Exodus 12
Open in the reader1Now He-Who-Is said to Drawn-Out and Aaron in the land of Two-Straits,
2“This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
3Tell the whole congregation of Strives-with-God that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.
4If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly.
5Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.
6You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Strives-with-God will slaughter the animals at twilight.
7They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
8They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
9Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts.
10Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over.
11This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is He-Who-Is’s Passover.
12On that night I will pass through the land of Two-Straits and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Two-Straits. I am He-Who-Is.
13The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Two-Straits.
14And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to He-Who-Is, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
15For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Strives-with-God.
16On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.
17So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Two-Straits. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
18In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
19For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Strives-with-God.
20You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
21Then Drawn-Out summoned all the elders of Strives-with-God and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
23When He-Who-Is passes through to strike down the Two-Straitsians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants.
25When you enter the land that He-Who-Is will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service.
26When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
27you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to He-Who-Is, who passed over the houses of the children of Strives-with-God in Two-Straits when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
28And the children of Strives-with-God went and did just what He-Who-Is had commanded Drawn-Out and Aaron.
29Now at midnight He-Who-Is struck down every firstborn male in the land of Two-Straits, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.
30During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Two-Straitsians—and there was loud wailing in Two-Straits; for there was no house without someone dead.
31Then Pharaoh summoned Drawn-Out and Aaron by night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the children of Strives-with-God! Go, worship He-Who-Is as you have requested.
32Take your flocks and herds as well, just as you have said, and depart! And bless me also.”
33And in order to send them out of the land quickly, the Two-Straitsians urged the people on. “For otherwise,” they said, “we are all going to die!”
34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.
35Furthermore, the children of Strives-with-God acted on Drawn-Out’ word and asked the Two-Straitsians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing.
36And He-Who-Is gave the people such favor in the sight of the Two-Straitsians that they granted their request. In this way they plundered the Two-Straitsians.
37The children of Strives-with-God journeyed from Rameses to Booths with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.
38And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
39Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Two-Straits into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Two-Straits, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.
40Now the duration of the children of Strives-with-God’ stay in Two-Straits was 430 years.
41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all He-Who-Is’s divisions went out of the land of Two-Straits.
42Because He-Who-Is kept a vigil that night to bring them out of the land of Two-Straits, this same night is to be a vigil to He-Who-Is, to be observed by all the Strives-with-Godites for the generations to come.
43And He-Who-Is said to Drawn-Out and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it.
44But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.
45A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover.
46It must be eaten inside one house. You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of the bones.
47The whole congregation of Strives-with-God must celebrate it.
48If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate He-Who-Is’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.
49The same teaching shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”
50Then all the children of Strives-with-God did this—they did just as He-Who-Is had commanded Drawn-Out and Drawn-Out.
51And on that very day He-Who-Is brought the children of Strives-with-God out of the land of Two-Straits by their divisions.