Exodus 12:29-42

EasyEnglish Bible

²⁹ At midnight, the Lord killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt. The firstborn son of Pharaoh, the king, died. But also, the firstborn son of any man who was in prison died. Every firstborn son in Egypt died. All the firstborn animals also died. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officers woke up in the middle of the night. All the Egyptians also woke up in the middle of the night. Everyone was crying loudly everywhere in Egypt. In every home, somebody had died that night.

The Israelites leave Egypt

³¹ During the night, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said, ‘Get out of here! Take all the Israelites with you and go away from my people! Go and worship the Lord, as you asked me before. ³² Take all your animals with you, as you have said. Just go away! But also pray that God will bless me.’

³³ The Egyptians were telling the Israelites to leave quickly. They wanted them to go out of the country immediately. The Egyptians said, ‘If we do not send them away immediately, we will all die!’

³⁴ So the Israelites took their bread before they had cooked it. They had not even put the yeast into it. They put the bread in dishes and they put clothes round the dishes. Then they carried the dishes on their shoulders. ³⁵ The Israelites obeyed Moses. They asked the Egyptians for silver and gold. They also asked them for clothes. ³⁶ The Lord had caused the Egyptians to be kind to the Israelites. Because of this, the Egyptians gave the Israelites everything that they asked for. In that way, the Israelites took away all the valuable things that belonged to the Egyptians.

³⁷ The Israelites travelled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men who walked. There were also many women and children. ³⁸ Many other people also travelled with them. They had a very large number of sheep, goats and cows. ³⁹ The Israelites cooked the bread that they had brought with them from Egypt. It had no yeast in it, because they had to leave Egypt quickly. The Egyptians did not let them wait. So the Israelites did not have time to prepare any food for themselves.^[a]

⁴⁰ The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years. ⁴¹ It was on the last day of the 430 years that all the Lord's people left Egypt. They left in family groups, like an army. ⁴² The Lord carefully watched his people all that night, when he brought them out of Egypt. Because of that, all Israelites must watch carefully during this special night. They and their descendants must do this every year, to thank the Lord.