Êxodo 12

¹ Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

² »This month shall be the beginning of months for you. It is to be the first month of the year to you.

³ »Tell the whole community of Israel: ‘On the tenth day of this month each man must take a sheep for his family, one animal per household.

⁴ »‘A household may be too small to eat a whole animal. That household and the one next-door can share one animal. Choose your animal based on the number of people and what each person can eat.

⁵ »‘Your animal must be a one-year-old male that has no defects. You may choose a lamb or a young goat.

⁶ »‘Take care of it until the fourteenth day of this month. Then at dusk, all the assembled people from the community of Israel must slaughter their animals.

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 greens and unleavened bread made without yeast.

⁹ »‘Do not 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 »‘Eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s Passover.’«

¹² Jehovah said: »That night I will go through the land of Egypt. I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt! I am Jehovah!

¹³ »The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you. No plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ »This day will be a memorial to you. You shall celebrate it as a feast to Jehovah. You are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance throughout your generations.

¹⁵ »You will eat unleavened bread for seven days. The first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day will be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶ »You shall have a holy assembly on the first day. There should be another holy assembly on the seventh day. No work at all will be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person that alone may be prepared by you.

¹⁷ »You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That was the day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Observe this day throughout your generations as a long lasting ordinance.

¹⁸ »In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

¹⁹ »There shall be no leaven found in your houses for seven days. Whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land.

²⁰ »You shall not eat anything leavened. Eat unleavened bread in all your dwellings.«

²¹ Moses called all the elders of Israel and said: »Take lambs according to your families and slay the Passover lamb.

²² »Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin. Apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. No one shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

²³ »Jehovah will pass through to strike the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, Jehovah will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to kill you.

²⁴ »You shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children from generation to generation.

²⁵ »When you enter the land Jehovah will give you, as he has promised, you shall observe this rite.

²⁶ »When your children ask you: What does this rite mean to you?

²⁷ »You shall say: ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to Jehovah who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He killed the Egyptians, but spared our homes. The people bowed low and worshiped.’«

²⁸ Then the sons of Israel did just as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹ At midnight Jehovah killed every firstborn male in Egypt from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who ruled the land to the firstborn son of the prisoner in jail, and also every firstborn animal.

³⁰ Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the other Egyptians got up during the night. There was loud crying throughout Egypt because in every house someone had died.

³¹ Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night. He said: »You and the Israelites must leave my people at once. Go serve Jehovah just as you requested.

³² »Take your flocks and herds, too, as you asked. Just go! And bless me, too!«

³³ The Egyptians begged the people to leave the country quickly. They said: »We will all be dead soon!«

³⁴ The people picked up their bread dough before it had risen. They carried it on their shoulders in bowls and wrapped up in their clothes.

³⁵ The sons of Israel did what Moses told them. They asked the Egyptians for gold and silver jewelry and for clothes.

³⁶ Jehovah made the Egyptians generous to the people. They gave them what they asked for. So the sons of Israel stripped Egypt of its wealth.

³⁷ The Israelites left Rameses to go to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, plus all the women and children.

³⁸ Many other people also went with them, along with large numbers of sheep, goats, and cattle.

³⁹ With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked round, flat bread. The dough had not risen because they had been thrown out of Egypt and had no time to prepare food for the trip.

⁴⁰ The Israelites had been living in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

⁴¹ After exactly four hundred and thirty years all of Jehovah’s people left Egypt in organized family groups.

⁴² It is a night to be observed for Jehovah for having brought them out from the land of Egypt. This night is for Jehovah and should be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.

⁴³ Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron: »This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it.

⁴⁴ »After you have circumcised your purchased slave he may eat of it.

⁴⁵ »No foreigner visiting you may eat it. No hired worker may eat it.

⁴⁶ »The meal must be eaten inside one house. Never take any of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.

⁴⁷ »The entire community of Israel must celebrate the Passover.

⁴⁸ »The uncircumcised man may not eat it. If a foreigner has settled among you and wants to celebrate Passover to honor Jehovah, you must first circumcise all the males of his household. He is then to be treated like a native-born Israelite and may join in the festival.

⁴⁹ »The same regulations apply to native-born Israelites and to foreigners who settle among you.«

⁵⁰ All the Israelites obeyed. They did what Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron.

⁵¹ On that day Jehovah brought the Israelite tribes out of Egypt.