Instructions for Passover

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month each man shall take a lamb for his father's house, a lamb for each household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest his house shall take one, according to the number of people; you shall count each person for the lamb according to what he will eat. 5 The lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 And they shall eat the meat that night, roasted in fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 You shall not eat any of it raw, or boiled in water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall not leave any of it until morning; and whatever is left of it until morning you shall burn in the fire. 11 And this is how you shall eat it: with your belts fastened, with your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste; it is the Passover before the Lord. 12 And I will be revealed in the land of Egypt on that night,⁠a and will kill every firstborn in the land, from people to animals, and on all the idols of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and have mercy on you, and the plague of death shall not be among you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 And this day shall be a memorial for you, and you shall celebrate it as a festival before the Lord throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it as an everlasting ordinance. 15 Eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day remove the leaven from your houses, for anyone who eats what is leavened, from the first day to the seventh day, will be cut off from Israel. 16 And on the first day there shall be a holy assembly, and on the seventh day you shall have a holy assembly. No work of any kind may be done on them, except what is needed for everyone to eat; only that may be done by you. 17 And you shall keep the feast of Unleavened Bread; for on this very day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt, and you shall keep this day throughout your generations forever. 18 In Nisan, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened, that person shall perish from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a proselyte,⁠b or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your homes you shall eat unleavened bread. 21 And Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, Draw out and take for yourselves lambs from the flock for your families, and slaughter the Passover. 22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. 23 For the Lord will be revealed to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will have mercy on the door, and will not allow the Destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 And you shall observe this as an ordinance for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you have entered the land which the Lord will give you, as He has said, you shall still keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, What does this service mean to you? 27 you shall say, It is a sacrifice of compassion before the Lord, because He had compassion on the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses. And the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 And the sons of Israel went and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron; that is what they did.

The Death of the Firstborn and the Departure from Egypt

29 And at midnight the Lord killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who was to sit on the throne of his kingdom to the firstborn of the captive in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 30 And Pharaoh got 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 a house without someone dead. 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get up, go out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go and worship before the Lord, as you have said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds too, as you have said, and go, and pray for me as well. 33 And the Egyptians pressed the people to hurry and send them away; for they said, We are all dead. 34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, with what was left in the kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did as Moses had said, and asked the Egyptians for vessels of silver and vessels of gold and clothing. 36 And the Lord gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they gave them what they asked, and they emptied Egypt. 37 And the children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children; 38 and a large mixed crowd also went up with them, and flocks and herds, a great many cattle. 39 And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes; for it had not been leavened, because they had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and they had not prepared any provisions for themselves. 40 And the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is a night to be kept before the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt: this is that night before the Lord, kept by all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

Who May Eat the Passover

43 And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover. Every son of Israel who apostatizes shall not eat of it;⁠c 44 but every male slave bought with money, once you have circumcised him, may eat of it. 45 A resident foreigner and a hired worker shall not eat of it. 46 It shall be eaten in one group. You shall not carry any of the meat outside the house, and you shall not break a bone of it. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall do this. 48 And when a proselyte joins you as a convert and would keep the Passover before the Lord, every male of his household shall be circumcised, and then he may come near and keep it; he shall be like a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be one law for the native and for the proselyte who converts and lives among you. 50 And all the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron; that is what they did. 51 On that very day the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, arranged in their companies.