The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “aThis 1month shall be the beginning of months to you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.Originally known as Abib (March/April), after the Babylonian captivity the name was changed to Nisan.Ex 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; Deut 16:1 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel, ‘On the tenth day of this month they are to take a lamb or young goat for themselves, according to the size of the household of which he is the father, a lamb or young goat for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb to be consumed, let him and his next door neighbor take one according to the number of people in the households; according to what each man can eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 Your lamb or young goat shall be perfect awithout blemish or bodily defect, a male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 1+@Pet 1:19, 20Lev 22:18-21; 23:12; Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 1:19 6 You shall keep it until the afourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it 1bat twilight.Lit between the two evenings, that is, between sunset and nightfall (likely 6:00-7:20 p.m.) each household was to slaughter its own lamb or goat.Ex 12:14, 17; Lev 23:5; Num 9:1-3, 11; 28:16Ex 16:12; Deut 16:4, 6 7 aMoreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel above the door of the houses in which they eat it. Matt 26:28; John 1:29; Heb 9:14Ex 12:22 8 They shall eat the meat athat same night, broasted in fire, and they shall eat it with cunleavened bread and dbitter herbs.Ex 34:25; Num 9:12Deut 16:7Deut 16:3, 4; 1 Cor 5:8Num 9:11 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but aroasted in fire—both its head and its legs, along with bits inner parts.Ex 12:8Ex 29:13, 17, 22 10 aYou shall let none of the meat remain until the morning, and anything that remains left over until morning, you shall burn completely in the fire.Ex 16:19; 23:18; 34:25 11 Now you are to eat it in this manner: be prepared for a journey with your 1loins girded that is, with the outer garment tucked into the band, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it quickly—it is athe LORD’S Passover.A variation of a phrase often found in the Bible that is an urgent call to get ready for immediate action, or to prepare for a coming action or event. The phrase is related to the type of clothing worn in ancient times. To keep from impeding the wearer during any vigorous activity, e.g. battle, exercise, strenuous work, etc., the loose ends of garments (tunics, cloaks, mantles, etc.) had to be gathered up and tucked into the girdle. The girdle was a band about six inches wide that had fasteners in front. It was worn around the loins (the midsection of the body between the lower ribs and the hips) and was normally made of leather. The girdle (band) also served as a kind of pocket or pouch and was used to carry personal items such as a dagger, money or other necessary things. Gird up your mind or gird up your heart are examples of variants of this phrase and call for mental or spiritual preparation for a coming challenge.Ex 12:13, 21, 27, 43 12 For aI the LORD will pass through the land of Egypt on this night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal; bagainst all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments exhibiting their worthlessness. cI am the LORD.Ex 11:4, 5Num 33:4; Ps 82:1Ex 6:2 13 aThe blood shall be a sign for you on the doorposts of the houses where you live; when I see the blood I shall pass over you, and no affliction shall happen to you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 1+@Cor 5:7; Heb 11:28Heb 11:28
14 ‘Now athis day will be ba memorial to you, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as can ordinance forever.Ex 12:6; Lev 23:4, 5; 2 Kin 23:21Ex 13:9Ex 12:17, 24; 13:10 15 In the celebration of the Passover in future years, aseven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the 1leaven from your houses because it represents the spread of sin; for whoever eats leavened bread on the first day through the seventh day, bthat person shall be cut off and excluded from the atonement made for Israel.This is the first time leaven is mentioned in the Bible. The Hebrew word (seor) refers specifically to the leavening agent (as opposed to dough containing it), which today is thought of as yeast, a type of fungus. In Jewish thinking, leaven was symbolic of impurity and corruption. As leaven spreads through dough, sin spreads through a population. Jesus used it as a symbol for the corrupt and hypocritical teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees (see especially Luke 12:1; cf Matt 16:11; Mark 8:15), but He also used leaven’s ability to permeate a mass of dough many times its own size as an illustration of the spread of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 13:33; Luke 13:21).Ex 13:6, 7; 23:15; 34:18; Lev 23:6; Num 28:17; Deut 16:3, 8Gen 17:14; Ex 12:19; Num 9:13 16 aOn the first day of the feast you shall have a holy and solemn assembly, and on the seventh day there shall be another holy and solemn assembly; no work of any kind shall be done on those days, except for the preparation of food which every person must eat—only that may be done by you.Lev 23:7, 8; Num 28:18, 25 17 You shall also observe athe Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this bvery day I brought your hosts grouped according to tribal armies out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as can ordinance forever.Deut 16:3-8Ex 12:41Ex 12:14; 13:3, 10 18 aIn the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, and continue until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.Ex 12:2; Lev 23:5-8; Num 28:16-25 19 aSeven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; whoever eats what is leavened bshall be cut off and excluded from the atonement made for the congregation of Israel, whether a stranger or native-born. 1+@Cor 5:6-8Ex 12:15; 23:15; 34:18Num 9:13 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”
