Exodus 12:15-36

Good News Translation

The Festival of Unleavened Bread

¹⁵ The Lord said, “For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast—eat only unleavened bread. On the first day you are to get rid of all the yeast in your houses, for if anyone during those seven days eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people. ¹⁶ On the first day and again on the seventh day you are to meet for worship. No work is to be done on those days, but you may prepare food. ¹⁷ Keep this festival, because it was on this day that I brought your tribes out of Egypt. For all time to come you must celebrate this day as a festival. ¹⁸ From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month to the evening of the twenty-first day, you must not eat any bread made with yeast. ^19-20 For seven days no yeast must be found in your houses, for if anyone, native-born or foreign, eats bread made with yeast, he shall no longer be considered one of my people.”

The First Passover

²¹ Moses called for all the leaders of Israel and said to them, “Each of you is to choose a lamb or a young goat and kill it, so that your families can celebrate Passover. ²² Take a sprig of hyssop, dip it in the bowl containing^[a] the animal's blood, and wipe the blood on the doorposts and the beam above the door of your house. Not one of you is to leave the house until morning. ^23 (A)When the Lord goes through Egypt to kill the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the beams and the doorposts and will not let the Angel of Death enter your houses and kill you. ²⁴ You and your children must obey these rules forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord has promised to give you, you must perform this ritual. ²⁶ When your children ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean?’ ²⁷ you will answer, ‘It is the sacrifice of Passover to honor the Lord, because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians, but spared us.’”

The Israelites knelt down and worshiped. ²⁸ Then they went and did what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Death of the First-Born

^29 (B)At midnight the Lord killed all the first-born sons in Egypt, from the king's son, who was heir to the throne, to the son of the prisoner in the dungeon; all the first-born of the animals were also killed. ³⁰ That night, the king, his officials, and all the other Egyptians were awakened. There was loud crying throughout Egypt, because there was not one home in which there was not a dead son. ³¹ That same night the king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “Get out, you and your Israelites! Leave my country; go and worship the Lord, as you asked. ³² Take your sheep, goats, and cattle, and leave. Also pray for a blessing on me.”

³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country; they said, “We will all be dead if you don't leave.” ³⁴ So the people filled their baking pans with unleavened dough, wrapped them in clothing, and carried them on their shoulders. ^35 (C)The Israelites had done as Moses had said, and had asked the Egyptians for gold and silver jewelry and for clothes. ³⁶ The Lord made the Egyptians respect the people and give them what they asked for. In this way the Israelites carried away the wealth of the Egyptians.