The Second Book of Moses: Exodus

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- Chapter 12 -

(Numbers 9:1–14)

Yahweh said to Aaron and Moses in Egypt,

“From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you Israelites.

Tell all the Israelite people that in each family, the man who heads the family must take a lamb or a young goat for his household.

If there are not enough people in his family to eat a whole cooked lamb, then his family and the family that lives next door may share one animal. Decide how many lambs you need according to the number of people in each family and according to how much each person can eat.

The lambs or goats that you choose must be males, one year olds, and they must not have any defects.

You must take special care of these animals until the fourteenth day of the month. On that day, all the Israelite people must kill the lambs or goats in the evening.

Then they must take some of the blood from the lambs or goats, and they must smear it on the two doorposts and on the tops of the door frames of the houses in which they will eat the meat.

They must roast the animals immediately and eat the meat that night. They must eat it with bitter herbs and with bread that is baked without yeast.

You must not eat any of the meat raw, and you must not boil the meat. You must roast it whole without cutting off the head or the legs or without removing the internal parts.

You must eat all the meat that evening; do not let any of the meat remain to be eaten the next morning. If any of the meat is left the next morning, you must burn it all.

When you eat it, you must be dressed ready to travel. You must have your sandals on your feet and your walking staff in your hands. You must eat it hurriedly. It will be a festival called Passover to honor me, Yahweh.

On that night I will go through all the land of Egypt, and I will kill all the oldest males in Egypt, both humans and animals. By doing this, I will punish all the gods in Egypt. It is I, Yahweh God, who am speaking to you!

The blood that you smear on the doorways will be a mark to show me the houses in which you Israelites live. When I see the blood, I will pass over those houses, and I will not harm the people who live there when I come to punish the Egyptians.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

(Leviticus 23:4–8; Numbers 28:16–25; Deuteronomy 16:1–8)

Each year, you must celebrate this festival on this day to remember what I, Yahweh, have done for you. In all the generations to come, each year you must celebrate this festival. It must continue forever.

For seven days you must eat bread that has no yeast in it. On the first day of that week, you must get rid of all the yeast that is in your houses. During those seven days, if anyone eats bread that is baked with yeast in it, you must drive that person out from your people.

On the first day of that week, you must have a holy meeting. You must do the same thing on the seventh day. People must not work on those two days. The only work they may do is to prepare food for you to eat.

Every year you must keep celebrating this Festival of Unleavened Bread because it will remind you that it was on this day that I brought your tribes out of the land of Egypt. So every year, in all the generations to come, you must celebrate this day as a festival. It must continue forever.

In the first month of the year, on the fourteenth day of that month, the only bread you may eat is bread that has no yeast in it. You must keep doing that each day until the twenty-first day of that month.

For those seven days you must not have any yeast in your house. During that time, if anyone, either an Israelite or a foreigner, eats bread made with yeast, that person will no longer be an Israelite.

In your houses, do not eat anything that has yeast in it during those seven days.”

Then Moses summoned all the leaders of the Israelite people. He said to them, “Each family should select a lamb and kill it, in order that you may eat it to celebrate the festival that will be called ‘Passover.’

Let the lamb’s blood drain into a bowl. Get a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood. Then wipe some of the blood on the top of the door frame and on the doorposts of your houses. The people in each house must stay inside the house until the next morning.

When Yahweh goes through Egypt to kill the oldest male in each Egyptian family, he will see the blood on your door frames, and he will pass over those houses. He will not allow the angel who causes people to die to enter your houses and kill your oldest sons.

You and your descendants must celebrate this ritual forever.

When you arrive in the land that Yahweh will give to you as he promised, you must keep celebrating this ritual every year.

When your children ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean?’

you must tell them, ’This ritual is to remember how your ancestors sacrificed lambs on the night that Yahweh’s angel passed over the houses of the Israelite people when they were in Egypt. He killed the oldest males in all the Egyptian houses, but he did not kill the sons in our houses.” After Moses told them this, the people all bowed their heads and worshiped Yahweh.

