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Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to select a lamb, one for each household, according to the house of their fathers. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, that person and the neighbour nearest to his house are to select one according to the combined number of people. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The lambs that are selected are to be without defect, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 They are to eat the meat that same night, and the meat is to be roasted over the fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but roast it over the fire, with its head, legs, and its inner parts. 10 Do not let any of it remain until morning; you must burn any part of it that remains until morning. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
12 “That same night I will pass through the land of Egypt, and I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, of both men and animals. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt; I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This day is to be a day of remembrance for you, and you are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it as a lasting ordinance throughout your generations. 15 For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. On the first day you must remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through to the seventh day must be cut off from Israel. 16 You are to hold a sacred assembly on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work is to be done on those days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.
17 “You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You are to observe this day as a lasting ordinance throughout your generations. 18 In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month to the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person is to be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is a foreign resident or native-born. 20 Do not eat anything made with yeast; you are to eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the basin, and brush some of the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts. Not one of you may go out of the door of his house until morning. 23 When the Lord passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and He will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you are to observe this ceremony. 26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians, but spared our homes’.” Then the people bowed down and worshipped. 28 The Israelites went away just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock also. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.
31 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Up! Get out from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord, as you have asked. 32 Take your flocks and herds as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry out of the land, for they said, “Otherwise we will all die!” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders. 35 The Israelites had done as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36 The Lord gave the people such favour in the sight of the Egyptians that they gave them what they asked for. So in this way they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people not Hebrew also left with them, and a large number of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 The people baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, since the dough was without yeast. And when they were driven out of Egypt they did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
40 Now the length of time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It was a night of vigil by the Lord to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is to be kept as the night of vigil for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations.
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover:
“No foreigner may eat of it, 44 but any slave a man has purchased may eat of it after you have circumcised him, 45 but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat of it.
46 “It is to be eaten inside one house. You must not take any of the meat out of the house, and you are not to break any of its bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48 “If a foreigner living among you wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, all the males in his household must be circumcised. Then he may participate like one who is born in the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it. 49 The same law applies to the native-born and to the foreigner living among you.”
50 All the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 Then on that very same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.