The Passover Instituted
1Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2“This month will be the first of months for you; it will be the first month of your year. 3Speak to the whole assembly of Israel and tell them: On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb per household. 4If a household is too small for a whole lamb, that man and his nearest neighbor are to share one, based on the number of people; you are to apportion the lamb according to what each person will eat. 5Your animal must be a year-old male without defect, and you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6Keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembled community of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight. 7They are to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8They are to eat the meat that same night, roasted over fire, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over fire — its head, its legs, and its inner parts together. 10Do not leave any of it until morning; whatever is left until morning you must burn. 11This is how you are to eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste — it is a passover to Yahweh. 12For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals, and I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt — I am Yahweh. 13The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no destroying plague will touch you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14This day is to be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh; you are to celebrate it as a lasting statute for all your generations. 15For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh day is to be cut off from Israel. 16On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and on the seventh day another sacred assembly. No work at all is to be done on those days, except what everyone needs to eat — that alone may be prepared. 17Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt. You are to observe this day for all your generations, a lasting statute. 18In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat unleavened bread. 19For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened is to be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner or a native of the land. 20Eat nothing leavened; wherever you live, eat unleavened bread.”
Israel Keeps the Passover
21Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, pick out a lamb for your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. 22Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood from the basin. None of you is to go out the door of the house until morning. 23For Yahweh will pass through to strike down the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, Yahweh will pass over that door and will not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you down. 24Observe this instruction as a lasting statute for you and your children. 25When you enter the land Yahweh will give you, as he has promised, you are to observe this ceremony. 26And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27you are to say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our houses.’” And the people bowed low and worshiped. 28The Israelites went and did just as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron.
The Death of the Firstborn
29At midnight Yahweh struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock. 30Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was loud wailing throughout Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. 31He summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve Yahweh as you have said. 32Take your flocks and your herds too, just as you said, and go. And bless me also.” 33The Egyptians urged the people on, to hurry and send them out of the land, for they said, “We are all going to die.” 34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35The Israelites did as Moses had told them, and they asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. 36Yahweh gave the people such favor in the eyes of the Egyptians that they gave them what they asked. So they plundered the Egyptians.
Israel Leaves Egypt
37The Israelites journeyed from Raamses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides the children. 38A large mixed crowd went up with them as well, along with very large flocks and herds of livestock. 39They baked flat cakes of unleavened dough that they had brought out of Egypt, since it was not leavened — they had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and they had not even prepared food for themselves. 40The Israelites had lived in Egypt four hundred and thirty years. 41At the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt. 42That night was a night of vigil kept for Yahweh, for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This same night belongs to Yahweh, a night of vigil kept by all the Israelites for all their generations.
The Law of the Passover
43Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it. 44But any slave a man has bought may eat of it once he has been circumcised. 45No temporary resident or hired worker may eat of it. 46It must be eaten in one house — you must not take any of the meat outside the house — and you must not break any of its bones. 47The whole community of Israel is to keep it. 48If a foreigner living among you wants to keep the Passover to Yahweh, every male of his household must be circumcised, and then he may come near and keep it; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it. 49The same law applies to the native and to the foreigner living among you.” 50All the Israelites did just as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51And on that very day, Yahweh brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, company by company.
