Exodus 12 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 The Lord told Moses and Aaron while they were still in Egypt,
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2 “This month will be for you the first month, the first month of your year.
2 “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Tell all the Israelites that on the tenth day of this month, every man must choose a lamb for his family, one for each household.
3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household;
4 However, if the household is too small for a whole lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor may choose a lamb according to the total number of people. Divide up the lamb depending on what everybody can eat.
4 and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls. You shall make your count for the lamb according to what everyone can eat.
5 Your lamb must be a year-old male without any defects, and you can take it either from the sheep or the goats.
5 Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.
6 Keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the Israelites will slaughter the animals after sunset and before it gets dark.
6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.
7 They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they have the meal.
7 They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
8 They are to roast the meat over a fire and eat it that night, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
8 They shall eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
9 You are not to eat the meat raw or boiled in water. All of it must be roasted over a fire, including the head, legs, and its insides.
9 Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.
10 Make sure nothing is left until the morning. If there is anything left over, burn it by morning.
10 You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
11 This is how you are to eat the meal. You should be dressed ready to travel, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. You are to eat quickly—it is the Lord's Passover.
11 This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.
12 That very night I will go all through Egypt and kill every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring condemnation on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh.
13 The blood on the houses where you live will mark them out. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No deathly plague will fall on you to destroy you when I attack Egypt.
13 The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 This will be a day to remember for you. You are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord for generations to come. You will observe this for all time to come.
14 This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh. You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.
15 For seven days you must eat only bread made without yeast. On the first day you are to get rid of the yeast from your houses. Anyone who eats anything with yeast from the first day to the seventh day must be excluded from the Israelite community.
15 “‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 On both the first day and on the seventh day you are to have a holy meeting. You must not work on those days, except to prepare food. That is all you are allowed to do.
16 In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, only that may be done by you.
17 You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I led your tribes by their respective divisions out of Egypt. You are to observe this day for all time to come.
17 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.
18 In the first month you are to eat bread without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.
19 For seven days there must be no yeast in your houses. If anyone eats something with yeast in it, then they must be excluded from the Israelite community, whether they are a foreigner or a native of the land.
19 There shall be no yeast found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner, or one who is born in the land.
20 You must not eat anything with yeast in it. Eat only bread without yeast in all your homes.”
20 You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.’”
21 Then Moses called together all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go immediately and choose a lamb for each of your families, and kill the Passover lamb.
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, “Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover.
22 Get a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you are to go out through door of the house until morning.
22 You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23 When the Lord passes through to punish the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. He will pass over the door, and he will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and kill you.
23 For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.
24 You and your descendants are to remember to observe these instructions for all time to come.
24 You shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.
25 When you enter the land that the Lord promised to give you, you are to observe this ceremony.
25 It shall happen when you have come to the land which Yahweh will give you, as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.
26 When your children come and ask you, ‘Why is this ceremony important to you?’
26 It will happen, when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’
27 you are to tell them, ‘This is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord. He was the one who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he killed the Egyptians but spared our households.’” The people bowed down in worship.
27 that you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.’” The people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 Then the Israelites went and did just as the Lord had told Moses and Aaron.
28 The children of Israel went and did so; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
29 At midnight the Lord killed every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the jail, and also all the firstborn of the livestock.
29 At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from 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 livestock.
30 Pharaoh got up during the night, as well as all his officials and all the Egyptians. There were loud cries of agony throughout Egypt, because there wasn't a single house where someone hadn't died.
30 Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
31 Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night and told them, “Get out of here! Leave my people, the two of you and the Israelites! Go, so you can worship the Lord as you have asked.
31 He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said!
32 Take your flocks and herds as well, just like you've said, and leave! Oh, and bless me too.”
32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!”
33 The Egyptians urged the Israelites to leave their country as quickly as possible, saying, “Otherwise we'll all die!”
33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We are all dead men.”
34 So the Israelites picked up their dough before it had risen, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.
34 The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.
35 In addition, the Israelites did what Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for objects of silver and gold, and for clothing.
35 The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing.
36 The Lord had made the Egyptians look so favorably on the Israelites that they agreed to their request. In this way they took the wealth of the Egyptians.
36 Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites set out on foot from Rameses for Succoth and numbered about 600,000 men, as well as women and children.
37 The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, in addition to children.
38 In addition many foreigners joined them. They also took with them large herds and flocks of livestock.
38 A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and even very much livestock.
39 Since their bread dough didn't have any yeast, the Israelites baked what they had brought out of Egypt into loaves without yeast. This was because when they were driven out of Egypt they had to leave in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare food for themselves.
39 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt; for it wasn’t leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn’t wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves.
40 The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years.
40 Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.
41 On the very day the 430 years ended, all the tribes of the Lord by their respective divisions left Egypt.
41 At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day, all of Yahweh’s armies went out from the land of Egypt.
42 Because the Lord kept watch that night to lead them out of the land of Egypt, this same night you are to keep watch as an observance to honor the Lord, and this to be kept by all Israelites for generations to come.
42 It is a night to be much observed to Yahweh for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of Yahweh, to be much observed by all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
43 The Lord told Moses and Aaron, “This is the Passover ceremony. No foreigner is allowed to eat it.
43 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it,
44 But any slave who has been bought can eat it once you have circumcised him.
44 but every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.
45 Foreign visitors or those hired from other nations shall not eat the Passover.
45 A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.
46 It has to be eaten inside the house. You are not allowed to take any of the meat outside the house, or to break any of the bones.
46 It must be eaten in one house. You shall not carry any of the meat outside of the house. Do not break any of its bones.
47 All Israelites are to celebrate it.
47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48 If there's a foreigner who lives with you and wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover, all the males in their household have to be circumcised. Then he may come and celebrate it, and he shall be treated like a native of the land. But no man who is not circumcised may eat it.
48 When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, and would like to keep the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. He shall be as one who is born in the land; but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
49 The same rule applies to both the native and the foreigner who lives among you.”
49 One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you.”
50 Then all the Israelites followed these instructions. They did exactly what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
50 All the children of Israel did so. As Yahweh commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
51 That very day the Lord led the Israelite tribes out of Egypt by their respective tribal divisions.
51 That same day, Yahweh brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Aaron
Moses' brother and spokesman, Israel's first high priest.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 4–40; Leviticus 8–10
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (48)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 2 Exodus 13:4; Deuteronomy 16:1; Exodus 34:18; Exodus 23:15; Leviticus 23:5
- 3 Leviticus 1:2; Leviticus 5:6; John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Exodus 4:30
- 5 Hebrews 9:13–14; 1 Peter 1:18–19; Malachi 1:14; Malachi 1:7–8; Deuteronomy 17:1
- 6 Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 28:16; 2 Chronicles 30:15–18; Numbers 9:11; Exodus 12:18
- 7 Hebrews 11:28; Exodus 12:22–23; Hebrews 9:22; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 10:14
- 8 Exodus 34:25; Deuteronomy 16:7; Deuteronomy 16:3–4; 1 Corinthians 5:6–8; John 6:52–57
- 9 Exodus 12:8; Deuteronomy 16:7; Lamentations 1:13
- 10 Exodus 23:18; Exodus 34:25; Leviticus 22:30; Exodus 29:34; Deuteronomy 16:4–5
- 11 Exodus 12:27; Ephesians 6:15; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Leviticus 23:5
- 12 Numbers 33:4; Psalm 82:6; Exodus 12:23; Zephaniah 2:11; Psalm 82:1
