Exodus 12:1-28

Instructions for the Passover

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

2 "This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.

3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to [their] fathers' households, one animal per household.

4 If the household is too small for a [whole] animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each person^[a] will eat.

5 You must have an unblemished animal, 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; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

7 They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them.

8 They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread^[b] and bitter herbs.

9 Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling^[c] water, but only roasted over fire-its head as well as its legs and inner organs.

10 Do not let any of it remain until morning; you must burn up any part of it that does remain until morning.

11 Here is how you must eat it: dressed for travel,^[d] your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord's Passover.

12 "I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn [male] in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.

13 The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy [you] when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 "This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

15 You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through 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 may be done on those [days] except for preparing what people need to eat-you may do only that.

17 "You are to observe the [Festival of] Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

18 You are to eat unleavened bread in the first [month], from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day.

19 Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreign resident^[e] or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel.

20 Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes."^[f]

21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb.

22 Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning.

23 When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, He will pass over the door and not let the destroyer^[g] enter your houses to strike [you].

24 "Keep this command permanently as a statute 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 ritual.

26 When your children ask you, 'What does this ritual 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 the Egyptians and spared our homes.' " So the people bowed down and worshiped.

28 Then the Israelites went and did [this]; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

Exodus 12:1-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 12

This chapter begins with observing, that the month in which the above wonders were wrought in Egypt, and the following ordinance appointed to the Israelites, should hereafter be reckoned the first month in the year, Ex 12:1,2 on the tenth day of which a lamb here described was to be taken and kept till the fourteenth, and then slain, and its blood sprinkled on the posts of the houses of the Israelites, Ex 12:3-7, the manner of dressing and eating it is shown, Ex 12:8-11 and the reason of the institution of this ordinance being given, Ex 12:12-14, and an order to eat unleavened bread during seven days, in which the feast was to be kept, Ex 12:15-20, directions are also given for the immediate observance of it, and particularly about the sprinkling of the blood of the lamb, and the use of it, Ex 12:21-23, and this ordinance, which they were to instruct their children in, was to be kept by them in succeeding ages for ever, Ex 12:24-27 about the middle of the night it was first observed, all the firstborn in Egypt were slain, which made the Egyptians urgent upon the Israelites to depart in haste, Ex 12:28-33 and which they did with their unleavened dough, and with great riches they had borrowed of the Egyptians, Ex 12:34-36, the number of the children of Israel at the time of their departure, the mixed multitude and cattle that went with them, their baking their unleavened cakes, the time of their sojourning in Egypt, and of their coming out of it that night, which made it a remarkable one, are all particularly taken notice of, Ex 12:37-42, laws and rules are given concerning the persons that should partake of the passover, Ex 12:43-49 and the chapter is concluded with observing, that it was kept according to the command of God, and that it was on the same day it was first instituted and kept that Israel were brought out of Egypt, Ex 12:50,51.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or household
• [b]. Dt 16:3
• [c]. Or or boiled at all in
• [d]. Lit it: with your loins girded
• [e]. Ex 12:48; Nm 9:14
• [f]. Or settlements
• [g]. 2 Sm 24:15-17; 2 Kg 19:35