Exodus 12:1-20
Expanded Bible
The First Passover
12 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 “This month will be the beginning of months, the first month [C in terms of both the calendar and its importance] of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole ·community [congregation; assembly] of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must get one lamb for [L each family, a lamb for] ·the people in his house [L each household]. 4 If there are not enough people in his house to eat a whole lamb, he must share it with his closest neighbor, considering the number of people. There must be enough lamb for everyone to eat. 5 The lamb must be a one-year-old male that has ·nothing wrong with it [no blemish]. This animal can be either a young sheep or a young goat. 6 Take care of the animals until the fourteenth day of the month. On that day all the ·people of the community [assembly of the congregation] of Israel will ·kill [slaughter] them ·in the evening before dark [at twilight]. 7 The people must take some of the blood and put it on the ·sides and tops of the doorframes [doorposts and lintels] of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 On this night they must roast the lamb over a fire. They must eat it with bitter herbs and ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread]. 9 Do not eat the lamb raw or boiled in water. Roast the whole lamb over a fire—with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You must not leave any of it until morning, but if any of it is left over until morning, you must burn it with fire.
11 “This is the way you must eat it: ·You must be fully dressed as if you were going on a trip [L With your loins girded]. You must have your sandals on [L your feet] and your walking stick in your hand. You must eat it in a hurry; this is the Lord’s Passover.
12 “That night I will ·go [cross; pass] through the land of Egypt and ·kill [L strike] all the firstborn animals and [L firstborn] people in the land of Egypt. I will also ·punish [judge; have victory over] all the gods of Egypt [C the spiritual forces (demons) who spiritually empower Egypt]. I am the Lord. 13 But the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you [C the verb is related to the Hebrew word for Passover]. ·Nothing terrible will hurt [L No plague will destroy] you when I ·punish [L strike] the land of Egypt.
14 “You are always to remember this day and celebrate it with a feast to the Lord. ·Your descendants are to honor the Lord with this feast from now on [L You are to observe it throughout your generations as a perpetual statute/ordinance/requirement]. 15 For this feast you must eat ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread] for seven days. On the first day, you are to remove all the ·yeast [leaven] from your houses. No one should eat ·any yeast [anything leavened] from the first day until the seventh day, or that person will be cut off from Israel. 16 You are to have ·holy meetings [sacred/solemn convocation] on the first and last days of the feast. You must not do any work on these days; the only work you may do is to prepare your meals. 17 You must ·celebrate [L keep; guard] the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your ·divisions of people [hosts; C a military designation] out of Egypt. So all of your descendants must celebrate this day. This is a ·law that will last from now on [L perpetual statute/ordinance/requirement throughout your generations]. 18 In the first month of the year you are to eat ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread], from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day [C to commemorate their rapid departure; 12:39]. 19 For seven days there must not be any ·yeast [leaven] in your houses. Anybody who eats ·yeast [something leavened] during this time, either an ·Israelite [L native citizen in the land] or ·non-Israelite [L alien; sojourner], must be cut off from the ·community [congregation; assembly] of Israel. 20 During this feast you must not eat anything ·made with yeast [leavened]. You must eat only ·bread made without yeast [unleavened bread] wherever you live.”
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