Exodus 12: The Passover and the exodus

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

In plain English: "This month will be the beginning of months for you. It will be the first month of the year for you.

Good to know: The text does not name the month here. Exodus 13:4 calls it Abib.

In plain English: Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, 'On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb (or: a sheep or goat of the flock) for his father's household, one lamb for each household.

The Hebrew word: "Lamb" is seh, one animal of a flock: a sheep or a goat.

How it is translated: In its 39 verses this Bible says "sheep" in about 2 of every 3 and "lamb" in about 2 of every 5.

What changes: Read as "a sheep or a goat", a household may choose either animal, as verse 5 says: "from the sheep or from the goats".

In plain English: If a household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor are to take one together, according to the number of people (literally: souls). You are to work out how much lamb to take by what each person can eat.

In plain English: Your lamb must be without defect, a male one year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

Church tradition: Many churches teach that the Passover lamb points to Jesus. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place", and 1 Peter 1:19 speaks of "a lamb without blemish or spot". Exodus 12 does not mention Jesus.

In plain English: Keep it until the fourteenth day of this month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel is to kill it at evening (literally: between the two evenings).

The Hebrew words: "At evening" is the Hebrew ben ha-arbayim, literally "between the two evenings". This Bible says "at evening" or "in the evening" in all 11 verses of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers that have this phrase.

What changes: Some readers take the phrase to mean the late afternoon, before sunset. Others take it to mean the time between sunset and full dark. That changes when the lamb is killed. The text does not say which.

In plain English: They are to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel (the beam above the door) of the houses where they eat it.

In plain English: They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over fire, with unleavened bread (bread made without yeast). They are to eat it with bitter herbs.

In plain English: Do not eat any of it raw, or boiled at all in water. It must be roasted over fire, with its head, its legs, and its inner parts.

In plain English: Do not leave any of it until morning. Whatever is left until morning, you are to burn with fire.

In plain English: This is how you are to eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is Yahweh's Passover.

The Hebrew word: "Passover" is Pesach. Verse 27 gives the reason for the name: Yahweh "passed over" the houses. That verb is pasach, used in verse 13, 23 and 27.

How it is translated: In its 8 verses this Bible says "pass over" for pasach in 4: these 3 and Isaiah 31:5. In the other 4 it says "waver", "leaped" or "lame". The dictionary gives it as "to hop, i.e. (figuratively) skip over (or spare)", and also "to limp".

In plain English: On that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I will carry out judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh.

In plain English: The blood will 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 fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

In plain English: This day will be a memorial for you. You are to keep it as a feast to Yahweh. You are to keep it as a feast through all your generations, by a rule that lasts forever.

In plain English: For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove yeast from your houses, because anyone who eats leavened bread from the first day through the seventh day will be cut off from Israel.

Good to know: The text does not say what "cut off from Israel" means here: being sent away from the people, being put to death, or something else.

In plain English: On the first day there will be a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work is to be done on those days, except what every person must eat. That alone may be done by you.

In plain English: You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread, because on this very day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. So you are to keep this day through all your generations, by a rule that lasts forever.

In plain English: In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month, you are to eat unleavened bread.

In plain English: For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. Anyone who eats anything leavened will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is a foreigner or someone born in the land.

In plain English: Eat nothing leavened. In all the places where you live, eat unleavened bread.'"

In plain English: Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Pick out (literally: draw out) and take lambs (or: animals from the flock) for your families, and kill the Passover (the Passover lamb).

In plain English: Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood in the basin, and touch (or: strike) the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you is to go out of the door of his house until morning.

In plain English: Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, Yahweh will pass over the door and will not let the destroyer come into your houses to strike you.

The Hebrew word: "The destroyer" comes from shachat, a verb that means to ruin or to destroy.

Good to know: Verses 12 and 29 say that Yahweh himself strikes the firstborn. This verse speaks of Yahweh passing through to strike, and of a destroyer he will not allow into the houses. Hebrews 11:28 speaks of "the destroyer of the firstborn". 2 Samuel 24:16 uses the same Hebrew verb for the angel who destroyed the people.

Church tradition: Some churches read the destroyer as an angel who carries out the strike. Others read the word as another way of speaking of Yahweh's own act. The text does not say who the destroyer is.

In plain English: Keep this as a rule for you and your children forever.

In plain English: When you come to the land that Yahweh will give you, as he promised, you are to keep this service.

In plain English: When your children ask you, 'What does this service mean to you?'

In plain English: you are to say, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our houses.'" The people bowed their heads and worshiped.

In plain English: The Israelites went and did so. They did just as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron.

In plain English: At midnight Yahweh struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon (literally: the house of the pit), and every firstborn of the livestock.

In plain English: Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. There was a great cry in Egypt, because there was not a house where someone was not dead.

In plain English: He called for Moses and Aaron in the night and said, "Get up, get out from among my people, you and the Israelites. Go, serve Yahweh, as you have said.

In plain English: Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go. And bless me too."

In plain English: The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the land, because they said, "We are all dead men."

In plain English: The people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading troughs wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.

In plain English: The Israelites did as Moses said. They asked (or: borrowed from) the Egyptians for articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.

The Hebrew word: "Asked" is shaal again, the word in Exodus 3:22 and Exodus 11:2.

How it is translated: In its 157 verses this Bible says "ask" in about 2 of every 3, and "borrow" in only 3. In Exodus it says "ask" in 6 of the 7 verses.

What changes: Some Bibles, like the King James, say "borrowed" in this verse and "lent" in verse 36. Read that way, the Egyptians gave the jewelry and clothing as a loan.

In plain English: Yahweh gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they asked (or: lent them what they asked). They plundered (or: stripped) the Egyptians.

In plain English: The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides the children.

Good to know: Numbers 1:46 gives the total of the men counted as 603,550. Numbers 11:21 speaks of "six hundred thousand men on foot".

In plain English: A large mixed crowd went up with them as well, with flocks, herds, and very many animals.

In plain English: They baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread, because it had not been leavened. They had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves.

In plain English: The time the Israelites lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.

Good to know: Other verses give different numbers. Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 say four hundred years. Galatians 3:17 says the law came four hundred thirty years after the covenant. Readers explain how these numbers fit together in different ways. Exodus does not say what year of our own calendar the exodus took place.

In plain English: At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the armies of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt.

In plain English: It was a night of watching for Yahweh, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is for Yahweh, a night of watching for all the Israelites through all their generations.

The Hebrew word: "Observed" is shimmur. The dictionary gives it as "an observance", and the word-by-word meaning is "vigil", a night of keeping watch. This Bible's "a night to be much observed to Yahweh" reads it as a night Israel keeps for Yahweh. The word appears only in this verse, twice.

What changes: Read as a night of watching by Yahweh, the first half says Yahweh kept watch that night as he brought Israel out. The second half then says Israel keeps the same watch through all its generations.

In plain English: Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the rule for the Passover: no foreigner may eat it,

In plain English: but every man's servant who was bought with money may eat it after you have circumcised him.

In plain English: A resident foreigner and a hired worker may not eat it.

In plain English: It must be eaten in one house. Do not carry any of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of its bones.

Good to know: John 19:36 uses the words "A bone of him will not be broken" in telling the death of Jesus. Numbers 9:12 repeats this command for the Passover.

In plain English: All the community of Israel is to keep it.

In plain English: When a foreigner lives with you and wants to keep the Passover to Yahweh, all his males must be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it, and he will be like someone born in the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

In plain English: The same law applies to the person born in the land and to the foreigner who lives among you."

In plain English: All the Israelites did so. They did just as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron.

In plain English: On that same day Yahweh brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, division by division (literally: by their armies).