The Message

<div class="version vid97 iso6393eng" data-vid="97" data-iso6393="eng">
   <div class="book bkEXO">
      <div class="chapter ch12" data-usfm="EXO.12">
         <div class="label">12</div><div class="p"><span class="content">  </span><span class="verse v1 v2 v3 v4 v5 v6 v7 v8 v9 v10" data-usfm="EXO.12.1+EXO.12.2+EXO.12.3+EXO.12.4+EXO.12.5+EXO.12.6+EXO.12.7+EXO.12.8+EXO.12.9+EXO.12.10"><span class="label">1-10</span><span class="content">  </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> said to Moses and Aaron while still in Egypt, &#8220;This month is to be the first month of the year for you. Address the whole community of Israel; tell them that on the tenth of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb to a house. If the family is too small for a lamb, then share it with a close neighbor, depending on the number of persons involved. Be mindful of how much each person will eat. Your lamb must be a healthy male, one year old; you can select it from either the sheep or the goats. Keep it penned until the fourteenth day of this month and then slaughter it&#8212;the entire community of Israel will do this&#8212;at dusk. Then take some of the blood and smear it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which you will eat it. You are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire, that night, along with bread, made without yeast, and bitter herbs. Don&#8217;t eat any of it raw or boiled in water; make sure it&#8217;s roasted&#8212;the whole animal, head, legs, and innards. Don&#8217;t leave any of it until morning; if there are leftovers, burn them in the fire.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v1 v2 v3 v4 v5 v6 v7 v8 v9 v10" data-usfm="EXO.12.1+EXO.12.2+EXO.12.3+EXO.12.4+EXO.12.5+EXO.12.6+EXO.12.7+EXO.12.8+EXO.12.9+EXO.12.10"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="EXO.12.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">&#8220;And here is how you are to eat it: Be fully dressed with your sandals on and your stick in your hand. Eat in a hurry; it&#8217;s the Passover to </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content">.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="EXO.12.11"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v12 v13" data-usfm="EXO.12.12+EXO.12.13"><span class="label">12-13</span><span class="content">&#8220;I will go through the land of Egypt on this night and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, whether human or animal, and bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content">. The blood will serve as a sign on the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you&#8212;no disaster will touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v12 v13" data-usfm="EXO.12.12+EXO.12.13"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v14 v15 v16" data-usfm="EXO.12.14+EXO.12.15+EXO.12.16"><span class="label">14-16</span><span class="content">&#8220;This will be a memorial day for you; you will celebrate it as a festival to </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> down through the generations, a fixed festival celebration to be observed always. You will eat unraised bread (matzoth) for seven days: On the first day get rid of all yeast from your houses&#8212;anyone who eats anything with yeast from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off from Israel. The first and the seventh days are set aside as holy; do no work on those days. Only what you have to do for meals; each person can do that.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v14 v15 v16" data-usfm="EXO.12.14+EXO.12.15+EXO.12.16"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v17 v18 v19 v20" data-usfm="EXO.12.17+EXO.12.18+EXO.12.19+EXO.12.20"><span class="label">17-20</span><span class="content">&#8220;Keep the Festival of Unraised Bread! This marks the exact day I brought you out in force from the land of Egypt. Honor the day down through your generations, a fixed festival to be observed always. In the first month, beginning on the fourteenth day at evening until the twenty-first day at evening, you are to eat unraised bread. For those seven days not a trace of yeast is to be found in your houses. Anyone, whether a visitor or a native of the land, who eats anything raised shall be cut off from the community of Israel. Don&#8217;t eat anything raised. Only matzoth.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v17 v18 v19 v20" data-usfm="EXO.12.17+EXO.12.18+EXO.12.19+EXO.12.20"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v21 v22 v23" data-usfm="EXO.12.21+EXO.12.22+EXO.12.23"><span class="label">21-23</span><span class="content">Moses assembled all the elders of Israel. He said, &#8220;Select a lamb for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the bowl of blood and smear it on the lintel and on the two doorposts. No one is to leave the house until morning. </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> will pass through to strike Egypt down. When he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> will pass over the doorway; he won&#8217;t let the destroyer enter your house to strike you down with ruin.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v21 v22 v23" data-usfm="EXO.12.21+EXO.12.22+EXO.12.23"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v24 v25 v26 v27" data-usfm="EXO.12.24+EXO.12.25+EXO.12.26+EXO.12.27"><span class="label">24-27</span><span class="content">&#8220;Keep this word. It&#8217;s the law for you and your children, forever. When you enter the land which </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> will give you as he promised, keep doing this. And when your children say to you, &#8216;Why are we doing this?&#8217; tell them: &#8216;It&#8217;s the Passover-sacrifice to </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> who passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt when he hit Egypt with death but rescued us.&#8217;&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v24 v25 v26 v27" data-usfm="EXO.12.24+EXO.12.25+EXO.12.26+EXO.12.27"><span class="content">The people bowed and worshiped.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v24 v25 v26 v27" data-usfm="EXO.12.24+EXO.12.25+EXO.12.26+EXO.12.27"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="EXO.12.28"><span class="label">28</span><span class="content">The Israelites then went and did what </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> had commanded Moses and Aaron. They did it all.