The Passover
1 Some time later the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:
2 This month is to be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell 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. 4-5 If any family is too small to eat the whole animal, they must share it with their next-door neighbors. 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.
6 Each family must take care of its animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, when the animals are to be killed. 7 Some of the blood must be put on the two doorposts and above the door of each house where the animals are to be eaten. 8 That night the animals are to be roasted and eaten, together with bitter herbs and thin bread made without yeast. 9 Don't eat the meat raw or boiled. The entire animal, including its head, legs, and insides, must be roasted. 10 Eat what you want that night, and the next morning burn whatever is left. 11 When 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 honor of me, your Lord.
12 That same night I will pass through Egypt and kill the first-born son in every family and the first-born male of all animals. I am the Lord, and I will punish the gods of Egypt. 13 The 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.
14 Remember this day and celebrate it each year as a festival in my honor. 15 For 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. 16 Meet 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.
17 Celebrate 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. 18 Begin 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. 19 During 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. 20 Stay away from yeast, no matter where you live. No one is allowed to eat anything made with yeast!
21 Moses called the leaders of Israel together and said:
Each family is to pick out a sheep and kill it for Passover. 22 Make 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 until morning.
23 During that night the Lord will go through the country of Egypt and kill the first-born 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 first-born sons.
24-25 After you have entered the country promised to you by the Lord, you and your children must continue to celebrate Passover each year. 26 Your children will ask you, “What are we celebrating?” 27 And you will answer, “The Passover animal is killed to honor 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 first-born sons of the Egyptians, but he spared our children from death.”
After Moses finished speaking, the people of Israel knelt down and worshiped the Lord. 28 Then they left and did what Moses and Aaron had told them to do.
Death for the First-Born Sons
29 At midnight the Lord killed the first-born son of every Egyptian family, from the son of the king to the son of every prisoner in jail. He also killed the first-born male of every animal that belonged to the Egyptians.
30 That 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
31 During the night the king 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. 32 Take your sheep, goats, and cattle, and get out. But ask your God to be kind to me.”
33 The Egyptians did everything they could to get the Israelites to leave their country as quickly as possible. They said, “Please hurry and leave. If you don't, we will all be dead.” 34 So 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.
35 The Israelites had already done what Moses had told them to do. They had gone to their Egyptian neighbors and asked for gold and silver and for clothes. 36 The Lord had made the Egyptians friendly toward 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.
37 The Israelites walked from the city of Rameses to the city of Succoth. There were about 600,000 of them, not counting women and children. 38 Many other people went with them as well, and there were also a lot of sheep, goats, and cattle. 39 They 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.
40-41 The Lord's people left Egypt exactly 430 years after they had arrived. 42 On that night the Lord kept watch for them, and on this same night each year Israel will always keep watch in honor of the Lord.
Instructions for Passover
43 The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the following instructions for celebrating Passover:
Only Israelites may eat the Passover meal.
44 Your slaves may eat the meal if they have been circumcised, 45 but no foreigners who work for you are allowed to have any.
46 The entire meal must be eaten inside, and no one may leave the house during the celebration.
No bones of the Passover lamb may be broken. 47 And all Israelites must take part in the meal.
48 If 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! 49 This law applies both to native Israelites and to those foreigners who live among you.
50 The Israelites obeyed everything the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron to tell them. 51 And on that same day the Lord brought Israel's families and tribes out of Egypt.
1 Then the Lord spake to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This moneth shalbe vnto you the beginning of moneths: it shalbe to you the first moneth of the yere. 3 Speake ye vnto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth of this moneth let euery man take vnto him a lambe, according to the house of the fathers, a lambe for an house. 4 And if the housholde be too litle for the lambe, he shall take his neighbour, which is next vnto his house, according to the nomber of the persons: euery one of you, according to his eating shall make your count for the lambes, 5 Your lambe shalbe without blemish, a male of a yeere olde: ye shall take it of the lambes, or of the kiddes. 6 And yee shall keepe it vntill the fourteenth day of this moneth: then al the multitude of the Congregation of Israel shall kill it at euen. 7 After, they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two postes, and on the vpper doore post of the houses where they shall eate it. 8 And they shall eate the flesh the same night, roste with fire, and vnleauened bread: with sowre herbes they shall eate it. 9 Eate not thereof rawe, boyled nor sodden in water, but rost with fire, both his head, his feete, and his purtenance. 