Exodus 12 · WEB
The Passover and the Exodus from Egypt
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2"This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
3Speak 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;
4and 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; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.
6You 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.
7They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
8They shall eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9Don't eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; its head with its legs and with its inner parts.
10You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
11This is how you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh's Passover.
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.
13The blood shall be a sign for you 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 day shall be a memorial for you, and you shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh. You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations. You shall keep it as an ordinance forever.
15Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; but 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.
16In the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every soul must eat; only that may be done by you.
17You 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 as an ordinance forever.'"
18In 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.
19Seven days there shall be no yeast found in your houses, 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.
20You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.
21Then 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.
22You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two doorposts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.
24"You shall observe this thing for an ordinance for you and for your sons forever.
25It shall happen when you have come to the land which Yahweh will give you, as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.
26It will happen, when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this service?'
27that 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.
28The children of Israel went and did so; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
29At 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.
30Pharaoh 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.
31He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, "Rise up! Get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel! Go, serve Yahweh, as you have said!
32Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone! Bless me also."
33The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, "We're all dead men."
34The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.
35The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked the Egyptians for jewels of silver, and for jewels of gold, and for clothing.
36Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.
37The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, besides children.
38A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and livestock in abundance.
39They 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.
40Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.
41At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the very day, all of Yahweh's armies went out from the land of Egypt.
42It 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 of all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
43Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it,
44but every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.
45A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.
46It must be eaten in one house. You shall not carry any of the meat outside of the house. You shall not break a bone of it.
47All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, and wants to keep the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one who is born in the land; but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
49One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you."
50All the children of Israel did so. As Yahweh commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
51That same day, Yahweh brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.
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Summary
The Passover is instituted as Israel's defining annual feast: on the fourteenth of the first month, each household slaughters an unblemished male lamb, applies its blood to their doorposts, and eats it in haste with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. God passes through Egypt at midnight, striking every firstborn — from Pharaoh's son to the captive's — but passes over every blood-marked house. Pharaoh drives Israel out at night, and roughly 600,000 men (plus women, children, and a mixed multitude) leave Egypt after 430 years, plundering Egyptian silver and gold as they go.
Themes
- Substitutionary sacrifice: the lamb dies so the firstborn lives
- Blood as the means of protection and covenant
- The Passover as a memorial feast pointing forward to Christ
- Liberation through judgment — freedom comes through the death of the lamb
Key verses
- Ex 12:13 — “The blood shall be a sign for you… When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
- Ex 12:27 — “It is the sacrifice of Yahweh's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt.”
- Ex 12:42 — “It is a night to be much observed to Yahweh for bringing them out from the land of Egypt.”
- Ex 12:46 — “You shall not break a bone of it." (fulfilled in John 19:36)”
Context & background
The Exodus from Egypt began in the northeastern Nile Delta region, where Israel had lived for 430 years in the area of Goshen (near modern Zagazig and Tanis, Egypt). Israel's first stop, Succoth, is identified with Tell el-Maskhuta in modern Egypt. The "600,000 men on foot" (plus women and children) suggests a total population of 2 million or more — a number debated by scholars. The New Testament identifies Jesus as the true Passover Lamb: 1 Corinthians 5:7 calls him "Christ our Passover," John 19:36 notes no bone was broken (Ex 12:46), and the Last Supper was a Passover meal (Luke 22:14-20).
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 — "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us."
- John 19:36 — "Not a bone of him shall be broken" — fulfillment of Exodus 12:46.
- John 1:29 — John the Baptist: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
- Revelation 5:6-12 — The Lamb who was slain is worshiped in heaven, the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover.