Exodus 12:1-33

1 The LORD spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Mitzrayim, saying,
2 "This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Speak to all the congregation of Yisra'el, saying, 'On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;
4 and if the household be too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Yisra'el shall kill it at evening.
7 They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
8 They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and matzah. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
9 Don't eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.
10 You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
11 This is how you shall eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's Pesach.
12 For I will go through the land of Mitzrayim in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Mitzrayim, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Mitzrayim I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.
13 The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Mitzrayim.
14 This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the LORD: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
15 Seven days shall you eat matzah; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Yisra'el.
16 In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.
17 You shall observe the feast of matzah; for in this same day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Mitzrayim: therefore shall you observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat matzah, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.
19 Seven days shall there be no yeast found in your houses, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra'el, whether he be a sojourner, or one who is born in the land.
20 You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat matzah.'"
21 Then Moshe called for all the Zakenim of Yisra'el, and said to them, "Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Pesach.
22 You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the LORD will pass through to strike the Mitzrim; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.
24 You shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.
25 It shall happen when you have come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.
26 It will happen, when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this service?'
27 that you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Pesach, who passed over the houses of the children of Yisra'el in Mitzrayim, when he struck the Mitzrim, and spared our houses.'" The people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 The children of Yisra'el went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moshe and Aharon, so they did.
29 It happened at midnight, that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Mitzrayim, from the firstborn of Par`oh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
30 Par`oh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Mitzrim; and there was a great cry in Mitzrayim, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
31 He called for Moshe and Aharon by night, and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Yisra'el; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said!
32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!"
33 The Mitzrim were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, "We are all dead men."

Exodus 12:1-33 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.

The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.