Exodus 12

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

² ‘This month is the first of all the others for you, the first month of your year.

³ Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, “On the tenth day of this month each man must take an animal from the flock, one for each family: one animal for each household.

⁴ If the household is too small to eat the animal, a man must join with his neighbour, the nearest to his house, as the number of persons requires. You must take into account what each can eat in deciding the number for the animal.

⁵ It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year old; you may take it from either sheep or goats.

⁶ You must keep it till the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the community of Israel shall slaughter it between the two evenings.[*a]

⁷ Some of the blood must then be taken and put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten.

⁸ That night, the flesh is to be eaten, roasted over the fire; it must be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled, but roasted over the fire, head, feet and entrails.

¹⁰ You must not leave any over till the morning: whatever is left till morning you are to burn.

¹¹ You shall eat it like this: with a girdle round your waist, sandals on your feet, a staff in your hand. You shall eat it hastily: it is a passover[*b] in honour of Yahweh.

¹² That night, I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, man and beast alike, and I shall deal out punishment to all the gods of Egypt, I am Yahweh!

¹³ The blood shall serve to mark the houses that you live in. When I see the blood I will pass over you and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you must celebrate it as a feast in Yahweh’s honour. For all generations you are to declare it a day of festival, for ever.

¹⁵ “For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to clean all leaven out of your houses, for anyone who eats leavened bread from the first to the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶ On the first day you are to hold a sacred gathering, and again on the seventh day. On those days no work is to be done; you are allowed only to prepare your food.

¹⁷ The feast of Unleavened Bread must be kept because it was on that same day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Keep that day from age to age: it is an irrevocable ordinance.

¹⁸ In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day and until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat unleavened bread.

¹⁹ For seven days no leaven must be found in your houses, because anyone who eats leavened bread will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he be stranger or native-born.

²⁰ You must eat no leavened bread; wherever you live you must eat unleavened bread.”‘

²¹ Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and choose animals from the flock on behalf of your families, and kill the Passover victim.

²² Then take a spray of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and with the blood from the basin touch the lintel and the two doorposts. Let none of you venture out of the house till morning.

²³ Then, when Yahweh goes through Egypt to strike it, and sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to enter your homes and strike.

²⁴ You must keep these rules as an ordinance for all time for you and your children.

²⁵ When you enter the land that Yahweh is giving you, as he promised, you must keep to this ritual.

²⁶ And when your children ask you, “What does this ritual mean?”

²⁷ you will tell them, “It is the sacrifice of the Passover in honour of Yahweh who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, and struck Egypt but spared our houses”.’ And the people bowed down and worshipped.

²⁸ The sons of Israel then departed, and they obeyed. They carried out the orders Yahweh had given to Moses and Aaron.

²⁹ And at midnight Yahweh struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt: the first-born of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, the first-born of the prisoner in his dungeon, and the first-born of all the cattle.

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

³¹ And it was night when Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. ‘Get up,’ he said ‘you and the sons of Israel, and get away from my people. Go and offer worship to Yahweh as you have asked and, as you have asked, take your flocks and herds, and go.

³² And also ask a blessing on me.’

³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry up and leave the land because, they said, ‘Otherwise we shall all be dead’.

³⁴ So the people carried off their dough, still unleavened, on their shoulders, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks.

³⁵ The sons of Israel did as Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for silver ornaments and gold, and for clothing.

³⁶ Yahweh gave the people such prestige in the eyes of the Egyptians, that they gave them what they asked. So they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ The sons of Israel left Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred thousand on the march – all men – not counting their families.

³⁸ People of various sorts joined them in great numbers; there were flocks, too, and herds in immense droves.

³⁹ They baked cakes with the dough which they had brought from Egypt, unleavened because the dough was not leavened; they had been driven out of Egypt, with no time for dallying, and had not provided themselves with food for the journey.[*c]

⁴⁰ The time that the sons of Israel had spent in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

⁴¹ And on the very day the four hundred and thirty years ended, all the array of Yahweh left the land of Egypt.

⁴² The night, when Yahweh kept vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt, must be kept as a vigil in honour of Yahweh for all their generations.

⁴³ Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ‘This is what is ordained for the Passover: No alien may take part in it,

⁴⁴ but any slave bought for money may take part when you have had him circumcised.

⁴⁵ No stranger and no hired servant may take part in it.

⁴⁶ It is to be eaten in one house alone, out of which not a single morsel of the flesh is to be taken; nor must you break any bone of it.

⁴⁷ The whole community of Israel must keep the Passover.

⁴⁸ Should a stranger be staying with you and wish to celebrate the Passover in honour of Yahweh, all the males of his household must be circumcised: he may then be admitted to the celebration, for he becomes as it were a native-born. But no uncircumcised person may take part.

⁴⁹ The same law will run for the native and for the stranger resident among you.’

⁵⁰ The sons of Israel all obeyed. They carried out the orders Yahweh had given to Moses and Aaron.

⁵¹ And that same day Yahweh brought the sons of Israel in their armies out of Egypt.