The Passover

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 ^f“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 ^gaccording 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 ^hwithout 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 ⁱfourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.¹

7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the ^jtwo 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 ^kunleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^lroasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And ^myou 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 ⁿyour belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. ^oIt is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For ^pI 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 ^qall the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: ^rI am the Lord. 13 ^sThe 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 ^tfor you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a ^ustatute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 ^vSeven 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, ^wthat person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a ^xholy 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 ^yon this very day I brought your ^zhosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 ^aIn 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 ^bFor seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, ^bthat person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, ^cwhether 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.”

Institution of the Passover

43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, 44 but every slave¹ that is ^fbought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. 45 ^gNo foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. 46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and ^hyou shall not break any of its bones. 47 ⁱAll the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 ^jIf a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he ^kshall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be ^lone law for the native and for the ^jstranger who sojourns among you.”

50 All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the ^mLord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their ⁿhosts.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

3 Then Moses said to the people, ^p“Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ^qfor by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. ^rNo leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of ^sAbib, you are going out. 5 And when the Lord brings you into ^tthe land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which ^uhe swore to your fathers to give you, a land ^vflowing with milk and honey, ^wyou shall keep this service in this month. 6 ^xSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. 7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. 8 ^yYou shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 And it shall ^zbe to you as a sign on your hand and as ^aa memorial ^zbetween your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. 10 ^bYou shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.