</span></span></div><div class="pc"><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="EXO.12.28"><span class="content">* * *</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="EXO.12.28"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v29" data-usfm="EXO.12.29"><span class="label">29</span><span class="content">At midnight </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, right down to the firstborn of the prisoner locked up in jail. Also the firstborn of the animals.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v29" data-usfm="EXO.12.29"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v30" data-usfm="EXO.12.30"><span class="label">30</span><span class="content">Pharaoh got up that night, he and all his servants and everyone else in Egypt&#8212;what wild wailing and lament in Egypt! There wasn&#8217;t a house in which someone wasn&#8217;t dead.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v30" data-usfm="EXO.12.30"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v31 v32" data-usfm="EXO.12.31+EXO.12.32"><span class="label">31-32</span><span class="content">Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron that very night and said, &#8220;Get out of here and be done with you&#8212;you and your Israelites! Go worship </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> on your own terms. And yes, take your sheep and cattle as you&#8217;ve insisted, but go. And bless me.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v31 v32" data-usfm="EXO.12.31+EXO.12.32"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v33" data-usfm="EXO.12.33"><span class="label">33</span><span class="content">The Egyptians couldn&#8217;t wait to get rid of them; they pushed them to hurry up, saying, &#8220;We&#8217;re all as good as dead.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v33" data-usfm="EXO.12.33"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v34 v35 v36" data-usfm="EXO.12.34+EXO.12.35+EXO.12.36"><span class="label">34-36</span><span class="content">The people grabbed their bread dough before it had risen, bundled their bread bowls in their cloaks and threw them over their shoulders. The Israelites had already done what Moses had told them; they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold things and clothing. </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> saw to it that the Egyptians liked the people and so readily gave them what they asked for. Oh yes! They picked those Egyptians clean.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v34 v35 v36" data-usfm="EXO.12.34+EXO.12.35+EXO.12.36"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v37 v38 v39" data-usfm="EXO.12.37+EXO.12.38+EXO.12.39"><span class="label">37-39</span><span class="content">The Israelites moved on from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 on foot, besides their dependents. Hebrews and non-Hebrews alike set out, not to mention the large flocks and herds of livestock. They baked unraised cakes with the bread dough they had brought out of Egypt; it hadn&#8217;t raised&#8212;they&#8217;d been rushed out of Egypt and hadn&#8217;t time to fix food for the journey.</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">The Passover</span></div><div class="m"><span class="verse v37 v38 v39" data-usfm="EXO.12.37+EXO.12.38+EXO.12.39"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v40 v41 v42" data-usfm="EXO.12.40+EXO.12.41+EXO.12.42"><span class="label">40-42</span><span class="content">The Israelites had lived in Egypt 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content">&#8217;s entire army left Egypt. </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> kept watch all night, watching over the Israelites as he brought them out of Egypt. Because </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> kept watch, all Israel for all generations will honor </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> by keeping watch this night&#8212;a watchnight.</span></span></div><div class="pc"><span class="verse v40 v41 v42" data-usfm="EXO.12.40+EXO.12.41+EXO.12.42"><span class="content">* * *</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v40 v41 v42" data-usfm="EXO.12.40+EXO.12.41+EXO.12.42"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="label">43-47</span><span class="content">  </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> said to Moses and Aaron, &#8220;These are the rules for the Passover:</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="content">No foreigners are to eat it.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="content">Any slave, if he&#8217;s paid for and circumcised, can eat it.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="content">No casual visitor or hired hand can eat it.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="content">Eat it in one house&#8212;don&#8217;t take the meat outside the house.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="content">Don&#8217;t break any of the bones.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="content">The whole community of Israel is to be included in the meal.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v43 v44 v45 v46 v47" data-usfm="EXO.12.43+EXO.12.44+EXO.12.45+EXO.12.46+EXO.12.47"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v48" data-usfm="EXO.12.48"><span class="label">48</span><span class="content">&#8220;If an immigrant is staying with you and wants to keep the Passover to </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content">, every male in his family must be circumcised, then he can participate in the Meal&#8212;he will then be treated as a native son. But no uncircumcised person can eat it.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v48" data-usfm="EXO.12.48"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v49" data-usfm="EXO.12.49"><span class="label">49</span><span class="content">&#8220;The same law applies both to the native and the immigrant who is staying with you.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v49" data-usfm="EXO.12.49"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v50 v51" data-usfm="EXO.12.50+EXO.12.51"><span class="label">50-51</span><span class="content">All the Israelites did exactly as </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> commanded Moses and Aaron. That very day </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">God</span></span><span class="content"> brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, tribe by tribe.</span></span></div><div class="pc"><span class="verse v50 v51" data-usfm="EXO.12.50+EXO.12.51"><span class="content">* * *</span></span></div>
      </div>
   </div>
</div>

