Beginning
Chapter 10
Eighth Plague: The Locusts.[a] 1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his ministers so that I may perform these signs in their midst 2 and so that you can tell your sons and grandsons how I dealt with the Egyptians and the signs I worked in their midst so that they may know that I am the Lord.”
3 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘How long will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go so that they may serve me. 4 If you refuse to let my people go, behold, I will send locusts upon your land. 5 They will cover the entire country so that you cannot even see the soil. They will devour what is left, whatever survived the hail, and they will devour every tree that grows in your fields. 6 They will fill your house, the houses of all your ministers and the houses of all the Egyptians, so many that even your fathers never saw so many, nor the fathers of your fathers, from when they came into this land until today.’ ” He turned and left Pharaoh.
7 The ministers of Pharaoh said to him, “How long will he be a snare to us? Let this people go to serve the Lord, their God. Otherwise Egypt may be ruined.”
8 Moses and Aaron were summoned to Pharaoh who said to them, “Go, serve the Lord, your God. But who will leave with you?” 9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our animals and our flocks, so that we can celebrate a feast of the Lord.”
10 [b]Pharaoh answered, “The Lord be with you, if I let you and your children leave. Clearly you have an evil project in mind. 11 No! Have only the men go with you and serve the Lord. That is what you want.” They then went out from Pharaoh.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt to send locusts. Let them come down upon the land of Egypt to eat every plant that the hail spared.” 13 Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and all that night. By the morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14 The locusts swarmed over the whole land of Egypt and settled on every part of the territory of Egypt. It was very serious, so bad that it had never been as bad before nor would it ever be as bad again in the future. 15 They covered the whole land so that the land was darkened. They devoured every plant in the land and every fruit tree that the hail had spared. Not a green leaf remained upon the trees or the plants in the field throughout the land of Egypt.
16 Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord, your God, and against you. 17 But now once again forgive my sin and pray to the Lord, your God, so that he may turn aside this death from me.”
18 Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. 19 The Lord changed the direction of the wind and made a strong wind blow from the sea. It carried the locusts away and blew them into the Red Sea. There was not one locust left in all the land of Egypt. 20 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not let the children of Israel leave.
21 Ninth Plague: The Darkness.[c] The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the heavens. Darkness will come upon the land of Egypt, so dark that one can feel it.”
22 Moses stretched out his hand toward the heavens. Darkness came upon the land of Egypt for three days. 23 People could not see each other, and for three days no one could move around. But there was light where the children of Israel were living.[d]
24 Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Leave, and serve the Lord. Take your babies with you. Only leave your flocks and herds here.”
25 Moses answered, “You must also grant us sacrifices and burnt offerings that we will offer to the Lord, our God. 26 Our animals, too, must leave with us; not even a hoof will be left behind. We must choose the sacrificial victims that we will offer to the Lord, our God, from among them, and we will not know how to serve the Lord until we will have arrived in that place.” 27 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh who would not let them go. 28 Pharaoh therefore said to Moses, “Leave me! Make sure that you never see me again, for the next time you see my face, you will die.” 29 Moses said, “You have spoken well, for I will not see your face again.”
Chapter 11
Announcement of the Death of the Firstborn.[e] 1 The Lord said to Moses, “I will send still another plague against Pharaoh and Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here. He will let you leave without restrictions. In fact, he will chase you out.
2 “Therefore, tell the people that each man should ask from his neighbor and each woman should ask from her neighbor objects of silver and objects of gold.”
3 The Lord caused the people to find favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moses, too, was a man who was highly regarded in the land of Egypt, both by the ministers of Pharaoh and by the people.
4 Moses then said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Around midnight I will go forth through Egypt. 5 Every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits upon the throne all the way to the firstborn of the slaves who work at the mill,[f] even the firstborn of the animals. 6 A great lament will rise up in all the land of Egypt such as will never be repeated again. 7 But not even a dog will growl against the children of Israel, neither against humans nor animals, so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 All these servants of yours will come down to me and bow down in front of me saying, “May you and all the people who follow you leave.” After that I will leave.’ ”
Moses grew angry and left Pharaoh.
9 But the Lord had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you. Therefore, I will multiply my signs in the land of Egypt.”
10 Moses and Aaron did all these signs before Pharaoh, but the Lord had so hardened the heart of Pharaoh that he would not let the children of Israel leave his land.
