Exo 11-12 | ESV | STEP | The Lord said to Moses , Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt . Afterward he will let you go from here . When he lets you go , he will drive you away completely .

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Yet ^aone plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. ^bWhen he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. 2 Speak now in the hearing of the people, that ^cthey ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” 3 ^dAnd the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

4 So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ^e‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is ^fbehind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 ^gThere shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. 7 But not a dog shall growl ^hagainst any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord ⁱmakes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ 8 And ^jall these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, ^k“Pharaoh will not listen to you, that ^lmy wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

10 Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord ^mhardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

Exodus 12

The Passover

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 ⁿ“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 ^oaccording 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 ^pwithout 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 ^qfourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. ^{▼▼Hebrew between the two evenings}

7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the ^stwo 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 ^tunleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but ^uroasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And ^vyou 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 ^wyour belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. ^xIt is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For ^yI 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 ^zall the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: ^aaI am the Lord. 13 ^abThe 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.

14 “This day shall be ^acfor you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a ^adstatute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 ^aeSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, ^afthat person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a ^agholy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for ^ahon this very day I brought your ^aihosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 ^ajIn the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 ^akFor seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, ^althat person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, ^amwhether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves ^anaccording to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of ^aohyssop and ^apdip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch ^aqthe lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. ^arNone of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 ^asFor the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on ^atthe lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and ^auwill 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, ^avas he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And ^awwhen your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ^ax‘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 ^aybowed 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.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

29 ^azAt midnight the ^baLord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, ^bbfrom the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was ^bca great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, ^bdboth you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 32 ^beTake your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

The Exodus

33 ^bfThe Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had ^bgasked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 ^bhAnd the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that ^bithey let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

37 And the ^bjpeople of Israel journeyed from ^bkRameses to Succoth, ^blabout six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 A ^bmmixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because ^bnthey were thrust out of Egypt and ^bocould not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

40 The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of ^bp430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a ^bqnight of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

Institution of the Passover

43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, 44 but every slave ^{▼▼Or servant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles (see Preface)} that is ^bsbought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. 45 ^btNo foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. 46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and ^buyou shall not break any of its bones. 47 ^bvAll the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 ^bwIf a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he ^bxshall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be ^byone law for the native and for the ^bzstranger who sojourns among you.”

50 All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the ^caLord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their ^cbhosts.