Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Instructions for the Feast of Passover

12 And Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ² “This month will be the beginning of months; it will be for you the first of the months of the year. ³ Speak to all the community of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month, they will each take for themselves a lamb for the family,^[a] a lamb for the household. ⁴ And if the household is too small for a lamb, he and the neighbor nearest to his house will take one according to the number of persons;^[b] you will count out portions of the lamb according to how much each one can eat.^{[c] 5} The lamb for you must be a male, without defect, in its first year; you will take it from the sheep or from the goats.

⁶ “You will keep it^[d] until the fourteenth day of this month, and all the assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter it at twilight.^{[e] 7} And they will take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel on the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ And they will eat the meat on this night; they will eat it fire-roasted and with unleavened bread on bitter herbs.^{[f] 9} You must not eat any of it raw or boiled, boiled in the water, but rather roasted with fire, its head with its legs and with its inner parts. ¹⁰ And you must not leave any of it until morning; anything left from it until morning you must burn in the fire. ¹¹ And this is how you will eat it—with your waists fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you will eat it in haste. It is Yahweh’s Passover.

¹² “And I will go through the land of Egypt during this night, and I will strike all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and I will do punishments among all of the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh. ¹³ And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you, and there will not be a destructive plague among you when I strike the land of Egypt.

²¹ And Moses called all the elders of Israel, and he said to them, “Select and take for yourselves sheep for your clans and slaughter the Passover sacrifice. ²² And take a bunch of hyssop and dip it into the blood that is in the basin and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. And you will not go out, anyone from the doorway of his house, until morning. ²³ And Yahweh will go through to strike Egypt, and he will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and Yahweh will pass over the doorway and will not allow the destroyer to come to your houses to strike you.

²⁴ “And you will keep this event as a rule for you and for your children forever.^{[a] 25} And^[b] when you come into the land that Yahweh will give to you, as he said, you will keep this religious custom.^{[c] 26} And^[d] when your children say to you, ‘What is this religious custom^[e] for you?’^{[f] 27} you will say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice for Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the Israelites^[g] in Egypt when he struck Egypt; and he delivered our houses.’” And the people knelt down and they worshiped. ²⁸ And the Israelites^[h] went, and they did as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get up and go toward the south^[a] on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) ²⁷ And he got up and^[b] went, and behold, there was a man, an Ethiopian eunuch (a court official of Candace,^[c] queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasury) who had come to worship in Jerusalem ²⁸ and was returning and sitting in his chariot, and reading aloud the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, “Approach and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran up to it^[d] and^[e] heard him reading aloud Isaiah the prophet and said, “So then, do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “So how could I, unless someone will guide me?” And he invited Philip to come up and^[f] sit with him. ³² Now the passage of scripture that he was reading aloud was this:

³⁴ And the eunuch answered and^[j] said to Philip, “I ask you, about whom does the prophet say this—about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ So Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, proclaimed the good news to him about Jesus. ³⁶ And as they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”^{[k] 38} And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water—Philip and the eunuch—and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer, for he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he^[l] passed through, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.