The Last Plague

11 Now the Lord said to Moses, “One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; ^(A)after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely. ² Speak now in the ^[a]hearing of the people that ^(B)each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.” ^3 (C)The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. ^(D)Furthermore, the man Moses himself was ^[b]greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

⁴ Moses said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘About ^(E)midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, ⁵ and ^(F)all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. ⁶ Moreover, there shall be ^(G)a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. ^7 (H)But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even ^[c]bark, whether against man or beast, that you may ^[d]understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ ^8 (I)All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves ^[e]before me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who ^[f]follow you,’ and after that I will go out.” ^(J)And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “^(K)Pharaoh will not listen to you, so ^(L)that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ^10 (M)Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet ^(N)the Lord ^[g]hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

The Passover Lamb

12 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of ^[h]Egypt, ² “^(O)This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a ^[i]lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a ^[j]lamb for ^[k]each household. ⁴ Now if the household is too small for a ^[l]lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the ^[m]number of persons in them; according to ^[n]what each man should eat, you are to ^[o]divide the lamb. ⁵ Your ^[p]lamb shall be ^(P)an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ^6 [q]You shall keep it until the ^(Q)fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it ^[r](R)at twilight. ^7 (S)Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel ^[s]of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the flesh ^(T)that same night, ^(U)roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with ^(V)unleavened bread ^[t](W)and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather ^(X)roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with ^(Y)its entrails. ^10 (Z)And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. ¹¹ Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is ^(AA)the Lord’s Passover. ¹² For ^(AB)I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and ^(AC)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—^(AD)I am the Lord. ^13 (AE)The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you ^[u]live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you ^[v]to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴ ‘Now ^(AF)this day will be ^(AG)a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as ^[w](AH)a permanent ordinance. ^15 (AI)Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall ^[x]remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, ^(AJ)that ^[y]person shall be cut off from Israel. ^16 (AK)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 what must be eaten ^[z]by every person, that alone may be ^[aa]prepared by you. ¹⁷ You shall also observe ^(AL)the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this ^(AM)very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as ^(AN)a ^[ab]permanent ordinance. ^18 (AO)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 (AP)Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that ^[ac](AQ)person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰ You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

14 It happened that when He went into the house of one of the ^[a]leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, ^(A)they were watching Him closely. ² And ^[b]there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³ And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^[c](B)lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “^(C)Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴ But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. ⁵ And He said to them, “^[d](D)Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” ^6 (E)And they could make no reply to this.

Parable of the Guests

⁷ And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how ^(F)they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ^(G)do not ^[e]take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then ^(H)in disgrace you ^[f]proceed to occupy the last place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, ^(I)move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who ^[g]are at the table with you. ^11 (J)For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³ But when you give a ^[h]reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, since they ^[i]do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at ^(K)the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “^(L)Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

¹⁶ But He said to him, “^(M)A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; ¹⁷ and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a ^[j]piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; ^[k]please consider me excused.’ ¹⁹ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; ^[l]please consider me excused.’ ²⁰ Another one said, ‘^(N)I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ ²¹ And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

Discipleship Tested

²⁵ Now ^[m]large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “^(O)If anyone comes to Me, and does not ^[n]hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not ^(P)carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. ²⁸ For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and ^(Q)consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends ^[o]a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So then, none of you can be My disciple who ^(R)does not give up all his own possessions.

³⁴ “Therefore, salt is good; but ^(S)if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? ³⁵ It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. ^(T)He who has ears to hear, ^[p]let him hear.”