Exodus 12

1Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

2“This month is to be the first month for you; it is to be the first month of your year.

3Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb for each household.

4If a household is too small for a whole lamb, the man and his nearest neighbor are to share one, according to the number of people. You are to count each person’s share of the lamb by how much each one will eat.

5Your lamb must be a male a year old and without defect. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

6Keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the community of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight.

7Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the top of the doorframe of the houses where they eat it.

8That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

9Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, its legs, and its inner parts.

10Do not leave any of it until morning; if any is left until morning, burn it up.

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 a hurry. It is Yahweh’s Passover.

12On that same night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals, and I will execute judgment on 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 plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

14This day is to be a day for you to remember. You are to celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a lasting statute.

15For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. On the first day you must remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh day, that person must be cut off from Israel.

16On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and on the seventh day another sacred assembly. No work at all is to be done on those days, except to prepare what each person needs to eat; only that may be done.

17Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. So observe this day throughout your generations as a lasting statute.

18In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month 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 with yeast in it, that person must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner or a native of the land.

20Do not eat anything with yeast in it. Wherever you live, you are to eat unleavened bread.”

21Then Moses called all the elders of Israel together and said to them, “Go and pick out lambs for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb.

22Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the top of the doorframe and the two doorposts with the blood from the basin. None of you is to go out of the door of your house until morning.

23When Yahweh passes through to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top of the doorframe and on the two doorposts, and Yahweh will pass over that door. He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.

24You are to observe this as a lasting statute for you and your descendants.

25When you enter the land that 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 down the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

28The Israelites went and did exactly what Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron.

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 all the firstborn of the livestock.

30Pharaoh got up during the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

31Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up! Leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship Yahweh, as you have asked.

32Take your flocks and your herds too, as you have asked, and go. And bless me also.”

33The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the land, for they said, “We will all be dead!”

34So the people took their dough before it had risen, with their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their shoulders.

35The Israelites had done as Moses said, and they had asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.

36Yahweh had made the Egyptians look favorably on the people, so they gave them what they asked for. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

37The Israelites set out from Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting the children.

38A mixed crowd also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a great amount of livestock.

39They baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into flat loaves of unleavened bread. It had no yeast in it because they had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves.

40The length of time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.

41At the end of the 430 years, on that very day, all the divisions of Yahweh went out of the land of Egypt.

42It was a night of watching for Yahweh, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is to be a night of watching for Yahweh, kept by all the Israelites throughout their generations.

43Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute for the Passover: No foreigner is to eat it.

44But any slave who has been bought with money may eat it after you have circumcised him.

45A temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.

46It must be eaten inside one house. Do not take any of the meat outside the house, and do not break any of its bones.

47The whole community of Israel is to celebrate it.

48If a foreigner living among you wants to celebrate Yahweh’s Passover, all the males in his household must be circumcised. Then he may come near and celebrate it, and he will be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat it.

49The same law applies to the native and to the foreigner who lives among you.”

50All the Israelites did exactly what Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron.

51On that very day Yahweh brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.