GOD said to Moses and Aaron while still in Egypt, “This month is to be the first month of the year for you. Address the whole community of Israel; tell them that on the tenth of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb to a house. If the family is too small for a lamb, then share it with a close neighbor, depending on the number of persons involved. Be mindful of how much each person will eat. Your lamb must be a healthy male, one year old; you can select it from either the sheep or the goats. Keep it penned until the fourteenth day of this month and then slaughter it—the entire community of Israel will do this—at dusk. Then take some of the blood and smear it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which you will eat it. You are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire, that night, along with bread, made without yeast, and bitter herbs. Don’t eat any of it raw or boiled in water; make sure it’s roasted—the whole animal, head, legs, and innards. Don’t leave any of it until morning; if there are leftovers, burn them in the fire.
“And here is how you are to eat it: Be fully dressed with your sandals on and your stick in your hand. Eat in a hurry; it’s the Passover to GOD.
“I will go through the land of Egypt on this night and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, whether human or animal, and bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am GOD. The blood will serve as a sign on the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you—no disaster will touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.
“This will be a memorial day for you; you will celebrate it as a festival to GOD down through the generations, a fixed festival celebration to be observed always. You will eat unraised bread (matzoth) for seven days: On the first day get rid of all yeast from your houses—anyone who eats anything with yeast from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off from Israel. The first and the seventh days are set aside as holy; do no work on those days. Only what you have to do for meals; each person can do that.
“Keep the Festival of Unraised Bread! This marks the exact day I brought you out in force from the land of Egypt. Honor the day down through your generations, a fixed festival to be observed always. In the first month, beginning on the fourteenth day at evening until the twenty-first day at evening, you are to eat unraised bread. For those seven days not a trace of yeast is to be found in your houses. Anyone, whether a visitor or a native of the land, who eats anything raised shall be cut off from the community of Israel. Don’t eat anything raised. Only matzoth.”
Moses assembled all the elders of Israel. He said, “Select a lamb for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the bowl of blood and smear it on the lintel and on the two doorposts. No one is to leave the house until morning. GOD will pass through to strike Egypt down. When he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, GOD will pass over the doorway; he won’t let the destroyer enter your house to strike you down with ruin.
“Keep this word. It’s the law for you and your children, forever. When you enter the land which GOD will give you as he promised, keep doing this. And when your children say to you, ‘Why are we doing this?’ tell them: ‘It’s the Passover-sacrifice to GOD who passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt when he hit Egypt with death but rescued us.’”
The people bowed and worshiped.
The Israelites then went and did what GOD had commanded Moses and Aaron. They did it all.
* * *
At midnight GOD struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, right down to the firstborn of the prisoner locked up in jail. Also the firstborn of the animals.
Pharaoh got up that night, he and all his servants and everyone else in Egypt—what wild wailing and lament in Egypt! There wasn’t a house in which someone wasn’t dead.
Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron that very night and said, “Get out of here and be done with you—you and your Israelites! Go worship GOD on your own terms. And yes, take your sheep and cattle as you’ve insisted, but go. And bless me.”
The Egyptians couldn’t wait to get rid of them; they pushed them to hurry up, saying, “We’re all as good as dead.”
The people grabbed their bread dough before it had risen, bundled their bread bowls in their cloaks and threw them over their shoulders. The Israelites had already done what Moses had told them; they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold things and clothing. GOD saw to it that the Egyptians liked the people and so readily gave them what they asked for. Oh yes! They picked those Egyptians clean.
The Israelites moved on from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 on foot, besides their dependents. Hebrews and non-Hebrews alike set out, not to mention the large flocks and herds of livestock. They baked unraised cakes with the bread dough they had brought out of Egypt; it hadn’t raised—they’d been rushed out of Egypt and hadn’t time to fix food for the journey.

The Israelites had lived in Egypt 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, GOD’s entire army left Egypt. GOD kept watch all night, watching over the Israelites as he brought them out of Egypt. Because GOD kept watch, all Israel for all generations will honor GOD by keeping watch this night—a watchnight.
* * *
GOD said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the rules for the Passover:
No foreigners are to eat it.
Any slave, if he’s paid for and circumcised, can eat it.
No casual visitor or hired hand can eat it.
Eat it in one house—don’t take the meat outside the house.
Don’t break any of the bones.
The whole community of Israel is to be included in the meal.

“If an immigrant is staying with you and wants to keep the Passover to GOD, every male in his family must be circumcised, then he can participate in the Meal—he will then be treated as a native son. But no uncircumcised person can eat it.

“The same law applies both to the native and the immigrant who is staying with you.”

All the Israelites did exactly as GOD commanded Moses and Aaron. That very day GOD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, tribe by tribe.
* * *

Listen to Exodus 12