The First-Born Die

11 The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring trouble upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt one more time. After that he will let you go. He will not only let you go, but he will make you leave. ² Tell the people that each man should ask his neighbor and each woman ask her neighbor for things made of silver and gold.” ³ Then the Lord gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. And the man Moses was respected in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and the people.

⁴ Moses said, “The Lord says this: ‘About midnight I will go through Egypt. ⁵ And all the first-born in the land of Egypt will die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the first-born of the servant girl grinding the grain, and even the first-born of the cattle. ⁶ There will be loud crying in all the land of Egypt, more than has ever been heard before or will ever be heard again. ⁷ Not even a dog will make a sound against those of Israel, man or animal, so you may know that the Lord divides Egypt from Israel.’ ⁸ All these who are your servants will come to me and bow in front of me. They will say, ‘Go away, you and all the people who follow you.’ After that I will go.” And he went away from Pharaoh very angry. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you. So I will do more powerful works in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these great works in front of Pharaoh. But the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart hard. He did not let the people of Israel leave his land.

The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This month will be the beginning of months. It will be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to the people of Israel when they are gathered together. Tell them that on the tenth day of this month, every man must take a lamb for those of his father’s house, a lamb for each house. ⁴ If those in the house are too few to eat a lamb, let him and his nearest neighbor take the right amount for the number of people. Divide the lamb by how much each can eat. ⁵ Your lamb must be perfect, a male lamb one year old. You may take it from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then all the people of Israel are to kill it in the evening. ⁷ Then they must take some of the blood and put it on the wood pieces at the sides and top of the door of each house where they will eat it. ⁸ They must eat the meat that same night, made ready over a fire. They will eat it with bread made without yeast and with bitter plants. ⁹ Do not eat any of it if it is not cooked or if it is made ready by boiling. But cook it over a fire, its head, legs and inside parts. ¹⁰ Do not save any of it until morning. Burn with fire whatever is left of it before morning.

¹¹ “Eat it with your shoes on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. And you must eat it in a hurry. It is the time the Lord will pass over. ¹² For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night. And I will kill all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will punish all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ But the blood will mark for you the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you. And no trouble will come upon you to destroy you when I punish the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day will be for you to remember. You must remember it by having a special supper in honor to the Lord. All of you must keep it as a law forever. ¹⁵ Seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day you must get all the yeast out of your houses. Whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day will be taken away from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day you must have a holy meeting of the people, and another holy meeting on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to get ready what every person must eat. You may do only that. ¹⁷ You must have the special supper of bread without yeast. For on this same day I brought your family groups out of the land of Egypt. So all of you must remember this day as a law forever.

¹⁸ “In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you must eat bread made without yeast. ¹⁹ There must be no yeast found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats anything with yeast, that person, stranger or born in the land, will be cut off from the people of Israel. ²⁰ Do not eat anything with yeast. You must eat bread made without yeast in all your homes.”

²¹ Then Moses called for all the leaders of Israel. He said to them, “Go and choose lambs for your families, and kill the Passover lamb. ²² Take a small branch and put it in the blood in the pot. Spread some of the blood on the wood pieces on the top and sides of the door. Then none of you go outside the door of his house until morning. ²³ For the Lord will pass through to kill the Egyptians. But when He sees the blood around your door, the Lord will pass over the door. He will not let the one who destroys come into your houses to kill you. ²⁴ You must remember this as a law for you and your children forever. ²⁵ You must remember this special time when you go to the land that the Lord has promised to give you. ²⁶ When your children ask you, ‘What does this special time mean to you?’ ²⁷ you will say, ‘It is a Passover gift to the Lord. Because He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians but saved our homes.’” And the people bowed to the ground and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the people of Israel went and did what the Lord had told Moses and Aaron.

Death of the First-Born

²⁹ At midnight the Lord killed all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the one who was held in prison, and all the first-born of the cattle. ³⁰ Pharaoh got up in the night, he and his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a loud cry in Egypt. For there was no home where there was not someone dead.

Children of Israel Leave Egypt

³¹ Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron at night. He said, “Get up and go away from my people, both you and the people of Israel. Go and worship the Lord, as you have said. ³² Take your flocks and your cattle, as you have said, and go. And pray that good will come to me also.”

