The Passover Instituted^(A)

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ^2 (B)“This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the ^(C)tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ⁴ And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb shall be ^(D)without^[a] blemish, a male ^[b]of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ Now you shall keep it until the ^(E)fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. ⁷ And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. ⁸ Then they shall eat the flesh on that ^(F)night; ^(G)roasted in fire, with ^(H)unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but ^(I)roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. ^10 (J)You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. ¹¹ And thus you shall eat it: ^[c]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. ^(K)It is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² ‘For I ^(L)will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and ^(M)against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: ^(N)I am the Lord. ¹³ Now 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 the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

²¹ Then ^(A)Moses called for all the ^(B)elders of Israel and said to them, ^(C)“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. ^22 (D)And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and ^(E)strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. ^23 (F)For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the ^(G)blood on the ^[a]lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^(H)not allow ^(I)the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. ²⁴ And you shall ^(J)observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. ²⁵ It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, ^(K)just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. ^26 (L)And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷ that you shall say, ^(M)‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people ^(N)bowed their heads and worshiped. ²⁸ Then the children of Israel went away and ^(O)did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Christ Is Preached to an Ethiopian^(A)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to ^(B)Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is ^[a]desert. ²⁷ So he arose and went. And behold, ^(C)a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and ^(D)had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

³⁴ So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, ^(I)and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. ^(J)What hinders me from being baptized?”

^37 [b]Then Philip said, ^(K)“If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, ^(L)“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ Now when they came up out of the water, ^(M)the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip was found at ^[c]Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to ^(N)Caesarea.