10 And ye shall reserue nothing of it vnto the morning: but that, which remaineth of it vnto the morowe, shall ye burne with fire. 11 And thus shall yee eate it, Your loynes girded, your shoes on your feete, and your staues in your handes, and yee shall eate it in haste: for it is the Lords Passeouer. 12 For I will passe through the lande of Egypt the same night, and will smite all the first borne in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and I will execute iudgement vpon all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 And the blood shalbe a token for you vpon the houses where ye are: so when I see the blood, I will passe ouer you, and the plague shall not be vpon you to destruction, when I smite the lande of Egypt. 14 And this day shalbe vnto you a remembrance: and ye shall keepe it an holie feast vnto the Lord, throughout your generations: yee shall keepe it holie by an ordinance for euer. 15 Seuen daies shall ye eat vnleauened bread, and in any case ye shall put away leauen the first day out of your houses: for whosoeuer eateth leauened bread from the first daie vntill the seuenth day, that person shalbe cut off from Israel. 16 And in the first day shalbe an holie assemblie: also in the seuenth day shalbe an holy assemblie vnto you: no worke shalbe done in them, saue about that which euery man must eate: that onely may ye do. 17 Ye shall keepe also the feast of vnleauened bread: for that same daye I will bring your armies out of the lande of Egypt: therefore ye shall obserue this day, throughout your posteritie, by an ordinance for euer. 18 In the first moneth and the fourteenth day of the moneth at euen, yee shall eate vnleauened bread vnto the one and twentieth day of the moneth at euen. 19 Seuen daies shall no leauen be founde in your houses: for whosoeuer eateth leauened bread, that person shalbe cut off from the Congregation of Israel: whether he bee a stranger, or borne in the land. 20 Ye shall eate no leauened bread: but in all your habitations shall ye eate vnleauened bread. 21 Then Moses called all the Elders of Israel, and saide vnto them, Choose out and take you for euerie of your housholdes a lambe, and kill the Passeouer. 22 And take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basen, and strike the lintell, and the doore cheekes with the blood that is in the basen, and let none of you goe out at the doore of his house, vntill the morning. 23 For the Lord will passe by to smite the Egyptians: and when he seeth the blood vpon the lintel and on the two doore cheekes, the Lord wil passe ouer the doore, and wil not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to plague you. 24 Therefore shall ye obserue this thing as an ordinance both for thee and thy sonnes for euer. 25 And when ye shall come into the land, which the Lord will giue you as hee hath promised, then ye shall keepe this seruice. 26 And when your children aske you, What seruice is this ye keepe? 27 Then ye shall saye, It is the sacrifice of the Lordes Passeouer, which passed ouer the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and preserued our houses. Then the people bowed them selues, and worshipped. 28 So the children of Israel went, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron: so did they. 29 Nowe at midnight, the Lord smote all the first borne in the lande of Egypt, from the first borne of Pharaoh that sate on his throne, vnto the first borne of the captiue that was in prison, and all the first borne of beastes. 30 And Pharaoh rose vp in the night, he, and all his seruants and all the Egyptians: and there was a great crye in Egypt: for there was no house where there was not one dead. 31 And hee called to Moses and to Aaron by night, and saide, Rise vp, get you out from among my people, both yee, and the children of Israel, and goe serue the Lord as ye haue sayde. 32 Take also your sheepe and your cattell as yee haue sayde, and depart, and blesse me also. 33 And the Egyptians did force the people, because they would send them out of the land in haste: for they said, We die all. 34 Therfore the people tooke their dough before it was leauened, euen their dough bound in clothes vpon their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did according to the saying of Moses, and they asked of ye Egyptians iewels of siluer and iewels of gold, and raiment. 36 And the Lord gaue the people fauour in the sight of the Egyptians: and they graunted their request: so they spoyled the Egyptians. 37 Then the children of Israel tooke their iourney from Rameses to Succoth about sixe hundreth thousand men of foote, beside children. 38 And a great multitude of sundrie sortes of people went out with them, and sheepe, and beeues, and cattel in great abundance. 39 And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt, and made vnleauened cakes: for it was not leauened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, neither coulde they tarie, nor yet prepare themselues vitailes. 40 So the dwelling of the children of Israel, while they dwelled in Egypt, was foure hundreth and thirtie yeres. 41 And when the foure hundreth and thirtie yeeres were expired, euen the selfe same day departed all the hostes of the Lord out of the land of Egypt. 42 It is a night to be kept holie to the Lord, because he brought them out of the lande of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord, which all the children of Israel must keepe throughout their generations. 43 Also the Lord said vnto Moses and Aaron, This is the Lawe of the Passeouer: no stranger shall eate thereof. 44 But euerie seruant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. 45 A stranger or an hyred seruant shall not eat thereof. 46 In one house shall it bee eaten: thou shalt carie none of ye flesh out of the house, neither shall ye breake a bone thereof. 47 All the Congregation of Israel shall obserue it. 48 But if a stranger dwell with thee, and will obserue the Passeouer of the Lord, let him circumcise all the males, that belong vnto him, and then let him come and obserue it, and he shall be as one that is borne in the land: for none vncircumcised person shall eate thereof. 49 One lawe shalbe to him that is borne in the land, and to the stranger that dwelleth among you. 50 Then all the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron: so did they. 51 And the selfe same day did the Lord bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.