The first Passover meal

12 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the country of Egypt. ² He said, ‘This month will be the first month of each year for you. ³ Tell all the Israelite people to do this on the tenth day of this month: Each man must choose a lamb to kill as a sacrifice for his family. That will be one lamb for each home. ⁴ But the family may be too small to eat a whole lamb. Then they must share a lamb with another family that lives near. You must decide how much each person can eat and then count the number of people. ⁵ The lamb that you choose must have nothing wrong with it. It must be a male lamb that is one year old. It can be either a young sheep or a young goat.

⁶ Keep the lamb safe until the 14th day of this month. Then every Israelite family must kill their lamb in the evening. ⁷ They must take some of its blood. They must put the blood on the wood that is round the door of their house. They must put it on each side of the door and above the door. They must do this in every house where they will eat a lamb. ⁸ That night, they must cook the meat over the fire. They must eat it immediately, with bitter herbs and with bread that has no yeast in it. ⁹ You must cook the meat before you eat it. Cook it over the fire. Do not cook it in water. Cook the whole lamb, with its head, its legs and the inside parts of its body. ¹⁰ You must eat all the meat before morning arrives. If some of it still remains in the morning, then you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you must eat the lamb: Dress yourselves so that you are ready to travel. Put your shoes on your feet. Take your stick in your hand. Then eat the food quickly. This is the Passover meal which shows that you obey me, the Lord.

¹² On the night that you eat the Passover meal, I will travel through the country of Egypt. I will kill every firstborn son and every firstborn male animal. I will punish all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ When you put the blood round the doors of your houses, that will be a sign to show that you live there. When I see the blood on your house, I will pass over you.^[a] No trouble will hurt you, when I attack the people of Egypt.

¹⁴ In future years, you must remember this day as a special day every year. It will be a festival when you worship me, the Lord. You and your descendants must do this every year, for all time. ¹⁵ For seven days, you must eat flat bread that has no yeast in it. On the first day of the Passover festival, you must take all the yeast out of your houses. During those seven days, if anyone eats bread with yeast in it, he will no longer belong to my people, the Israelites.

¹⁶ On the first day of the festival, you must bring together all the people to a special meeting. And you must do the same thing on the seventh day. On these special days, you must not do your usual work. You may prepare the food that you need to eat on those days. That is the only work that you may do.

¹⁷ This will be the Feast of Flat Bread, when you eat bread with no yeast in it. You will remember that I brought you all out of the country of Egypt on this day. You marched out like an army, family by family! That is why you must enjoy this day as a special day, for all time. This is a rule that you must always obey. ¹⁸ In the first month of each year, you must eat bread without yeast in it. Do this from the evening of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day. ¹⁹ For those seven days, you must not have any yeast in your houses. Whoever eats anything with yeast in it will no longer belong to my people, the Israelites. Everyone must obey these rules, those who live among you as strangers, as well as those who have been born in your land. ²⁰ Eat nothing that has yeast in it. Whatever country you live in, you must eat bread without yeast in it.’

²¹ Then Moses called the leaders of the Israelites to come to him. He said to them, ‘Go immediately and choose a lamb for each of your families. Then kill the animals for the Passover feast. ²² Put the blood into a dish. Then take a branch of hyssop.^[b] Make it wet with the blood that is in the dish. Then put some of the blood on the wood that is round your door. Nobody must go out of the door of his house until the morning. ²³ The Lord will pass through the country and he will kill the Egyptians. But when the Lord sees the blood on the wood round the door, he will pass over that house. He will not let the death angel come into your houses. The Lord will not let him kill you.

²⁴ You must obey these rules always, both you and your descendants, for all time. ²⁵ You will go into the land that the Lord promised to give you. Then you must continue to obey these rules. ²⁶ Your children may say to you, “What does this feast mean?” ²⁷ Then you must say to them, “It is the Lord's Passover sacrifice. The Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites when they were in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians but he saved our families.” ’ Then the people bent their heads down to the ground and they worshipped God.

²⁸ The Israelites did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹ At midnight, the Lord killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt. The firstborn son of Pharaoh, the king, died. But also, the firstborn son of any man who was in prison died. Every firstborn son in Egypt died. All the firstborn animals also died. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officers woke up in the middle of the night. All the Egyptians also woke up in the middle of the night. Everyone was crying loudly everywhere in Egypt. In every home, somebody had died that night.

The Israelites leave Egypt

³¹ During the night, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said, ‘Get out of here! Take all the Israelites with you and go away from my people! Go and worship the Lord, as you asked me before. ³² Take all your animals with you, as you have said. Just go away! But also pray that God will bless me.’

³³ The Egyptians were telling the Israelites to leave quickly. They wanted them to go out of the country immediately. The Egyptians said, ‘If we do not send them away immediately, we will all die!’

³⁴ So the Israelites took their bread before they had cooked it. They had not even put the yeast into it. They put the bread in dishes and they put clothes round the dishes. Then they carried the dishes on their shoulders. ³⁵ The Israelites obeyed Moses. They asked the Egyptians for silver and gold. They also asked them for clothes. ³⁶ The Lord had caused the Egyptians to be kind to the Israelites. Because of this, the Egyptians gave the Israelites everything that they asked for. In that way, the Israelites took away all the valuable things that belonged to the Egyptians.

³⁷ The Israelites travelled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men who walked. There were also many women and children. ³⁸ Many other people also travelled with them. They had a very large number of sheep, goats and cows. ³⁹ The Israelites cooked the bread that they had brought with them from Egypt. It had no yeast in it, because they had to leave Egypt quickly. The Egyptians did not let them wait. So the Israelites did not have time to prepare any food for themselves.^[c]

⁴⁰ The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years. ⁴¹ It was on the last day of the 430 years that all the Lord's people left Egypt. They left in family groups, like an army. ⁴² The Lord carefully watched his people all that night, when he brought them out of Egypt. Because of that, all Israelites must watch carefully during this special night. They and their descendants must do this every year, to thank the Lord.

Rules for the Passover festival

⁴³ Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘These are the rules for the Passover festival:

No foreign person may eat the Passover meal. ⁴⁴ If you buy a foreign slave, you must first circumcise him. Then he may eat the food. ⁴⁵ But if you pay him money for his work, he must not eat the food. A visitor also must not eat the food.

⁴⁶ You must eat the meal in one house. You must not take any of the meat outside the house. You must not break any of the bones in the meat. ⁴⁷ All the Israelites must enjoy the feast together.

⁴⁸ There may be a foreign person who lives among you. He may want to join you to eat the Lord's Passover meal. But he must first be circumcised as well as all the men in his house. Then he can join with you and eat the Passover meal. He will be like a man who has been born in Israel. But no male person without circumcision can join the Passover feast. ⁴⁹ Both the people who were born as Israelites and the foreign people who live among you must obey this rule.’

⁵⁰ All the Israelites did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ On that same day, the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, in family groups, like an army.