- 13 Hebrews 11:28; Exodus 12:23; 1 John 1:7; Genesis 17:11; Joshua 2:12
- 14 2 Kings 23:21; Exodus 12:17; Exodus 12:24; Exodus 13:9–10; 1 Corinthians 5:7–8
- 15 Genesis 17:14; Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 34:18; Exodus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:8
- 16 Numbers 28:18; Leviticus 23:7–8; Numbers 28:25; Exodus 16:23; Exodus 35:2–3
- 17 Exodus 13:3; Exodus 7:5; Exodus 13:8; Exodus 12:41; Numbers 20:16
- 18 Exodus 12:15; Leviticus 23:5–8; Numbers 28:16–25; Exodus 12:1–2
- 19 Exodus 12:15; Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 23:15; Exodus 12:48; Exodus 34:18
- 21 Exodus 12:3; 2 Kings 23:21; Mark 14:12–16; Joshua 5:10; Ezra 6:20
- 22 Hebrews 11:28; Psalm 51:7; Exodus 12:7; Numbers 19:18; Hebrews 9:14
- 23 Revelation 7:3; Revelation 9:4; Hebrews 11:28; Exodus 12:12–13; 1 Corinthians 10:10
- 24 Exodus 12:14; Genesis 17:8–10
- 25 Exodus 3:17; Exodus 3:8; Psalm 105:44–45; Deuteronomy 4:5; Deuteronomy 12:8–9
- 26 Exodus 13:14–15; Deuteronomy 32:7; Psalm 145:4; Psalm 78:3–6; Joshua 4:21–24
- 27 Exodus 4:31; Exodus 12:11; Exodus 12:23; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Chronicles 29:20
- 28 Hebrews 11:28
- 29 Psalm 78:51; Exodus 4:23; Psalm 105:36; Psalm 135:8; Psalm 136:10
- 30 Exodus 11:6; Amos 5:17; James 2:13; Matthew 25:6; Proverbs 21:13
- 31 Exodus 6:1; Exodus 10:9; Exodus 3:19–20; Exodus 8:8; Psalm 105:38
- 32 Exodus 10:26; Genesis 27:34; Genesis 27:38; Exodus 10:9; Exodus 9:28
- 33 Psalm 105:38; Exodus 11:1; Genesis 20:3; Numbers 17:12–13
- 34 Exodus 8:3
- 35 Exodus 3:21–22; Exodus 11:2–3; Psalm 105:37; Genesis 15:14
- 36 Genesis 15:14; Acts 7:10; Exodus 11:3; Exodus 3:21–22; Psalm 105:37
- 37 Numbers 1:46; Exodus 38:26; Numbers 33:5; Numbers 33:3; Numbers 11:21
- 38 Numbers 11:4; Zechariah 8:23
- 39 Exodus 6:1; Exodus 11:1; Exodus 12:31–33
- 40 Genesis 15:13; Acts 7:6; Acts 13:17; Genesis 12:1–3; Galatians 3:16–17
- 41 Habakkuk 2:3; John 7:8; Exodus 7:4; Acts 1:7; Joshua 5:14
- 42 Exodus 12:14; Deuteronomy 16:1–6; Exodus 13:10
- 43 Exodus 12:48; Numbers 9:14; Exodus 12:11; Leviticus 22:10; Ephesians 2:12
- 44 Genesis 17:12–13; Genesis 17:23
- 45 Leviticus 22:10; Ephesians 2:12
- 46 John 19:36; Numbers 9:12; John 19:33; Ephesians 2:19–22; Psalm 34:20
- 47 Exodus 12:6; Numbers 9:13; Exodus 12:3
- 48 Numbers 9:14; Colossians 3:11; Numbers 15:15–16; Galatians 3:28; Ezekiel 47:22
- 49 Numbers 15:15–16; Numbers 15:29; Numbers 9:14; Leviticus 24:22; Galatians 3:28
- 50 Matthew 7:24–25; Exodus 6:26; Matthew 28:20; John 15:14; Exodus 7:4
- 51 Exodus 12:41; Exodus 6:26
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… fact that from one man, Abraham, in not much more than four hundred years, the numbers of the Hebrew race so increased, that in the exodus of that people from Egypt there are recorded to have been six hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms, and this over and above the Idumæans, who, though not numbered with Israel's descendants, were …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… for the aliens' sake, to increase the number of the proselytes; and for manifestation of God's power, if haply their enemies having taken them captives, fancied they prevailed, because their own gods were mighty: like as in Egypt, out of which no small "mixed multitude" went up; and, after that, in Babylon, what befell touching the furnace and the dreams.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Let them remember, then, that those who celebrated the passover at that time in type and shadow, when they were ordered to mark their door-posts with the blood of the lamb, used hyssop to mark them with. Now this is a meek and lowly herb, and yet nothing is stronger and more penetrating than its roots; that being rooted and …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… He Himself, in the very act of giving the law of the Sabbath, did even therein darkly signify that He will have them refrain from the evil works only, by the saying, "Ye must do no work, except what shall be done for your life." And in the temple too all went on, and with more diligence and double toil.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… a sheep to the slaughter, that by His blood sprinkled on our doorposts, that is, by the sign of His cross marked on our foreheads, we may be delivered from the perdition awaiting this world, as Israel from the bondage and destruction of the Egyptians; and a most salutary transit we make when we pass over from the devil to …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)