Then the Israelite people did exactly what Yahweh told Aaron and Moses to tell them to do.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

At midnight Yahweh killed all the oldest sons of the Egyptian people, all over Egypt. This included the king’s oldest son, the oldest sons of the prisoners in the dungeons, and the oldest sons of everyone else. He also killed the oldest males of all the Egyptians’ livestock.

That night the king, all his officials, and all the rest of the Egyptian people awoke and discovered what had happened. They wailed loudly all over Egypt because in every house someone’s son had died.

The Exodus Begins

That night the king called Aaron and Moses and said, “Get up, you and all the other Israelite people, and leave my country now! Go and worship Yahweh, as you requested!

Take your flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle, and leave! And ask Yahweh to bless me, also!”

The Egyptians asked the Israelite people to leave their country quickly. They said, “If you do not do that, we will all die!”

So the Israelite people prepared to leave at once. They took the bowls in which they mixed the dough to make bread and the dough that was in the bowls without any yeast in it, and they wrapped the bowls in their cloaks. They put the bowls on their shoulders and left.

Then the Israelite people did as Moses told them. They went to their Egyptian neighbors and asked them for silver and gold jewelry and clothing.

Yahweh caused the Egyptian people to greatly respect the Israelite people, so they gave them what they asked for. In that way, the Israelites carried away the wealth of the Egyptian people.

The Israelite people walked from the city of Rameses to the town of Succoth. There were about 600,000 men who went, in addition to the women and children.

Many other people who were not Israelites went along with them. There was also a large amount of livestock, including flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle.

On their way, they baked bread with the dough that they carried with them when they had been told to leave Egypt. The dough did not have yeast in it because they were told to leave Egypt so quickly that they did not have enough time to get food ready to take with them or enough time to mix yeast in the dough.

The Israelite people had lived in Egypt and Canaan for 430 years.

On the day that those 430 years ended, on that very day, all the tribes of Yahweh’s people left Egypt.

It was a night when the Israelites stayed awake as Yahweh brought them out of Egypt. So this same night every year is a night that is dedicated to Yahweh, a night when the Israelite people in every generation remember how Yahweh kept their ancestors safe.

Instructions for the Passover

Then Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “These are my instructions about the Passover ritual: Do not let foreigners eat the Passover meal.

But any male slaves that you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised them.

Do not let people who are living among you that are not Israelites, or servants whom you pay money to and who stay only for a while, eat the Passover meal.

Each family must eat the Passover meal inside its own house. Do not take any of the food outside the house. Do not break the bones of the lamb.

All the Israelite people must celebrate this festival.

When someone from another country comes to live with you and wants to celebrate the Passover festival, circumcise all the males in his household. Then he can eat the Passover meal, and you should treat that man as though he had been born an Israelite. But do not allow men who have not been circumcised to eat the Passover meal.

These rules apply to people who were born as Israelites and to foreigners who come and live among you.”

All the Israelite people obeyed Moses and Aaron and did what Yahweh had commanded.

On that very day, Yahweh brought all the tribes of the Israelite people out of Egypt.

(Numbers 9:1–14)

The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

“This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household;

and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls. You shall make your count for the lamb according to what everyone can eat.

Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.

You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.

They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.

They shall eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.

Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.

You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.

This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’s Passover.

For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.

The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

(Leviticus 23:4–8; Numbers 28:16–25; Deuteronomy 16:1–8)

This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD. You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.

“‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, only that may be done by you.

You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.

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.

There shall be no yeast found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner, or one who is born in the land.

You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, “Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover.

You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.

You shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.

It shall happen when you have come to the land which the LORD will give you, as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.

It will happen, when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’

that you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.’” The people bowed their heads and worshiped.

The children of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

At midnight, 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 in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.

Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and 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 Begins

He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said!

Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!”

The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We are all dead men.”

The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing.

The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.

The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, in addition to children.

A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and even very much livestock.

They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt; for it wasn’t leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn’t wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves.

Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.

At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day, all of the LORD’s armies went out from the land of Egypt.

It is a night to be much observed to the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD, to be much observed by all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

Instructions for the Passover

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it,

but every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.

A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.

It must be eaten in one house. You shall not carry any of the meat outside of the house. Do not break any of its bones.

All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, and would like to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. He shall be as one who is born in the land; but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you.”

All the children of Israel did so. As the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

That same day, the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.