21 Then aMoses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and btake a lamb for yourselves according to the size of your families and slaughter cthe Passover lamb.Num 9:4; Heb 11:28Ex 12:3Ex 12:11 22 aYou shall take a bunch of 1hyssop, dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch some of the blood to the lintel above the doorway and to the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.This evidently was a bristly plant which was useful as a kind of brush.Ex 12:7
23 For athe LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel above the entry way and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will bnot allow 1cthe destroyer to come into your houses to slay you.Another translation is “the destruction,” which would make Yahweh (God) Himself, and not an “Angel of the Lord,” the One who either “passes over” (Ex 12:13) or “destroys.”Ex 11:4; 12:12, 13Rev 7:3; 9:41 Cor 10:10; Heb 11:28 24 aYou shall observe this event concerning Passover as an ordinance for you and for your children forever.Ex 12:14, 17; 13:5, 10 25 When you enter the land which the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall keep and observe this service. 26 aWhen your children say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’Ex 10:2; 13:8, 14, 15; Deut 32:7; Josh 4:6; Ps 78:6 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of athe LORD’S Passover, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians, but spared our houses.’” bAnd the people bowed their heads low and worshiped God.Ex 12:11Ex 4:31
28 Then the Israelites went and did as they had been told: just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
29 Now it happened at amidnight that bthe LORD struck every cfirstborn 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 1dungeon, and all the firstborn of the dcattle.Lit house of a cistern. Cisterns, which were underground water reservoirs, were, when dry, sometimes used to confine prisoners.Ex 11:4, 5Num 8:17; 33:4; Ps 135:8; 136:10Ex 4:23; Ps 78:51; 105:36Ex 9:6 30 Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was aa great cry of heartache and sorrow in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not someone dead.Ex 11:6 31 aThen he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Get up, bget out from among my people, both you and the Israelites; and go, serve the LORD, as you said.Ex 8:8Ex 8:25 32 Take both your aflocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and ask your God to bless me also.”Ex 10:9, 26
33 aThe Egyptians anxiously urged the people to leave, to send them out of the land quickly, for they said, “We will all be dead.”Ex 10:7; 11:1; 12:39; Ps 105:38 34 So the people took atheir dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.Ex 12:39
35 aNow the Israelites had acted in accordance with the word of Moses; and they had asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing.Ex 3:21, 22; 11:2, 3; Ps 105:37 36 The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they asked. And so they aplundered the Egyptians of those things.Ex 3:22
37 Now the aIsraelites journeyed from bRameses to Succoth, about csix hundred thousand men on foot, besides the women and the children.Num 33:3, 5Gen 47:11Ex 38:26; Num 1:46; 2:32; 11:21; 26:51 38 A amixed multitude of non-Israelites from foreign nations also went with them, along with both flocks and herds, ba very large number of livestock. Num 11:4; Deut 29:11Num 11:4Ex 17:3; Num 20:19; 32:1; Deut 3:19 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought from Egypt; it was not leavened, since they were adriven quickly from Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any food for themselves.Ex 6:1; 11:1; 12:31-33
40 Now the period of time the children of Israel lived in Egypt was afour hundred and thirty years. Gen 15:13, 14Gen 15:13, 16; Acts 7:6; Gal 3:17 41 At the end of the four hundred and thirty years, ato that very day, ball the hosts of the LORD gathered into tribal armies left the land of Egypt.Ex 12:17Ex 3:8, 10; 6:6
42 aIt is a night of watching to be observed for the LORD for having brought them out of the land of Egypt; this same night is for the LORD, to be observed and celebrated by all the Israelites throughout their generations.Ex 13:10; 34:18; Deut 16:1
43 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of athe Passover: no 1bforeigner is to eat it;I.e. a gentile who had not become a proselyte to Judaism; but see v 48 for an exception.Ex 12:11; Num 9:14Ex 12:48 44 but every man’s aslave who is bought with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.Gen 17:12, 13; Lev 22:11 45 aNo stranger or hired servant shall eat it.Lev 22:10 46 It is to be eaten inside one house; you shall not take any of the meat outside the house, anor shall you break any of its bones. John 19:33, 36Num 9:12; Ps 34:20; John 19:33, 36 47 aThe entire congregation of Israel shall keep and celebrate it.Ex 12:6; Num 9:13, 14 48 If a astranger living temporarily among you wishes to celebrate the Passover to the LORD, all his males must be circumcised, and then he may participate and celebrate it like one that is born in the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.Num 9:14 49 aThe same law shall apply to the native-born and to the stranger who lives temporarily among you.”Lev 24:22; Num 15:15, 16, 29
50 Then all the Israelites did so; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very same day athe LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt bby their hosts .Ex 12:41Ex 6:26