³³ The Egyptians were trying to make the people hurry out of the land. For they said, “We will all be dead.” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before yeast had been added. They tied their dough pots in their clothes on their shoulders. ³⁵ The people of Israel had done what Moses had said. They had asked the Egyptians for things made of silver and gold and for clothes. ³⁶ And the Lord had given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. So the Egyptians let them have whatever they asked for. And they took the best things of Egypt.

³⁷ The people of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, and also the women and children. ³⁸ And a mixed group of people went with them, and very many flocks and cattle. ³⁹ They made the dough they had brought out of Egypt into loaves of bread without yeast. Yeast was not added to the dough because they had been sent out of Egypt and could not wait. They could not make ready any food for themselves.

⁴⁰ The people of Israel had lived in Egypt 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of 430 years, on that same day, all of the Lord’s people left Egypt. ⁴² It was a night to be remembered for the Lord for having brought them out of the land of Egypt. This night is for the Lord, to be remembered by all the people of Israel for all time.

How the Passover Supper Should Be Eaten

⁴³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the Law of the Passover. No stranger may eat of it. ⁴⁴ But every servant who is bought with money may eat of it, only after he has gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. ⁴⁵ A stranger or paid servant may not eat of it. ⁴⁶ It must be eaten in one house. You must not carry any of the meat outside the house. And you must not break a bone of it. ⁴⁷ All the people of Israel must remember this. ⁴⁸ But when a stranger staying with you wants to share in this special supper to the Lord, let all his men and boys go through the religious act of becoming a Jew. Then let him come near to share in the special supper. He will be like one who is born in the land. But no person who has not gone through the religious act may eat of it. ⁴⁹ The same law is for the one who is born in the land and for the stranger who stays among you.”

⁵⁰ Then all the people of Israel did just as the Lord had told Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ On that same day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their family groups.

The First-Born Given to God

13 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Set apart to Me every first-born male. The first-born male among the people of Israel, and the first-born male animal are Mine.”

Special Supper of Bread without Yeast

³ Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the land where you were made to stay and work. For the Lord brought you out of this place by a powerful hand. No bread made with yeast will be eaten. ⁴ This day you are about to go out, in the month of Abib. ⁵ And the Lord will bring you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, which He promised to your fathers to give you. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. There you will do this act of worship in this month. ⁶ For seven days you will eat bread without yeast. On the seventh day there will be a special supper to the Lord. ⁷ Bread without yeast will be eaten for seven days. Nothing made with yeast will be seen among you. No yeast will be seen among you in all your country. ⁸ You will say to your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ⁹ It will be a special mark on your hand and on your forehead to make people remember, that the Law of the Lord is to be in your mouth. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a powerful hand. ¹⁰ So you must keep this Law at the time given for it from year to year.

The First-Born

¹¹ “The Lord will bring you to the land of the Canaanite. He will give it to you as He promised you and your fathers. ¹² There you must give to the Lord the first male to be born. And all the first male animals born belong to the Lord. ¹³ But you may buy every first-born donkey by giving a lamb for it. But if you do not buy it, then you must break its neck. You must buy with a gift of money every first-born male among your sons. ¹⁴ And when the time comes when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ then say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the land where we were servants. ¹⁵ When Pharaoh would not let us go, the Lord killed every first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and of animal. So I give to the Lord every first male animal to be born. But I buy with a gift of money every first-born of my sons.’ ¹⁶ So it will be like a special mark on your hand and on your forehead. For the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a powerful hand.”

Cloud by Day and Fire by Night

¹⁷ When Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even when that was nearer. For God said, “The people may change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led the people through the desert to get to the Red Sea. The people of Israel went out of the land of Egypt ready for war. ¹⁹ Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the people of Israel promise. He had said, “For sure God will keep you and you will carry my bones with you from here.” ²⁰ Then they left Succoth and set up their tents at Etham, beside the desert. ²¹ The Lord went before them, in a pillar of cloud during the day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire during the night to give them light. So they could travel day and night. ²² The pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire during the night did not leave the people.