Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day, ^(A)when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their ^(B)burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.^{[a] 12} He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he ^(C)struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ When ^(D)he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” ¹⁴ He answered, ^(E)“Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But ^(F)Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by ^(G)a well.

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁸ Moses went back to ^(A)Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” ¹⁹ And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for ^(B)all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” ²⁰ So Moses took ^(C)his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took ^(D)the staff of God in his hand.

²¹ And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the ^(E)miracles that I have put in your power. But ^(F)I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. ²² Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, ^(G)Israel is my ^(H)firstborn son, ²³ and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I ^(I)will kill your firstborn son.’”

²⁴ At a lodging place on the way ^(J)the Lord met him and ^(K)sought to put him to death. ²⁵ Then ^(L)Zipporah took a ^(M)flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses'^[a] feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” ²⁶ So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

²⁷ The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness ^(N)to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the ^(O)mountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸ And Moses ^(P)told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all ^(Q)the signs that he had commanded him to do. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron ^(R)went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. ^30 (S)Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. ³¹ And the people ^(T)believed; and when they heard that the Lord had ^(U)visited the people of Israel and that he had ^(V)seen their affliction, ^(W)they bowed their heads and worshiped.

The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ^2 (A)“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. ³ Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb ^(B)according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. ⁴ And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb shall be ^(C)without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, ⁶ and you shall keep it until the ^(D)fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.^[a]

⁷ “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the ^(E)two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with ^(F)unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^(G)roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. ¹⁰ And ^(H)you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹ In this manner you shall eat it: with ^(I)your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. ^(J)It is the Lord's Passover. ¹² For ^(K)I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on ^(L)all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: ^(M)I am the Lord. ^13 (N)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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day shall be ^(O)for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a ^(P)statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. ^15 (Q)Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, ^(R)that person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day you shall hold a ^(S)holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷ And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ^(T)on this very day I brought your ^(U)hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. ^18 (V)In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ^19 (W)For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, ^(X)that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, ^(Y)whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. ²⁰ You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

²¹ Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves ^(Z)according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bunch of ^(AA)hyssop and ^(AB)dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch ^(AC)the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. ^(AD)None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. ^23 (AE)For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on ^(AF)the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^(AG)will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. ²⁴ You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. ²⁵ And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, ^(AH)as he has promised, you shall keep this service. ²⁶ And ^(AI)when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷ you shall say, ^(AJ)‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people ^(AK)bowed their heads and worshiped.

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

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

^29 (AL)At midnight the ^(AM)Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, ^(AN)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 the livestock. ³⁰ And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was ^(AO)a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. ³¹ Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, ^(AP)both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. ^32 (AQ)Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

The Exodus

^33 (AR)The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. ³⁵ The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had ^(AS)asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. ^36 (AT)And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that ^(AU)they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ And the ^(AV)people of Israel journeyed from ^(AW)Rameses to Succoth, ^(AX)about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. ³⁸ A ^(AY)mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹ And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because ^(AZ)they were thrust out of Egypt and ^(BA)could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰ The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of ^(BB)430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴² It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a ^(BC)night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

Institution of the Passover

⁴³ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, ⁴⁴ but every slave^[b] that is ^(BD)bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. ^45 (BE)No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. ⁴⁶ It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and ^(BF)you shall not break any of its bones. ^47 (BG)All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. ^48 (BH)If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he ^(BI)shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. ⁴⁹ There shall be ^(BJ)one law for the native and for the ^(BK)stranger who sojourns among you.”

⁵⁰ All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.