Exodus 12:1-28

The Passover

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2 1"This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb 2according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.
4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be 3without 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 4fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.[a]
7 "Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the 5two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with 6unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but 7roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.
10 And 8you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
11 In this manner you shall eat it: with 9your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. 10It is the LORD's Passover.
12 For 11I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on 12all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: 13I am the LORD.
13 14The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 "This day shall be 15for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a 16statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
15 17Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, 18that person shall be cut off from Israel.
16 On the first day you shall hold a 19holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you.
17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for 20on this very day I brought your 21hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever.
18 22In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
19 23For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, 24that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, 25whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.
20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread."
21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and select lambs for yourselves 26according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.
22 Take a bunch of 27hyssop and 28dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch 29the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. 30None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23 31For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on 32the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and 33will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever.
25 And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, 34as he has promised, you shall keep this service.
26 And 35when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?'
27 you shall say, 36'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people 37bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Cross References 37

  • 1. Exodus 13:4; Exodus 23:15; Exodus 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1
  • 2. ver. 21
  • 3. Leviticus 22:19-21; Deuteronomy 17:1; Malachi 1:8, 14; Hebrews 9:14
  • 4. ver. 18; Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 9:3; Numbers 28:16; Joshua 5:10; Ezra 6:19
  • 5. ver. 22
  • 6. Exodus 23:18; Exodus 34:25; Numbers 9:11; Deuteronomy 16:3; 1 Corinthians 5:8
  • 7. Deuteronomy 16:7; 2 Chronicles 35:13
  • 8. Exodus 23:18; Exodus 29:34; Exodus 34:25; Deuteronomy 16:4; [Leviticus 7:15]
  • 9. [Luke 12:35; Ephesians 6:14; 1 Peter 1:13]
  • 10. ver. 27; Leviticus 23:5; Deuteronomy 16:5; [1 Corinthians 5:7]
  • 11. ver. 23; Exodus 11:4, 5
  • 12. Numbers 33:4
  • 13. Exodus 6:2; Isaiah 43:11
  • 14. [Hebrews 11:28]
  • 15. Exodus 13:9
  • 16. ver. 17, 24, 43; Exodus 13:10; 2 Kings 23:21
  • 17. Exodus 13:6, 7; Exodus 23:15; Exodus 34:18, 25; Leviticus 23:6; Numbers 28:17; Deuteronomy 16:3, 8; [1 Corinthians 5:7, 8]
  • 18. [Genesis 17:14; Numbers 9:13]
  • 19. Leviticus 23:7, 8; Numbers 28:18, 25
  • 20. Exodus 13:3
  • 21. ver. 51; Exodus 7:4
  • 22. Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 28:16
  • 23. ver. 15
  • 24. ver. 15
  • 25. ver. 48, 49
  • 26. ver. 3
  • 27. Leviticus 14:6; Numbers 19:18; Psalms 51:7; Hebrews 9:19
  • 28. Hebrews 11:28
  • 29. ver. 7
  • 30. [Isaiah 26:20]
  • 31. ver. 12, 13
  • 32. [See ver. 22 above]
  • 33. Hebrews 11:28; [Ezekiel 9:6; Revelation 7:3; Revelation 9:4]
  • 34. Exodus 3:8, 17
  • 35. Exodus 13:8, 14; Deuteronomy 6:20; Deuteronomy 32:7; Joshua 4:6, 21; Psalms 78:3-6
  • 36. ver. 11, 21
  • 37. Exodus 4:31

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Hebrew between the two evenings
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.