The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ^2 (A)“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 ^(B)according 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 ^(C)without 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 ^(D)fourteenth 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 ^(E)two 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 ^(F)unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^(G)roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. ¹⁰ And ^(H)you 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 ^(I)your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. ^(J)It is the Lord's Passover. ¹² For ^(K)I 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 ^(L)all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: ^(M)I am the Lord. ^13 (N)The 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.

²¹ Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves ^(A)according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. ²² Take a bunch of ^(B)hyssop and ^(C)dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch ^(D)the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. ^(E)None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. ^23 (F)For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on ^(G)the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^(H)will 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, ^(I)as he has promised, you shall keep this service. ²⁶ And ^(J)when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷ you shall say, ^(K)‘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 ^(L)bowed 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.