The Death of the Firstborn

11 Now the Lord had told Moses, “I have one more ·way to punish the king and the people of [^Lplague to bring on Pharaoh and] Egypt. After this, ·the king [^Lhe] will send all of you away from ·Egypt [^Lthis place]. When he does, he will ·force you to leave completely [drive you away]. ² Tell ·the men and women of Israel [^Lin the hearing of the people] ·to ask their neighbors [that each man should ask his neighbor and each woman should ask her neighbor] for things made of silver and gold.” ³ The Lord had caused the Egyptians to ·respect [show favor to] the Israelites, and both ·the king’s [^LPharaoh’s] officers and the Egyptian people considered Moses to be a great man.

⁴ So Moses said to ·the king [^Lhim], “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight tonight I will go through all Egypt. ⁵ Every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die—from the firstborn son of ·the king [^LPharaoh], who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl ·grinding grain [^Lwho is behind the handmill]. Also the firstborn farm animals will die. ⁶ There will be loud outcries everywhere in Egypt, worse than any time before or after this. ⁷ But not even a dog will ·bark [growl] at the ·Israelites [^Lthe sons/^Tchildren of Israel] or their animals.’ Then you will know that the Lord ·treats Israel differently from [makes a distinction between Israel and] Egypt. ⁸ All your officers will come to me. They will bow facedown to the ground before me and say, ‘Leave and take all your people ·with you [who follow you; ^Lwho are on your foot].’ After that, I will leave.” Then Moses very angrily left ·the king [^LPharaoh].

⁹ The Lord had told Moses, “·The king [^LPharaoh] will not listen to ·you and Aaron [^Lyou] so that I may do many ·miracles [wonders] in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these great ·miracles [wonders] in front of ·the king [^LPharaoh]. But the Lord ·made him stubborn [^Lhardened the heart of Pharaoh], and the king would not let the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] leave his country.

The First Passover

12 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ² “This month will be the beginning of months, the first month [^Cin terms of both the calendar and its importance] of the year for you. ³ Tell the whole ·community [congregation; assembly] of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must get one lamb for [^Leach family, a lamb for] ·the people in his house [^Leach household]. ⁴ If there are not enough people in his house to eat a whole lamb, he must share it with his closest neighbor, considering the number of people. There must be enough lamb for everyone to eat. ⁵ The lamb must be a one-year-old male that has ·nothing wrong with it [no blemish]. This animal can be either a young sheep or a young goat. ⁶ Take care of the animals until the fourteenth day of the month. On that day all the ·people of the community [assembly of the congregation] of Israel will ·kill [slaughter] them ·in the evening before dark [at twilight]. ⁷ The people must take some of the blood and put it on the ·sides and tops of the doorframes [doorposts and lintels] of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ On this night they must roast the lamb over a fire. They must eat it with bitter herbs and ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread]. ⁹ Do not eat the lamb raw or boiled in water. Roast the whole lamb over a fire—with its head, legs, and inner organs. ¹⁰ You must not leave any of it until morning, but if any of it is left over until morning, you must burn it with fire.

¹¹ “This is the way you must eat it: ·You must be fully dressed as if you were going on a trip [^LWith your loins girded]. You must have your sandals on [^Lyour feet] and your walking stick in your hand. You must eat it in a hurry; this is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² “That night I will ·go [cross; pass] through the land of Egypt and ·kill [^Lstrike] all the firstborn animals and [^Lfirstborn] people in the land of Egypt. I will also ·punish [judge; have victory over] all the gods of Egypt [^Cthe spiritual forces (demons) who spiritually empower Egypt]. I am the Lord. ¹³ But the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you [^Cthe verb is related to the Hebrew word for Passover]. ·Nothing terrible will hurt [^LNo plague will destroy] you when I ·punish [^Lstrike] the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “You are always to remember this day and celebrate it with a feast to the Lord. ·Your descendants are to honor the Lord with this feast from now on [^LYou are to observe it throughout your generations as a perpetual statute/ordinance/requirement]. ¹⁵ For this feast you must eat ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread] for seven days. On the first day, you are to remove all the ·yeast [leaven] from your houses. No one should eat ·any yeast [anything leavened] from the first day until the seventh day, or that person will be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ You are to have ·holy meetings [sacred/solemn convocation] on the first and last days of the feast. You must not do any work on these days; the only work you may do is to prepare your meals. ¹⁷ You must ·celebrate [^Lkeep; guard] the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your ·divisions of people [hosts; ^Ca military designation] out of Egypt. So all of your descendants must celebrate this day. This is a ·law that will last from now on [^Lperpetual statute/ordinance/requirement throughout your generations]. ¹⁸ In the first month of the year you are to eat ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread], from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day [^Cto commemorate their rapid departure; 12:39]. ¹⁹ For seven days there must not be any ·yeast [leaven] in your houses. Anybody who eats ·yeast [something leavened] during this time, either an ·Israelite [^Lnative citizen in the land] or ·non-Israelite [^Lalien; sojourner], must be cut off from the ·community [congregation; assembly] of Israel. ²⁰ During this feast you must not eat anything ·made with yeast [leavened]. You must eat only ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread] wherever you live.”

²¹ Then Moses called all the elders of Israel together and told them, “·Get the animals [^LGo, select/separate lambs] for your families and ·kill [slaughter] the lamb for the Passover. ²² Take a ·branch of the hyssop plant [^La bunch of hyssop], dip it into the bowl filled with blood, and then ·wipe [smear; ^Ltouch] the blood on the ·sides and tops of the doorframes [doorposts and lintel]. No one may ·leave that [^Lgo out of the door of his] house until morning. ²³ When the Lord ·goes [passes; crosses] through Egypt to ·kill [strike down; ^Lplague] the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the ·sides and tops of the doorframes [doorposts and lintel], and he will ·pass over [12:13] that house. He will not let the ·one who brings death [destroyer] come into your houses and ·kill [strike; plague] you.

²⁴ “You must keep this ·command [word] as a ·law [statute; ordinance; requirement] for you and your ·descendants [sons; children] ·from now on [forever]. ²⁵ ·Do this [^LYou will keep/observe this ritual] when you go to the land the Lord has promised to give you [23:14–15; Lev. 23:5–8; Num. 9:1–14; Deut. 16:1–8; Josh. 5:10–11]. ²⁶ When your ·children [sons] ask you, ‘·Why are we doing these things [^LWhat does this ritual mean]?’ ²⁷ you will say, ‘This is the Passover sacrifice to honor the Lord. When we were in Egypt, the Lord passed over the houses of ·Israel [^Lthe sons/^Tchildren of Israel], and when he ·killed [struck down; plagued] the Egyptians, he ·saved [rescued; delivered] our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped the Lord. ²⁸ They did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹ At midnight the Lord ·killed [struck] all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt—from the firstborn of ·the king [^LPharaoh] who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in ·jail [dungeon; ^Lpit]. Also, all the firstborn farm animals died. ³⁰ ·The king [^LPharaoh], his officers, and all the Egyptians got up during the night because someone had died in every house. So there was a loud outcry everywhere in Egypt.