Exodus 11:4-12:32

English Standard Version

⁴So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ^(A)‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, ⁵and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is ^(B)behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. ⁶^(C)There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. ⁷But not a dog shall growl ^(D)against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord ^(E)makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ ⁸And ^(F)all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. ⁹Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(G)“Pharaoh will not listen to you, that ^(H)my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

¹⁰Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord ^(I)hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ²^(J)“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb ^(K)according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. ⁴And 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. ⁵Your lamb shall be ^(L)without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, ⁶and you shall keep it until the ^(M)fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.^[a]

⁷“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the ^(N)two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with ^(O)unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^(P)roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. ¹⁰And ^(Q)you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹In this manner you shall eat it: with ^(R)your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. ^(S)It is the Lord's Passover. ¹²For ^(T)I 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 ^(U)all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: ^(V)I am the Lord. ¹³^(W)The 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 ^(X)for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a ^(Y)statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. ¹⁵^(Z)Seven 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, ^(AA)that person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶On the first day you shall hold a ^(AB)holy 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. ¹⁷And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ^(AC)on this very day I brought your ^(AD)hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. ¹⁸^(AE)In 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^(AF)For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, ^(AG)that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, ^(AH)whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. ²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves ^(AI)according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. ²²Take a bunch of ^(AJ)hyssop and ^(AK)dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch ^(AL)the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. ^(AM)None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. ²³^(AN)For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on ^(AO)the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^(AP)will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. ²⁴You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. ²⁵And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, ^(AQ)as he has promised, you shall keep this service. ²⁶And ^(AR)when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷you shall say, ^(AS)‘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 ^(AT)bowed their heads and worshiped.

²⁸Then 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^(AU)At midnight the ^(AV)Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, ^(AW)from 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. ³⁰And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was ^(AX)a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. ³¹Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, ^(AY)both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. ³²^(AZ)Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”