Exodus 12:1-28

New American Standard Bible

The Passover Lamb

12 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of ^[a]Egypt, ²“^(A)This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. ³Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a ^[b]lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a ^[c]lamb for ^[d]each household. ⁴Now if the household is too small for a ^[e]lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the ^[f]number of persons in them; in proportion to ^[g]what each one should eat, you are to ^[h]divide the lamb. ⁵Your ^[i]lamb shall be ^(B)an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶^[j]You shall keep it until the ^(C)fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it ^[k]^(D)at twilight. ⁷^(E)Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel ^[l]of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸They shall eat the flesh ^(F)that same night, ^(G)roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with ^(H)unleavened bread ^[m]^(I)and bitter herbs. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather ^(J)roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with ^(K)its entrails. ¹⁰^(L)And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall completely burn with fire. ¹¹Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment ^[n]belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is ^(M)the Lord’s Passover. ¹²For ^(N)I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and ^(O)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—^(P)I am the Lord. ¹³^(Q)The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you ^[o]live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you ^[p]to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴‘Now ^(R)this day shall be ^(S)a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as ^[q]^(T)a permanent ordinance. ¹⁵For ^(U)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove dough with yeast from your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day, ^(V)that ^[r]person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶And ^(W)on the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except for what must be eaten by every person—that alone may be ^[s]prepared by you. ¹⁷You shall also keep ^(X)the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this ^(Y)very day I brought your ^[t]multitudes out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as ^(Z)a ^[u]permanent ordinance. ¹⁸^(AA)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. ¹⁹For ^(AB)seven days there shall be no dough with yeast found in your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast, that ^[v]^(AC)person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. ²⁰You shall not eat anything with yeast; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

²¹Then ^(AD)Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and ^(AE)take for yourselves ^[w]lambs according to your families, and slaughter ^(AF)the Passover lamb. ²²And ^(AG)you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and ^[x]apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

A Memorial of Redemption

²³For ^(AH)the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; but when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will ^(AI)not allow the ^(AJ)destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you. ²⁴And ^(AK)you shall keep this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. ²⁵When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has ^[y]promised, you shall keep this ^[z]rite. ²⁶^(AL)And when your children say to you, ‘^[aa]What does this rite mean to you?’ ²⁷then you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to ^(AM)the Lord because He passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians, but ^[ab]spared our homes.’” ^(AN)And the people bowed low and worshiped.