Instructions for Passover

1YHWH spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2This month is to be the beginning of months for y’all, the first month of y’all’s year. 3Y’all are to speak to the whole community of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb according to his fathers’ household, a lamb for each household. 4If the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of the lives there. Y’all are to divide the lamb according to what everyone can eat. 5Y’all’s lamb must be without defect, a male a year old. Y’all are to take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6Y’all are to care for it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter it at twilight. 7They are to take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses where they will eat it. 8They must eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread. They must eat it with bitter herbs. 9Y’all must not eat it raw, nor boiled with water, but roasted with fire, with its head, legs, and inner parts. 10Y’all must not leave any of it until the morning, but what remains of it in the morning y’all are to burn with fire. 11This is how y’all are to eat it: with y’all’s belt on y’all’s waist, y’all’s sandals on y’all’s feet, and y’all’s staff in y’all’s hand. Y’all are to eat it in haste: it is YHWH’s Passover. 12For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am YHWH. 13The blood will be a sign for y’all on the houses where y’all are. When I see the blood, I will pass over y’all, and no plague will be on y’all to destroy y’all when I strike the land of Egypt. 14This day will be a memorial for y’all. Y’all are to celebrate it as a feast to YHWH, and y’all are to celebrate it as a feast throughout y’all’s generations as a permanent ordinance.

15“‘For seven days y’all are to eat unleavened bread. Indeed, on the first day y’all are to remove yeast from y’all’s houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that life will be cut off from Israel. 16In the first day there is to be to y’all a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work is to be done in them, except that which every man must eat, only that may be done by y’all. 17Y’all are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for in this very day I have brought y’all’s divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore y’all must observe this day throughout y’all’s generations as a permanent ordinance. 18In the first month, y’all are to eat unleavened bread from the evening of fourteenth day of the month until the evening of twenty-first day of the month. 19For seven days, there must be no yeast found in y’all’s houses. For whoever eats something is leavened, that life will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether they are a foreigner, or one who is born in the land. 20Y’all must not eat anything leavened. In all y’all’s homes, y’all are to eat unleavened bread.’”

21Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Y’all go and select lambs according to y’all’s families, and slaughter the Passover animal. 22Y’all are to take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin. Then y’all must brush the top and the two sides of the doorframe with the blood that is in the basin. None of y’all are to go out of the door of their house until the morning. 23For YHWH will pass through to strike the Egyptians, but when ʜᴇ sees the blood on the top and the two sides of the doorframe, YHWH will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into y’all’s houses to strike y’all. 24Y’all must observe this command as a permanent ordinance for you and your children. 25When y’all enter the land which YHWH will give y’all as ʜᴇ has promised, y’all must observe this ceremony. 26And when y’all’s children ask, ‘What does this ceremony mean to y’all?’ 27Y’all are to say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to YHWH, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when ʜᴇ struck the Egyptians and spared our homes.’”

Then the people bowed their heads and worshiped. 28The children of Israel went and did what YHWH had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Death of the Firstborn Enacted

29At midnight, YHWH struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. 30Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not one house without someone dead.

The Exodus

31Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Y’all get up and get out from among my people! Y’all and the children of Israel—go and serve YHWH, as y’all have requested! 32Y’all are to take your* flocks and herds, as y’all have said and go. But y’all must also bless me!”

33The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We will all die!” 34The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. 35The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing. 36YHWH gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.

37The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, besides children. 38A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and even very much livestock. 39They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt; for it wasn’t leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn’t wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves. 40Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. 41At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day, all of YHWH’s armies went out from the land of Egypt. 42It is a night to be much observed to YHWH for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of YHWH, to be much observed by all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

Passover Instructions

43YHWH said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner is to eat of it, 44but every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. 45A foreigner and a hired servant must not eat of it. 46It must be eaten in one house. You must not carry any of the meat outside of the house, and y’all must not break any of its bones. 47All the congregation of Israel must keep it. 48When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, and would like to keep the Passover to YHWH, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. He will be like one who is born in the land, but no uncircumcised person may eat of it. 49The same law applies to the one who is born at home and to the foreigner residing among y’all.” 50All the children of Israel did so. As YHWH commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. 51That same day, YHWH brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.