³¹ He summoned Moshe and Aharon by night and said, “Up and leave my people, both you and the people of Isra’el; and go, serve Adonai as you said. ³² Take both your flocks and your herds, as you said; and get out of here! But bless me, too.” ³³ The Egyptians pressed to send the people out of the land quickly, because they said, “Otherwise we’ll all be dead!”

³⁴ The people took their dough before it had become leavened and wrapped their kneading bowls in their clothes on their shoulders. ³⁵ The people of Isra’el had done what Moshe had said — they had asked the Egyptians to give them silver and gold jewelry and clothing; ³⁶ and Adonai had made the Egyptians so favorably disposed toward the people that they had let them have whatever they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ The people of Isra’el traveled from Ra‘amses to Sukkot, some six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting children. ³⁸ A mixed crowd also went up with them, as well as livestock in large numbers, both flocks and herds. ³⁹ They baked matzah loaves from the dough they had brought out of Egypt, since it was unleavened; because they had been driven out of Egypt without time to prepare supplies for themselves.

⁴⁰ The time the people of Isra’el lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of 430 years to the day, all the divisions of Adonai left the land of Egypt. ⁴² This was a night when Adonai kept vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt, and this same night continues to be a night when Adonai keeps vigil for all the people of Isra’el through all their generations.

⁴³ Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, “This is the regulation for the Pesach lamb: no foreigner is to eat it. ⁴⁴ But if anyone has a slave he bought for money, when you have circumcised him, he may eat it. ⁴⁵ Neither a traveler nor a hired servant may eat it. ⁴⁶ It is to be eaten in one house. You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you are not to break any of its bones. ⁴⁷ The whole community of Isra’el is to keep it. ⁴⁸ If a foreigner staying with you wants to observe Adonai’s Pesach, all his males must be circumcised. Then he may take part and observe it; he will be like a citizen of the land. But no uncircumcised person is to eat it. ⁴⁹ The same teaching is to apply equally to the citizen and to the foreigner living among you.”

⁵⁰ All the people of Isra’el did just as Adonai had ordered Moshe and Aharon. ⁵¹ On that very day, Adonai brought the people of Isra’el out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.

13 (vii) Adonai said to Moshe, ² “Set aside for me all the firstborn. Whatever is first from the womb among the people of Isra’el, both of humans and of animals, belongs to me.” ³ Moshe said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you left Egypt, the abode of slavery; because Adonai, by the strength of his hand, has brought you out of this place. Do not eat hametz. ⁴ You are leaving today, in the month of Aviv. ⁵ When Adonai brings you into the land of the Kena‘ani, Hitti, Emori, Hivi and Y’vusi, which he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to observe this ceremony in this month. ⁶ For seven days you are to eat matzah, and the seventh day is to be a festival for Adonai. ⁷ Matzah is to be eaten throughout the seven days; neither hametz nor leavening agents are to be seen with you throughout your territory. ⁸ On that day you are to tell your son, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I left Egypt.’

⁹ “Moreover, it will serve you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes, so that Adonai’s Torah may be on your lips; because with a strong hand Adonai brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰ Therefore you are to observe this regulation at its proper time, year after year. ¹¹ When Adonai brings you into the land of the Kena‘ani, as he swore to you and your ancestors, and gives it to you, ¹² you are to set apart for Adonai everything that is first from the womb. Every firstborn male animal will belong to Adonai. ¹³ Every firstborn from a donkey, you are to redeem with a lamb; but if you choose not to redeem it, you must break its neck. But from people, you are to redeem every firstborn son. (Maftir) ¹⁴ When, at some future time, your son asks you, ‘What is this?’ then say to him, ‘With a strong hand Adonai brought us out of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery. ¹⁵ When Pharaoh was unwilling to let us go, Adonai killed all the firstborn males in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of humans and the firstborn of animals. This is why I sacrifice to Adonai any male that is first from the womb of an animal, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶ This will serve as a sign on your hand and at the front of a headband around your forehead that with a strong hand Adonai brought us out of Egypt.”

