¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.^(A) 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^(B) from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work^(C) 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,^(D) because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.^(E) Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.^{(F) 18} In the first month^(G) 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^(H) or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off^(I) from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live,^(J) you must eat unleavened bread.”^(K)

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^(L) lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop,^(M) dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood^(N) 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^(O) down the Egyptians, he will see the blood^(P) on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over^(Q) that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer^(R) to enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁴ “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance^(S) for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land^(T) that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶ And when your children^(U) ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover^(V) sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’”^(W) Then the people bowed down and worshiped.^{(X) 28} The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded^(Y) Moses and Aaron.

²⁹ At midnight^(Z) the Lord^(AA) struck down all the firstborn^(AB) 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^(AC) as well. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing^(AD) 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^(AE) the Lord as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds,^(AF) as you have said, and go. And also bless^(AG) me.”

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

³⁷ The Israelites journeyed from Rameses^(AP) to Sukkoth.^(AQ) There were about six hundred thousand men^(AR) on foot, besides women and children. ³⁸ Many other people^(AS) 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^(AT) of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

⁴⁰ Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt^[a] was 430 years.^{(AU) 41} At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions^(AV) left Egypt.^{(AW) 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.^(AX)

Passover Restrictions

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

“No foreigner^(AZ) may eat it. ⁴⁴ Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised^(BA) him, ⁴⁵ but a temporary resident or a hired worker^(BB) 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.^{(BC) 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.^(BD) No uncircumcised^(BE) male may eat it. ⁴⁹ The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner^(BF) residing among you.”

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

¹⁸ The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.^{(A) 19} He said to his father, “My head! My head!”

His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed^(B) of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.

²² She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”

²³ “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon^(C) or the Sabbath.”

“That’s all right,” she said.

²⁴ She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” ²⁵ So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.^(D)

When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! ²⁶ Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”

“Everything is all right,” she said.

²⁷ When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress,^(E) but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”

²⁸ “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

²⁹ Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt,^(F) take my staff^(G) in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

³⁰ But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

³² When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.^{(H) 33} He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed^(I) to the Lord. ³⁴ Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched^(J) himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. ³⁵ Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times^(K) and opened his eyes.^(L)

³⁶ Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.”^{(M) 37} She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.

The Empty Tomb^(A)

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene^(B) went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.^{(C) 2} So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved,^(D) and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”^(E)

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.^{(F) 4} Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in^(G) at the strips of linen^(H) lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head.^(I) The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first,^(J) also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture^(K) that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)^{(L) 10} Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb^(M)