² “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.^{(A) 3} Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ households, one animal per household. ⁴ If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each person^[a] will eat. ⁵ You must have an unblemished^(B) animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. ⁶ You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.^{(C) 7} They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. ⁸ They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.^{(D) 9} Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling^[b] water, but only roasted^(E) over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. ¹⁰ Do not let any of it remain until morning;^(F) you must burn up any part of it that does remain before morning. ¹¹ Here is how you must eat it: you must be dressed for travel,^[c] your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.^(G)

¹² “I will pass through^(H) the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.^{(I) 13} The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.^{(J) 15} You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast^(K) from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off^(L) from Israel. ¹⁶ You are to hold a sacred assembly^(M) on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat—you may do only that.

¹⁷ “You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt.^(N) You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. ¹⁸ You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month,^(O) from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreign resident or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”^[d]

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.^{(P) 22} Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood^(Q) that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³ When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, He will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.^(R)

²⁴ “Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you are to observe this ritual. ²⁶ When your children^(S) ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ ²⁷ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice^(T) to the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” So the people bowed down and worshiped.

⁴ “These are the Lord’s appointed times, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times. ⁵ The Passover^(A) to the Lord comes in the first month, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month. ⁶ The Festival of Unleavened Bread^(B) to the Lord is on the fifteenth day of the same month. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. ⁷ On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any daily work. ⁸ You are to present a fire offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a sacred assembly; you must not do any daily work.”

Offerings for Passover

¹⁶ “The Passover^(A) to the Lord comes in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month. ¹⁷ On the fifteenth day of this month there will be a festival; unleavened bread is to be eaten for seven days. ¹⁸ On the first day there is to be a sacred assembly; you are not to do any daily work.^{(B) 19} Present a fire offering, a burnt offering to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old. Your animals are to be unblemished. ²⁰ The grain offering with them is to be of fine flour mixed with oil; offer six quarts^[a] with each bull and four quarts^[b] with the ram. ²¹ Offer two quarts^[c] with each of the seven lambs ²² and one male goat for a sin offering to make atonement for yourselves. ²³ Offer these with the morning burnt offering that is part of the regular burnt offering. ²⁴ You are to offer the same food each day for seven days as a fire offering,^(C) a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It is to be offered with its drink offering and the regular burnt offering. ²⁵ On the seventh day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any daily work.

The Festival of Passover

16 “Observe the month of Abib^[a](A) and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, because the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night in the month of Abib. ² Sacrifice to Yahweh your God a Passover animal from the herd or flock in the place where the Lord chooses to have His name dwell.^{(B) 3} You must not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of hardship—because you left the land of Egypt in a hurry—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt. ⁴ No yeast is to be found anywhere in your territory for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day is to remain until morning. ⁵ You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns the Lord your God is giving you. ⁶ You must only sacrifice the Passover animal at the place where Yahweh your God chooses to have His name dwell. Do this in the evening as the sun sets at the same time of day you departed from Egypt. ⁷ You are to cook and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses, and you are to return to your tents in the morning. ⁸ You must eat unleavened bread for six days. On the seventh day there is to be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God, and you must not do any work.