The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread^(A)

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month is to be for you the first month,^(B) the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb^[a](C) for his family, one for each household.^{(D) 4} If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,^(E) and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,^(F) when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.^{(G) 7} Then they are to take some of the blood^(H) and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.

¹² “On that same night I will pass through^(A) Egypt and strike down^(B) every firstborn^(C) of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods^(D) of Egypt. I am the Lord.^{(E) 13} The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over^(F) you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.^(G)

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover^(A) lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop,^(B) dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood^(C) on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³ When the Lord goes through the land to strike^(D) down the Egyptians, he will see the blood^(E) on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over^(F) that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer^(G) to enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁹ At midnight^(A) the Lord^(B) struck down all the firstborn^(C) in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock^(D) as well. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing^(E) in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

The Exodus

³¹ During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship^(F) the Lord as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds,^(G) as you have said, and go. And also bless^(H) me.”

⁵⁰ All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded^(A) Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt^(B) by their divisions.^(C)