⁴ Then Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ^(A)‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; ⁵ and ^(B)all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. ^6 (C)Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, ^(D)such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. ^7 (E)But against none of the children of Israel ^(F)shall a dog ^[a]move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’ ⁸ And ^(G)all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.” ^(H)Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

⁹ But the Lord said to Moses, ^(I)“Pharaoh will not heed you, so that ^(J)My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; ^(K)and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

The Passover Instituted^(L)

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ^2 (M)“This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the ^(N)tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ⁴ And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb shall be ^(O)without^[b] blemish, a male ^[c]of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ Now you shall keep it until the ^(P)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 ^(Q)night; ^(R)roasted in fire, with ^(S)unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but ^(T)roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. ^10 (U)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: ^[d]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. ^(V)It is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² ‘For I ^(W)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 ^(X)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: ^(Y)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 ^(Z)a memorial; and you shall keep it as a ^(AA)feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast ^(AB)by an everlasting ordinance. ^15 (AC)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, ^(AD)that ^[e]person shall be ^[f]cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day there shall be ^(AE)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 ^(AF)on this same day I will have brought your ^[g]armies ^(AG)out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. ^18 (AH)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 ^(AI)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 ^(AJ)Moses called for all the ^(AK)elders of Israel and said to them, ^(AL)“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. ^22 (AM)And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and ^(AN)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 (AO)For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the ^(AP)blood on the ^[h]lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^(AQ)not allow ^(AR)the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. ²⁴ And you shall ^(AS)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, ^(AT)just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. ^26 (AU)And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷ that you shall say, ^(AV)‘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 ^(AW)bowed their heads and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the children of Israel went away and ^(AX)did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

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

^29 (AZ)And it came to pass at midnight that ^(BA)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 ^[i]in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of ^(BB)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.

¹³ Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

¹⁴ And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ^(A)‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” ¹⁵ Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is ^(B)My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

First Encounter with Pharaoh

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may ^[a]hold ^(A)a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”

² And Pharaoh said, ^(B)“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, ^(C)nor will I let Israel go.”

The Seventh Plague: Hail

¹³ Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(A)“Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: “Let My people go, that they may ^(B)serve Me, ¹⁴ for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, ^(C)that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth. ¹⁵ Now if I had ^(D)stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with ^(E)pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. ¹⁶ But indeed for ^(F)this purpose I have raised you up, that I may ^(G)show My power in you, and that My ^(H)name may be declared in all the earth. ¹⁷ As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go.

²⁷ And Pharaoh sent and ^(A)called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ^(B)“I have sinned this time. ^(C)The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. ^28 (D)Entreat^[a] the Lord, that there may be no more ^[b]mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you ^(E)go, and you shall stay no longer.”

²⁹ So Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will ^(F)spread out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the ^(G)earth is the Lord’s. ³⁰ But as for you and your servants, ^(H)I know that you will not yet fear the Lord God.”

³¹ Now the flax and the barley were struck, ^(I)for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud. ³² But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are ^[c]late crops.

³³ So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and ^(J)spread out his hands to the Lord; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth. ³⁴ And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. ³⁵ So ^(K)the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses.

²⁷ But the Lord ^(A)hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. ²⁸ Then Pharaoh said to him, ^(B)“Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!”

²⁹ So Moses said, “You have spoken well. ^(C)I will never see your face again.”

⁵ But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, ^(A)the Lion of the tribe of ^(B)Judah, ^(C)the Root of David, has ^(D)prevailed to open the scroll ^(E)and ^[a]to loose its seven seals.”

The Lamb of God^(A)

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! ^(B)The Lamb of God ^(C)who takes away the sin of the world!