Haftarah Bo: Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 46:13–28

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Bo: Luke 2:22–24; Yochanan (John) 19:31–37; Acts 13:16 –17; Revelation 8:6–9:12; 16:1–21

Parashah 16: B’shallach (After he had let go) 13:17–17:16

¹⁷ After Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not guide them to the highway that goes through the land of the P’lishtim, because it was close by — God thought that the people, upon seeing war, might change their minds and return to Egypt. ¹⁸ Rather, God led the people by a roundabout route, through the desert by the Sea of Suf. The people of Isra’el went up from the land of Egypt fully armed.

¹⁹ Moshe took the bones of Yosef with him, for Yosef had made the people of Isra’el swear an oath when he said, “God will certainly remember you; and you are to carry my bones up with you, away from here.”

²⁰ They traveled from Sukkot and set up camp in Etam, at the edge of the desert. ²¹ Adonai went ahead of them in a column of cloud during the daytime to lead them on their way, and at night in a column of fire to give them light; thus they could travel both by day and by night. ²² Neither the column of cloud by day nor the column of fire at night went away from in front of the people.

3 When the seventh month arrived, after the people of Isra’el had resettled in the towns, the people gathered with one accord in Yerushalayim. ² Then Yeshua the son of Yotzadak with his fellow cohanim, and Z’rubavel the son of Sh’alti’el with his kinsmen, organized rebuilding the altar of the God of Isra’el; so that they could offer burnt offerings on it, as is written in the Torah of Moshe the man of God. ³ They set up the altar on its former bases. Despite feeling threatened by the peoples of the [surrounding] countries; they offered on it burnt offerings to Adonai, the morning and evening burnt offerings.

⁴ They observed the festival of Sukkot as written, offering daily the number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day, ⁵ and afterwards the regular burnt offering, the offerings for Rosh-Hodesh and those for all the designated times set apart for Adonai, as well as those of everyone who volunteered a voluntary offering to Adonai. ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month, they began offering burnt offerings to Adonai, even though the foundation of Adonai’s temple had not yet been laid. ⁷ They also gave money for the stone-workers and carpenters, as well as food, drink and olive oil for the people of Tzidon and Tzor bringing cedar logs from the L’vanon to the sea and on to Yafo, in accordance with the authorization granted by Koresh king of Persia.

⁸ In the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Yerushalayim, in the second month, Z’rubavel the son of Sh’alti’el, Yeshua the son of Yotzadak, the rest of their kinsmen the cohanim and L’vi’im, and all who had come out of exile to Yerushalayim began the project. They appointed the L’vi’im aged twenty and up to direct work in the house of Adonai. ⁹ Yeshua and his sons and brothers, Kadmi’el and his sons, and Y’hudah’s sons together directed the workers in the house of God; also the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their kinsmen the L’vi’im.

¹⁰ When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Adonai, the cohanim in their robes, with trumpets, and the L’vi’im the sons of Asaf, with cymbals, took their places to praise Adonai, as David king of Isra’el had instructed. ¹¹ They sang antiphonally, praising and giving “thanks to Adonai, for he is good, for his grace continues forever” toward Isra’el. All the people raised a great shout of praise to Adonai, because the foundation of the house of Adonai had been laid. ¹² But many of the cohanim, L’vi’im and heads of fathers’ clans, the old men who had seen the first house standing on its foundation, wept out loud when they saw this house; while others shouted out loud for joy — ¹³ so that the people couldn’t distinguish the noise of the joyful shouting from the noise of the people’s weeping; for the people were shouting so loudly that the noise could be heard at a great distance.

5 So, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have shalom with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. ² Also through him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God’s glory. ³ But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance, ⁴ endurance produces character, and character produces hope; ⁵ and this hope does not let us down, because God’s love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh who has been given to us.

⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people. ⁷ Now it is a rare event when someone gives up his life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners. ⁹ Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment! ¹⁰ For if we were reconciled with God through his Son’s death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled! ¹¹ And not only will we be delivered in the future, but we are boasting about God right now, because he has acted through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have already received that reconciliation.