Exodus 11:1-12:20

New Life Version

The First-Born Die

11 The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring trouble upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt one more time. After that he will let you go. He will not only let you go, but he will make you leave. ² Tell the people that each man should ask his neighbor and each woman ask her neighbor for things made of silver and gold.” ³ Then the Lord gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. And the man Moses was respected in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and the people.

⁴ Moses said, “The Lord says this: ‘About midnight I will go through Egypt. ⁵ And all the first-born in the land of Egypt will die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the first-born of the servant girl grinding the grain, and even the first-born of the cattle. ⁶ There will be loud crying in all the land of Egypt, more than has ever been heard before or will ever be heard again. ⁷ Not even a dog will make a sound against those of Israel, man or animal, so you may know that the Lord divides Egypt from Israel.’ ⁸ All these who are your servants will come to me and bow in front of me. They will say, ‘Go away, you and all the people who follow you.’ After that I will go.” And he went away from Pharaoh very angry. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you. So I will do more powerful works in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron did all these great works in front of Pharaoh. But the Lord made Pharaoh’s heart hard. He did not let the people of Israel leave his land.

The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This month will be the beginning of months. It will be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to the people of Israel when they are gathered together. Tell them that on the tenth day of this month, every man must take a lamb for those of his father’s house, a lamb for each house. ⁴ If those in the house are too few to eat a lamb, let him and his nearest neighbor take the right amount for the number of people. Divide the lamb by how much each can eat. ⁵ Your lamb must be perfect, a male lamb one year old. You may take it from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then all the people of Israel are to kill it in the evening. ⁷ Then they must take some of the blood and put it on the wood pieces at the sides and top of the door of each house where they will eat it. ⁸ They must eat the meat that same night, made ready over a fire. They will eat it with bread made without yeast and with bitter plants. ⁹ Do not eat any of it if it is not cooked or if it is made ready by boiling. But cook it over a fire, its head, legs and inside parts. ¹⁰ Do not save any of it until morning. Burn with fire whatever is left of it before morning.

¹¹ “Eat it with your shoes on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. And you must eat it in a hurry. It is the time the Lord will pass over. ¹² For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night. And I will kill all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will punish all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ But the blood will mark for you the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you. And no trouble will come upon you to destroy you when I punish the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day will be for you to remember. You must remember it by having a special supper in honor to the Lord. All of you must keep it as a law forever. ¹⁵ Seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day you must get all the yeast out of your houses. Whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day will be taken away from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day you must have a holy meeting of the people, and another holy meeting on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to get ready what every person must eat. You may do only that. ¹⁷ You must have the special supper of bread without yeast. For on this same day I brought your family groups out of the land of Egypt. So all of you must remember this day as a law forever.

¹⁸ “In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you must eat bread made without yeast. ¹⁹ There must be no yeast found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats anything with yeast, that person, stranger or born in the land, will be cut off from the people of Israel. ²⁰ Do not eat anything with yeast. You must eat bread made without yeast in all your homes.”