The Passover
Chapter 12
Preparations for the Passover.[g] 1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it shall be your first month of the year.[h] 3 Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, ‘The tenth of this month each person shall obtain a lamb for each family, one for each household. 4 If the family is too small to eat the lamb, they should join with their neighbors, based on the number of people. Figure the lamb according to how much each person can eat. 5 Your lamb should be without blemish,[i] male, a year old. You can choose either a sheep or a goat. 6 Keep it until the fourteenth day of this month. Then the whole community of Israel shall slaughter it in the evening. 7 Take a bit of its blood, put it on the two doorposts and upon the lintel of every house in which it is to be eaten. 8 That night eat its meat roasted. Eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat it raw or boiled in water, but only roasted with the head, legs, and inner organs. 10 Do not let any of it be kept until the morning. Whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned in the fire. 11 This is how you shall eat it, with your loins girt and sandals on your feet and a staff in your hand. Eat it quickly. It is the Passover[j] of the Lord.
12 “ ‘On that night I will pass over the land of Egypt and strike the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both human and animal, to render justice against all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood on your houses shall be the sign that you are inside. I will see the blood and pass over. There shall be no plague for you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 Preparations for the Unleavened Bread.[k]“ ‘This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall celebrate it as a feast of the Lord. From generation to generation, let there be an ordinance that you celebrate this feast. 15 For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall dispose of all leaven from your house. Whoever eats leavened goods from the first day til the seventh shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a sacred assembly and another on the seventh day. On those days you shall not work. You shall only prepare what is to be eaten by everyone.
17 “ ‘You shall observe the custom of unleavened bread, for on this same day I brought out your hosts from the land of Egypt. You shall observe this day from generation to generation as an eternal ordinance. 18 In the first month, the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first of the month, in the evening. 19 For seven days leavened bread shall not be found in your house, for whoever eats leavened bread shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether it be a foreigner or a native of the land. 20 You shall not eat leavened bread; in all your houses you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”
21 Celebration of the Passover. Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go and obtain a lamb for each family and slaughter it for the Passover.[l] 22 Take a bunch of hyssop[m] and dip it into the blood in the bowl and sprinkle the blood from the bowl on the lintel and the two doorposts. None of you shall go outside until the morning. 23 The Lord will pass over to strike the Egyptians. He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts. The Lord will, therefore, pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter into your house to strike anyone there.[n]
24 “You shall observe this command as a fixed rite for yourselves and your children forever. 25 When you will have entered into the land that the Lord will give you, as he promised, you shall observe this rite. 26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this rite of yours mean,’ 27 you shall tell them, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Passover of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our houses.’ ”
The people knelt down and worshiped. 28 Then the children of Israel went and did exactly what the Lord had ordered Moses and Aaron.
The Exodus from Egypt and the Journey to Sinai
Departure from Egypt
29 Tenth Plague: The Death of the Firstborn.[o] At midnight the Lord slew every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat upon the throne to the firstborn of the prisoners being held in dungeons, all the firstborn, both human and animal. 30 Pharaoh got up during the night along with his ministers and all the Egyptians, and a loud cry arose out of Egypt, for every house had someone who had died.
31 Permission to Depart.[p]Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Arise and leave my people, you and the children of Israel! Go and serve the Lord as you have said. 32 Take your herds and your flocks, as you have said, and leave. Bless me, too.”
33 The Egyptians urged on the people to drive them out of the land quickly, for they said, “We are all about to die.” 34 The people took their unleavened dough with them, placing their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The children of Israel carried out Moses’ order and had the Egyptians give them objects of silver and gold and clothes. 36 The Lord had inclined the Egyptians favorably toward the people so that they gave them whatever they requested. So, they plundered the Egyptians.
37 Departure from Egypt. The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth. There were six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting children. 38 There was also a large crowd of people of mixed ancestry with them, together with large numbers of flocks and herds. 39 They baked the dough that they had carried with them from Egypt as cakes of unleavened bread for it had not been leavened. They had been hurried out of Egypt and had not had time to hesitate nor to prepare provisions for the journey.
40 The children of Israel had lived in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years. 41 At the end of four hundred and thirty years, exactly to the day, all the hosts of the Lord went up out of Egypt. 42 This was a night of vigil unto the Lord, for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. Hence, it must be a night of vigil in honor of the Lord for all the children of Israel, from one generation to the next.
43 Ordinances for the Passover.[q] The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the ordinances for the Passover:
“No foreigner may eat it. 44 As for each slave bought with money, you shall circumcise him so that he may eat it. 45 The foreigner and the hired laborer cannot eat it.
46 “It must be eaten in one house. One may not carry the meat outside of the house, and none of its bones is to be broken.[r] 47 All the community of Israel shall celebrate it.
48 “If a foreigner dwells among you and wishes to celebrate the Passover of the Lord, let each man in his household be circumcised. Then let him draw near to celebrate and he will be like a native of the land. But no one who is uncircumcised can eat it. 49 The same law will be binding on the native and the foreigner who is living in your midst.”
50 All the children of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 On that very day the Lord brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, organized according to their hosts.
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