Exodus 12:21-51

21Then Moses called the leaders of the Israelites to come to him. He said to them, ‘Go immediately and choose a lamb for each of your families. Then kill the animals for the Passover feast.

22Put the blood into a dish. Then take a branch of hyssop. Make it wet with the blood that is in the dish. Then put some of the blood on the wood that is round your door. Nobody must go out of the door of his house until the morning.

23The Lord will pass through the country and he will kill the Egyptians. But when the Lord sees the blood on the wood round the door, he will pass over that house. He will not let the death angel come into your houses. The Lord will not let him kill you.

24You must obey these rules always, both you and your descendants, for all time.

25You will go into the land that the Lord promised to give you. Then you must continue to obey these rules.

26Your children may say to you, “What does this feast mean?”

27Then you must say to them, “It is the Lord's Passover sacrifice. The Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites when they were in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians but he saved our families.” ’ Then the people bent their heads down to the ground and they worshipped God.

28The Israelites did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

29At midnight, the Lord killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt. The firstborn son of Pharaoh, the king, died. But also, the firstborn son of any man who was in prison died. Every firstborn son in Egypt died. All the firstborn animals also died.

30Pharaoh and all his officers woke up in the middle of the night. All the Egyptians also woke up in the middle of the night. Everyone was crying loudly everywhere in Egypt. In every home, somebody had died that night.

31During the night, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to come to him. He said, ‘Get out of here! Take all the Israelites with you and go away from my people! Go and worship the Lord, as you asked me before.

32Take all your animals with you, as you have said. Just go away! But also pray that God will bless me.’

33The Egyptians were telling the Israelites to leave quickly. They wanted them to go out of the country immediately. The Egyptians said, ‘If we do not send them away immediately, we will all die!’

34So the Israelites took their bread before they had cooked it. They had not even put the yeast into it. They put the bread in dishes and they put clothes round the dishes. Then they carried the dishes on their shoulders.

35The Israelites obeyed Moses. They asked the Egyptians for silver and gold. They also asked them for clothes.

36The Lord had caused the Egyptians to be kind to the Israelites. Because of this, the Egyptians gave the Israelites everything that they asked for. In that way, the Israelites took away all the valuable things that belonged to the Egyptians.

37The Israelites travelled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men who walked. There were also many women and children.

38Many other people also travelled with them. They had a very large number of sheep, goats and cows.

39The Israelites cooked the bread that they had brought with them from Egypt. It had no yeast in it, because they had to leave Egypt quickly. The Egyptians did not let them wait. So the Israelites did not have time to prepare any food for themselves.

40The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years.

41It was on the last day of the 430 years that all the Lord's people left Egypt. They left in family groups, like an army.

42The Lord carefully watched his people all that night, when he brought them out of Egypt. Because of that, all Israelites must watch carefully during this special night. They and their descendants must do this every year, to thank the Lord.

43Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘These are the rules for the Passover festival: No foreign person may eat the Passover meal.

44If you buy a foreign slave, you must first circumcise him. Then he may eat the food.

45But if you pay him money for his work, he must not eat the food. A visitor also must not eat the food.

46You must eat the meal in one house. You must not take any of the meat outside the house. You must not break any of the bones in the meat.

47All the Israelites must enjoy the feast together.

48There may be a foreign person who lives among you. He may want to join you to eat the Lord's Passover meal. But he must first be circumcised as well as all the men in his house. Then he can join with you and eat the Passover meal. He will be like a man who has been born in Israel. But no male person without circumcision can join the Passover feast.

49Both the people who were born as Israelites and the foreign people who live among you must obey this rule.’

50All the Israelites did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

51On that same day, the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, in family groups, like an army.