The Passover Celebrated^(A)

^19 [a]And the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover ^(B)on the fourteenth day of the first month.

⁶ Now you shall keep it until the ^(A)fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. ⁷ And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. ⁸ Then they shall eat the flesh on that ^(B)night; ^(C)roasted in fire, with ^(D)unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but ^(E)roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. ^10 (F)You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. ¹¹ And thus you shall eat it: ^[a]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. ^(G)It is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² ‘For I ^(H)will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and ^(I)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: ^(J)I am the Lord. ¹³ Now 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 the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ ‘So this day shall be to you ^(K)a memorial; and you shall keep it as a ^(L)feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast ^(M)by an everlasting ordinance. ^15 (N)Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, ^(O)that ^[b]person shall be ^[c]cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day there shall be ^(P)a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. ¹⁷ So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ^(Q)on this same day I will have brought your ^[d]armies ^(R)out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. ^18 (S)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 For ^(T)seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. ²⁰ You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

²¹ Then ^(U)Moses called for all the ^(V)elders of Israel and said to them, ^(W)“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. ^22 (X)And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and ^(Y)strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. ^23 (Z)For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the ^(AA)blood on the ^[e]lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^(AB)not allow ^(AC)the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. ²⁴ And you shall ^(AD)observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. ²⁵ It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, ^(AE)just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. ^26 (AF)And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷ that you shall say, ^(AG)‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people ^(AH)bowed their heads and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the children of Israel went away and ^(AI)did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn^(AJ)

^29 (AK)And it came to pass at midnight that ^(AL)the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was ^[f]in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of ^(AM)livestock. ³⁰ So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

The Exodus

³¹ Then he ^(AN)called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, ^(AO)both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have ^(AP)said. ^32 (AQ)Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”

^33 (AR)And the Egyptians ^(AS)urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. ³⁵ Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians ^(AT)articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. ^36 (AU)And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus ^(AV)they plundered the Egyptians.

Hezekiah Keeps the Passover

30 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. ² For the king and his leaders and all the assembly in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second ^(A)month. ³ For they could not keep it ^(B)at ^[a]the regular time, ^(C)because a sufficient number of priests had not consecrated themselves, nor had the people gathered together at Jerusalem. ⁴ And the matter pleased the king and all the assembly. ⁵ So they ^[b]resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem, since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed manner.

⁶ Then the ^(D)runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the king and his leaders, and spoke according to the command of the king: “Children of Israel, ^(E)return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; then He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of ^(F)the kings of ^(G)Assyria. ⁷ And do not be ^(H)like your fathers and your brethren, who trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, so that He ^(I)gave them up to ^(J)desolation, as you see. ⁸ Now do not be ^(K)stiff-necked,^[c] as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord; and enter His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, ^(L)that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. ⁹ For if you return to the Lord, your brethren and your children will be treated with ^(M)compassion by those who lead them captive, so that they may come back to this land; for the Lord your God is ^(N)gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you ^(O)return to Him.”

¹⁰ So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but ^(P)they laughed at them and mocked them. ¹¹ Nevertheless ^(Q)some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹² Also ^(R)the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders, ^(S)at the word of the Lord.

¹³ Now many people, a very great assembly, gathered at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of ^(T)Unleavened Bread in the second month. ¹⁴ They arose and took away the ^(U)altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the incense altars and cast them into the Brook ^(V)Kidron. ¹⁵ Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites ^[d]were ^(W)ashamed, and ^[e]sanctified themselves, and brought the burnt offerings to the house of the Lord. ¹⁶ They stood in their ^(X)place ^[f]according to their custom, according to the Law of Moses the man of God; the priests sprinkled the blood received from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not ^[g]sanctified themselves; ^(Y)therefore the Levites had charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the Lord. ¹⁸ For a multitude of the people, ^(Z)many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, ^(AA)yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone ¹⁹ who ^(AB)prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” ²⁰ And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.

²¹ So the children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept ^(AC)the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing to the Lord, accompanied by loud instruments. ²² And Hezekiah gave encouragement to all the Levites ^(AD)who taught the good knowledge of the Lord; and they ate throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and ^(AE)making confession to the Lord God of their fathers.

²³ Then the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast ^(AF)another seven days, and they kept it another seven days with gladness. ²⁴ For Hezekiah king of Judah ^(AG)gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep, and the leaders gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests ^(AH)sanctified^[h] themselves. ²⁵ The whole assembly of Judah rejoiced, also the priests and Levites, all the assembly that came from Israel, the sojourners ^(AI)who came from the land of Israel, and those who dwelt in Judah. ²⁶ So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of ^(AJ)Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. ²⁷ Then the priests, the Levites, arose and ^(AK)blessed the people, and their voice was heard; and their prayer came up to ^(AL)His holy dwelling place, to heaven.

¹⁰ Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover ^(A)on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.