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. ⁸ That same night^(I) they are to eat the meat roasted^(J) over the fire, along with bitter herbs,^(K) and bread made without yeast.^{(L) 9} Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs.^{(M) 10} Do not leave any of it till morning;^(N) if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste;^(O) it is the Lord’s Passover.^(P)

¹² “On that same night I will pass through^(Q) Egypt and strike down^(R) every firstborn^(S) of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods^(T) of Egypt. I am the Lord.^{(U) 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^(V) you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.^(W)

¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate;^(X) for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.^{(Y) 15} For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.^(Z) On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off^(AA) from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work^(AB) at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

¹⁷ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^(AC) because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.^(AD) Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.^{(AE) 18} In the first month^(AF) you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner^(AG) or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off^(AH) from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live,^(AI) you must eat unleavened bread.”^(AJ)

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^(AK) lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop,^(AL) dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood^(AM) 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^(AN) down the Egyptians, he will see the blood^(AO) on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over^(AP) that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer^(AQ) to enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁴ “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance^(AR) for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land^(AS) that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶ And when your children^(AT) ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover^(AU) sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’”^(AV) Then the people bowed down and worshiped.^{(AW) 28} The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded^(AX) Moses and Aaron.

²⁹ At midnight^(AY) the Lord^(AZ) struck down all the firstborn^(BA) 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^(BB) as well. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing^(BC) 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^(BD) the Lord as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds,^(BE) as you have said, and go. And also bless^(BF) me.”

³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry^(BG) and leave^(BH) the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!”^{(BI) 34} So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs^(BJ) wrapped in clothing. ³⁵ The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold^(BK) and for clothing.^{(BL) 36} The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed^(BM) toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered^(BN) the Egyptians.

³⁷ The Israelites journeyed from Rameses^(BO) to Sukkoth.^(BP) There were about six hundred thousand men^(BQ) on foot, besides women and children. ³⁸ Many other people^(BR) went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹ With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out^(BS) of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

⁴⁰ Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt^[b] was 430 years.^{(BT) 41} At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions^(BU) left Egypt.^{(BV) 42} Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.^(BW)

Passover Restrictions

⁴³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:^(BX)

“No foreigner^(BY) may eat it. ⁴⁴ Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised^(BZ) him, ⁴⁵ but a temporary resident or a hired worker^(CA) may not eat it.

⁴⁶ “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.^{(CB) 47} The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.

⁴⁸ “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land.^(CC) No uncircumcised^(CD) male may eat it. ⁴⁹ The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner^(CE) residing among you.”

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

Laws of Justice and Mercy

23 “Do not spread false reports.^(A) Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.^(B)

² “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice^(C) by siding with the crowd,^{(D) 3} and do not show favoritism^(E) to a poor person in a lawsuit.

⁴ “If you come across your enemy’s^(F) ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it.^{(G) 5} If you see the donkey^(H) of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.

⁶ “Do not deny justice^(I) to your poor people in their lawsuits. ⁷ Have nothing to do with a false charge^(J) and do not put an innocent^(K) or honest person to death,^(L) for I will not acquit the guilty.^(M)

⁸ “Do not accept a bribe,^(N) for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.

⁹ “Do not oppress a foreigner;^(O) you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

Sabbath Laws

¹⁰ “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, ¹¹ but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.^(P) Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹² “Six days do your work,^(Q) but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.^(R)

¹³ “Be careful^(S) to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods;^(T) do not let them be heard on your lips.^(U)

The Three Annual Festivals

¹⁴ “Three times^(V) a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

¹⁵ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread;^(W) for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv,^(X) for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.^(Y)

¹⁶ “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest^(Z) with the firstfruits^(AA) of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering^(AB) at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.^(AC)

¹⁷ “Three times^(AD) a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁸ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.^(AE)

“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.^(AF)

¹⁹ “Bring the best of the firstfruits^(AG) of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.^(AH)

God’s Angel to Prepare the Way

²⁰ “See, I am sending an angel^(AI) ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.^{(AJ) 21} Pay attention to him and listen^(AK) to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive^(AL) your rebellion,^(AM) since my Name^(AN) is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do^(AO) all that I say, I will be an enemy^(AP) to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. ²³ My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites,^(AQ) and I will wipe them out. ²⁴ Do not bow down before their gods or worship^(AR) them or follow their practices.^(AS) You must demolish^(AT) them and break their sacred stones^(AU) to pieces. ²⁵ Worship the Lord your God,^(AV) and his blessing^(AW) will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness^(AX) from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren^(AY) in your land. I will give you a full life span.^(AZ)

²⁷ “I will send my terror^(BA) ahead of you and throw into confusion^(BB) every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run.^{(BC) 28} I will send the hornet^(BD) ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites^(BE) out of your way. ²⁹ But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals^(BF) too numerous for you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession^(BG) of the land.

³¹ “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea^[a] to the Mediterranean Sea,^[b] and from the desert to the Euphrates River.^(BH) I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out^(BI) before you. ³² Do not make a covenant^(BJ) with them or with their gods. ³³ Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare^(BK) to you.”

The Day of Atonement^(A)

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord.^{(B) 2} The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses^(C) into the Most Holy Place^(D) behind the curtain^(E) in front of the atonement cover^(F) on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear^(G) in the cloud^(H) over the atonement cover.

³ “This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place:^(I) He must first bring a young bull^(J) for a sin offering^[a] and a ram for a burnt offering.^{(K) 4} He is to put on the sacred linen tunic,^(L) with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban.^(M) These are sacred garments;^(N) so he must bathe himself with water^(O) before he puts them on.^{(P) 5} From the Israelite community^(Q) he is to take two male goats^(R) for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

⁶ “Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household.^{(S) 7} Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁸ He is to cast lots^(T) for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat.^{[b](U) 9} Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. ¹⁰ But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement^(V) by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.