Exodus 12 · Parashat Bo

And the Lord spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Miżrayim, saying,

This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Speak to all the congregation of Yisra᾽el, saying, On the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house:

and if the household be too little for a lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the souls; according to every man’s eating shall you make your count for the lamb.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:

and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Yisra᾽el shall kill it towards evening.

And they shall take the blood, and put it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, in which they shall eat it.

And they shall eat the meat in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all in water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs, and with its entrails.

And you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.

And thus shall you eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s passover.

For I will pass through the land of Miżrayim this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Miżrayim, both man and beast: and against all the gods of Miżrayim I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.

And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Miżrayim.

And this day shall be to you for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations shall you keep it a feast by ordinance for ever.

Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; but on the first day you shall have put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Yisra᾽el.

And on the first day there shall be a holy gathering, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy gathering to you; no manner of work shall be done on them, save that which every person must eat, that only may be done by you.

And you shall observe the commandment of unleavened bread; for on this very day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Miżrayim: therefore shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, shall you eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.

Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whoever eats that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra᾽el, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall you eat unleavened bread.

Then Moshe called for all the elders of Yisra᾽el, and said to them, Draw out and take you lambs according to your families, and kill the passover.

And take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch with it the lintel and the two side posts, with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.

For the Lord will pass through to smite Miżrayim; and when he sees the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.

And you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.

And it shall come to pass, when you shall come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.

And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean you by this service?

that you shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Yisra᾽el in Miżrayim, when he smote Miżrayim, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.

And the children of Yisra᾽el went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moshe and Aharon, so they did.

And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Miżrayim, from the firstborn of Par῾o that sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

And Par῾o rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all Miżrayim; and there was a great cry in Miżrayim; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

And he called for Moshe and Aharon by night, and said, Rise up, and get you out from among my people, both you and the children of Yisra᾽el; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said.

Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.

And Miżrayim was urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We are all dead men.

And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.

And the children of Yisra᾽el did according to the word of Moshe; and they asked of Miżrayim jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments:

and the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of Miżrayim, so that they gave them such things as they required. And they despoiled Miżrayim.

And the children of Yisra᾽el journeyed from Ra῾meses to Sukkot, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.

And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, very much cattle.

And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Miżrayim, for it was not leavened; because they were driven out of Miżrayim, and could not delay, neither had they prepared for themselves any provision.

Now the sojourning of the children of Yisra᾽el, who dwelt in Miżrayim, was four hundred and thirty years.

And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years, even on that very day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Miżrayim.

It is a night of watchfulness to the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Miżrayim: this is the Lord’s watchnight, for all the children of Yisra᾽el in their generations.

And the Lord said to Moshe and Aharon, This is the ordinance of the passover: no stranger shall eat of it:

but every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.

A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.

In one house shall it be eaten: thou shalt not take any of the meat outside, out of the house; neither shall you break a bone of it.

All the congregation of Yisra᾽el shall keep it.

And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

One Tora shall be to him that is homeborn, and to the stranger that sojourns among you.

Thus did all the children of Yisra᾽el; as the Lord commanded Moshe and Aharon so they did.

And it came to pass on that selfsame day, that the Lord did bring the children of Yisra᾽el out of the land of Miżrayim by their hosts.