Exodus 12
The Passover
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 a“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb aaccording to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be awithout blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the afourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the atwo doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with aunleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but aroasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And ayou shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with ayour belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. bIt is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For aI will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on ball the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: cI am the Lord. 13 aThe blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This day shall be afor you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a bstatute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 aSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, bthat person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a aholy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for aon this very day I brought your bhosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 aIn the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 aFor seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, athat person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, bwhether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves aaccording to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of ahyssop and bdip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch cthe lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. dNone of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 aFor the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on bthe lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and cwill not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, aas he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And awhen your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, a‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bbowed their heads and worshiped.
28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
29 aAt midnight the bLord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, cfrom the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was aa great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, aboth you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 32 aTake your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”
The Exodus
33 aThe Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had aasked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 aAnd the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that bthey let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
37 And the apeople of Israel journeyed from bRameses to Succoth, cabout six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 A amixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because athey were thrust out of Egypt and bcould not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
40 The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of a430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a anight of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.
Institution of the Passover
43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, 44 but every slave that is abought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. 45 aNo foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. 46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and ayou shall not break any of its bones. 47 aAll the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 aIf a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he bshall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be aone law for the native and for the bstranger who sojourns among you.”
50 All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the aLord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their bhosts.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.