheep or from the goats. ‘And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same new moon. Then all the assembly of the congregation of Yisra’ĕl shall slay it between the evenings. ‘And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. ‘And they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire – with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ‘Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its inward parts. ‘And do not leave of it until morning, and what remains of it until morning you are to burn with fire. ‘And this is how you eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Pĕsaḥ of יהוה. ‘And I shall pass through the land of Mitsrayim on that night, and shall strike all the first-born in the land of Mitsrayim, both man and beast. And on all the mighty ones of Mitsrayim I shall execute judgment. I am יהוה. ‘And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I shall pass over you, and let the plague not come on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Mitsrayim. ‘And this day shall become to you a remembrance. And you shall celebrate it as a festival to יהוה throughout your generations – celebrate it as a festival, an everlasting law. ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Indeed on the first day you cause leaven to cease from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that being shall be cut off from Yisra’ĕl. ‘And on the first day is a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day you have a set-apart gathering. No work at all is done on them, only that which is eaten by every being, that alone is prepared by you. ‘And you shall guard the Festival of Matzot, for on this same day I brought your divisions out of the land of Mitsrayim. And you shall guard this day throughout your generations, an everlasting law. ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the new moon, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the new moon in the evening. ‘For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra’ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land. ‘Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.’ ” And Mosheh called for all the elders of Yisra’ĕl and said to them, “Go out and take lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and slay the Pĕsaḥ. “And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin, and you, none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. “And יהוה shall pass on to smite the Mitsrites, and shall see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and יהוה shall pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. “And you shall guard this word as a law for you and your sons, forever. “And it shall be, when you come to the land which יהוה gives you, as He promised, that you shall guard this service. “And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ “then you shall say, ‘It is the Pĕsaḥ slaughtering of יהוה, who passed over the houses of the children of Yisra’ĕl in Mitsrayim when He smote the Mitsrites and delivered our households.’ And the people bowed their heads and did obeisance. And the children of Yisra’ĕl went away and did so – as יהוה had commanded Mosheh and Aharon, so they did. And it came to be at midnight that יהוה struck all the first-born in the land of Mitsrayim, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Mitsrites. And there was a great cry in Mitsrayim, for there was not a house where there was not a dead one.