The Passover Lamb

12 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of ^[a]Egypt, ² “^(A)This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a ^[b]lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a ^[c]lamb for ^[d]each household. ⁴ Now if the household is too small for a ^[e]lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the ^[f]number of persons in them; in proportion to ^[g]what each one should eat, you are to ^[h]divide the lamb. ⁵ Your ^[i]lamb shall be ^(B)an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ^6 [j]You shall keep it until the ^(C)fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it ^[k](D)at twilight. ^7 (E)Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel ^[l]of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the flesh ^(F)that same night, ^(G)roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with ^(H)unleavened bread ^[m](I)and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather ^(J)roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with ^(K)its entrails. ^10 (L)And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall completely burn with fire. ¹¹ Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment ^[n]belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is ^(M)the Lord’s Passover. ¹² For ^(N)I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and ^(O)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—^(P)I am the Lord. ^13 (Q)The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you ^[o]live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you ^[p]to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴ ‘Now ^(R)this day shall be ^(S)a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as ^[q](T)a permanent ordinance. ¹⁵ For ^(U)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove dough with yeast from your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day, ^(V)that ^[r]person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ And ^(W)on the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except for what must be eaten by every person—that alone may be ^[s]prepared by you. ¹⁷ You shall also keep ^(X)the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this ^(Y)very day I brought your ^[t]multitudes out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as ^(Z)a ^[u]permanent ordinance. ^18 (AA)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 ^(AB)seven days there shall be no dough with yeast found in your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast, that ^[v](AC)person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. ²⁰ You shall not eat anything with yeast; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

²¹ Then ^(AD)Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and ^(AE)take for yourselves ^[w]lambs according to your families, and slaughter ^(AF)the Passover lamb. ²² And ^(AG)you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and ^[x]apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

A Memorial of Redemption

²³ For ^(AH)the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; but when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will ^(AI)not allow the ^(AJ)destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you. ²⁴ And ^(AK)you shall keep this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has ^[y]promised, you shall keep this ^[z]rite. ^26 (AL)And when your children say to you, ‘^[aa]What does this rite mean to you?’ ²⁷ then you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to ^(AM)the Lord because He passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians, but ^[ab]spared our homes.’” ^(AN)And the people bowed low and worshiped.

²⁸ Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

²⁹ Now it came about at ^(AO)midnight that ^(AP)the Lord struck all ^(AQ)the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of ^(AR)cattle. ³⁰ And Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was ^(AS)a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. ³¹ Then ^(AT)he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, ^(AU)get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, ^[ac]worship the Lord, as you have said. ³² Take ^(AV)both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also.”

Exodus of Israel

^33 (AW)The Egyptians urged the people, to send them out of the land in a hurry, for they said, “We will all be dead.” ³⁴ So the people took ^(AX)their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders.

^35 (AY)Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; ³⁶ and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Therefore they ^(AZ)plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ Now the ^(BA)sons of Israel journeyed from ^(BB)Rameses to Succoth, about ^(BC)six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. ³⁸ A ^(BD)mixed multitude also went up with them, ^[ad]along with flocks and herds, a ^(BE)very large number of livestock. ³⁹ And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had no yeast, since they were ^(BF)driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they ^[ae]prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰ Now the time ^[af]that the sons of Israel had lived in Egypt was ^(BG)430 years. ⁴¹ And at the end of 430 years, on ^(BH)this very day, ^(BI)all the ^[ag]multitudes of the Lord departed from the land of Egypt.

Ordinance of the Passover

^42 (BJ)It is a night ^[ah]to be observed for the Lord, for having brought them out of the land of Egypt; this night is for the Lord, ^[ai]to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.

⁴³ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of ^(BK)the Passover: no ^[aj](BL)foreigner is to eat it; ⁴⁴ but as for every ^(BM)slave ^[ak]that someone has purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. ^45 (BN)A stranger or a hired worker shall not eat it. ⁴⁶ It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring any of the meat outside of the house, ^(BO)nor are you to break any bone of it. ^47 (BP)All the congregation of Israel are to ^[al]celebrate this. ⁴⁸ But ^(BQ)if a stranger resides with you and ^[am]celebrates the Passover to the Lord, all of his males are to be circumcised, and then he shall come near to ^[an]celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised male may eat it. ^49 [ao](BR)The same law shall ^[ap]apply to the native as to the stranger who resides among you.”

⁵⁰ Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ And on that very day ^(BS)the Lord brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt ^(BT)according to their ^[aq]multitudes.

The Beauty and Glory of Zion.

A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Be in Readiness

³⁵ “^[a](A)Be prepared, and keep your ^(B)lamps lit. ³⁶ You are also to be like people who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door for him when he comes and knocks. ³⁷ Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find ^(C)on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that ^(D)he will ^[b]prepare himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and he will come up and serve them. ^38 (E)Whether he comes in the ^[c]second watch, or even in the ^[d]third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

³⁹ “^(F)But ^[e]be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be ^(G)broken into. ^40 (H)You too, be ready; because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not think He will.”

⁴¹ Peter said, “Lord, are You telling this parable to us, or ^(I)to everyone else as well?” ⁴² And ^(J)the Lord said, “^(K)Who then is the faithful and sensible ^(L)steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? ⁴³ Blessed is that ^(M)slave whom his ^[f]master finds so doing when he comes. ⁴⁴ Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵ But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will take a long time to come,’ and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; ⁴⁶ then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, and will ^[g]cut him in two, and assign ^[h]him a place with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷ And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accordance with his will, will ^(N)receive many blows, ⁴⁸ but the one who did not ^(O)know it, and committed acts deserving of ^[i]a beating, will receive only a few blows. ^(P)From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

Christ Divides People

⁴⁹ “I ^[j]have come to cast fire upon the earth; and ^[k]how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a ^(Q)baptism ^[l]to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! ^51 (R)Do you think that I came to provide peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; ⁵² for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided, ^(S)father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴ And He was also saying to the crowds, “^(T)Whenever you see a cloud rising ^[m]in the west, you immediately say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. ⁵⁵ And whenever you feel a ^[n]south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a ^(U)hot day,’ and it turns out that way. ⁵⁶ You hypocrites! ^(V)You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you do not know how to analyze this present time?

⁵⁷ “And ^(W)why do you not even judge by yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸ For ^(X)when you are going with your accuser to appear before the magistrate, on the way, make an effort to ^[o]settle with him, so that he does not drag you before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. ⁵⁹ I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid up ^[p]the very last ^[q](Y)lepton.”