The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread^(A)

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month is to be for you the first month,^(B) the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb^[a](C) for his family, one for each household.^{(D) 4} If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,^(E) and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,^(F) when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.^{(G) 7} Then they are to take some of the blood^(H) and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night^(I) they are to eat the meat roasted^(J) over the fire, along with bitter herbs,^(K) and bread made without yeast.^{(L) 9} Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs.^{(M) 10} Do not leave any of it till morning;^(N) if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste;^(O) it is the Lord’s Passover.^(P)

¹² “On that same night I will pass through^(Q) Egypt and strike down^(R) every firstborn^(S) of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods^(T) of Egypt. I am the Lord.^{(U) 13} The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over^(V) you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.^(W)

¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate;^(X) for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.^{(Y) 15} For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast.^(Z) On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off^(AA) from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work^(AB) at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

¹⁷ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^(AC) because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.^(AD) Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.^{(AE) 18} In the first month^(AF) you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner^(AG) or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off^(AH) from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live,^(AI) you must eat unleavened bread.”^(AJ)

The Three Annual Festivals

¹⁴ “Three times^(A) a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

¹⁵ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread;^(B) for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv,^(C) for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.^(D)

¹⁶ “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest^(E) with the firstfruits^(F) of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering^(G) at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.^(H)

¹⁷ “Three times^(I) a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁸ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.^(J)

“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.^(K)

¹⁹ “Bring the best of the firstfruits^(L) of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.^(M)

¹⁸ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread.^(A) For seven days eat bread made without yeast,^(B) as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv,^(C) for in that month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹ “The first offspring^(D) of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. ²⁰ Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck.^(E) Redeem all your firstborn sons.^(F)

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.^(G)

²¹ “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest;^(H) even during the plowing season and harvest^(I) you must rest.

²² “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits^(J) of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering^(K) at the turn of the year.^{[a] 23} Three times^(L) a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel. ²⁴ I will drive out nations^(M) before you and enlarge your territory,^(N) and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord your God.

²⁵ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast,^(O) and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.^(P)

²⁶ “Bring the best of the firstfruits^(Q) of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”^(R)