1The Lord told Moses and Aaron while they were still in Egypt,

2“This month will be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

3Tell all the Israelites that on the tenth day of this month, every man must choose a lamb ²⁶for his family, one for each household.

4However, if the household is too small for a whole lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor may choose a lamb according to the total number of people. Divide up the lamb depending on what everybody can eat.

5Your lamb must be a year-old male without any defects, and you can take it either from the sheep or the goats.

6Keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the Israelites will slaughter the animals after sunset and before it gets dark.

7They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they have the meal.

8They are to roast the meat over a fire and eat it that night, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

9You are not to eat the meat raw or boiled in water. All of it must be roasted over a fire, including the head, legs, and its insides.

10Make sure nothing is left until the morning. If there is anything left over, burn it by morning.

11This is how you are to eat the meal. You should be dressed ready to travel, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. You are to eat quickly—it is the Lord's Passover.

12That very night I will go all through Egypt and kill every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring condemnation on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.

13The blood on the houses where you live will mark them out. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No deathly plague will fall on you to destroy you when I attack Egypt.

14This will be a day to remember for you. You are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord for generations to come. You will observe this for all time to come.

15For seven days you must eat only bread made without yeast. On the first day you are to get rid of the yeast from your houses. Anyone who eats anything with yeast from the first day to the seventh day must be excluded from the Israelite community.

16On both the first day and on the seventh day you are to have a holy meeting. You must not work on those days, except to prepare food. That is all you are allowed to do.

17You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I led your tribes by their respective divisions out of Egypt. You are to observe this day for all time to come.

18In the first month you are to eat bread without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.

19For seven days there must be no yeast in your houses. If anyone eats something with yeast in it, then they must be excluded from the Israelite community, whether they are a foreigner or a native of the land.

20You must not eat anything with yeast in it. Eat only bread without yeast in all your homes.”

21Then Moses called together all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go immediately and choose a lamb for each of your families, and kill the Passover lamb.

22Get a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you are to go out through door of the house until morning.

23When the Lord passes through to punish the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. He will pass over the door, and he will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and kill you.

24You and your descendants are to remember to observe these instructions for all time to come.

25When you enter the land that the Lord promised to give you, you are to observe this ceremony.

26When your children come and ask you, ‘Why is this ceremony important to you?’

27you are to tell them, ‘This is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord. He was the one who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he killed the Egyptians but spared our households.’” The people bowed down in worship.

28Then the Israelites went and did just as the Lord had told Moses and Aaron.

29At midnight the Lord killed every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the jail, and also all the firstborn of the livestock.

30Pharaoh got up during the night, as well as all his officials and all the Egyptians. There were loud cries of agony throughout Egypt, because there wasn't a single house where someone hadn't died.

31Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night and told them, “Get out of here! Leave my people, the two of you and the Israelites! Go, so you can worship the Lord as you have asked.

32Take your flocks and herds as well, just like you've said, and leave! Oh, and bless me too.”

33The Egyptians urged the Israelites to leave their country as quickly as possible, saying, “Otherwise we'll all die!”

34So the Israelites picked up their dough before it had risen, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.

35In addition, the Israelites did what Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for objects of silver and gold, and for clothing.

36The Lord had made the Egyptians look so favorably on the Israelites that they agreed to their request. In this way they took the wealth ²⁷of the Egyptians.

37The Israelites set out on foot from Rameses for Succoth and numbered about 600,000 men, as well as women and children. ²⁸

38In addition many foreigners joined them. They also took with them large herds and flocks of livestock.

39Since their bread dough didn't have any yeast, the Israelites baked what they had brought out of Egypt into loaves without yeast. This was because when they were driven out of Egypt they had to leave in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare food for themselves.

40The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years.

41On the very day the 430 years ended, all the tribes of the Lord by their respective divisions left Egypt.

42Because the Lord kept watch that night to lead them out of the land of Egypt, this same night you are to keep watch as an observance to honor the Lord, and this to be kept by all Israelites for generations to come.

43The Lord told Moses and Aaron, “This is the Passover ceremony. No foreigner is allowed to eat it.

44But any slave who has been bought can eat it once you have circumcised him.

45Foreign visitors or those hired from other nations shall not eat the Passover.

46It has to be eaten inside the house. You are not allowed to take any of the meat outside the house, or to break any of the bones.

47All Israelites are to celebrate it.

48If there's a foreigner who lives with you and wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover, all the males in their household have to be circumcised. Then he may come and celebrate it, and he shall be treated like a native of the land. But no man who is not circumcised may eat it.

49The same rule applies to both the native and the foreigner who lives among you.”

50Then all the Israelites followed these instructions. They did exactly what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

51That very day the Lord led the Israelite tribes out of Egypt by their respective tribal divisions.