The Passover Instituted^(A)

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ^2 (B)“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 ^(C)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 ^(D)without^[a] blemish, a male ^[b]of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ Now you shall keep it until the ^(E)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 ^(F)night; ^(G)roasted in fire, with ^(H)unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but ^(I)roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. ^10 (J)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: ^[c]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. ^(K)It is the Lord’s Passover.

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

The Memorial Stones

4 And it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed ^(A)over the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying: ^2 (B)“Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, ³ and command them, saying, ‘Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where ^(C)the priests’ feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in ^(D)the lodging place where you lodge tonight.’ ”

⁴ Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; ⁵ and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, ⁶ that this may be ^(E)a sign among you ^(F)when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ Then you shall answer them that ^(G)the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for ^(H)a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”

⁸ And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. ⁹ Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.

¹⁰ So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and crossed over. ¹¹ Then it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over, that the ^(I)ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people. ¹² And ^(J)the men of Reuben, the men of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them. ¹³ About forty thousand ^[a]prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho. ¹⁴ On that day the Lord ^(K)exalted^[b] Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life.

¹⁵ Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, ¹⁶ “Command the priests who bear ^(L)the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁷ Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁸ And it came to pass, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place ^(M)and overflowed all its banks as before.

¹⁹ Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped ^(N)in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. ²⁰ And ^(O)those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. ²¹ Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: ^(P)“When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ ²² then you shall let your children know, saying, ^(Q)‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on ^(R)dry land’; ²³ for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, ^(S)which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, ^24 (T)that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is ^(U)mighty, that you may ^(V)fear the Lord your God ^[c]forever.”