The First Passover
(Numbers 9:1–14)
Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year. Exo 13:4Deu 16:1Exo 34:18Exo 23:15Lev 23:5Num 28:16Est 3:7
Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb 1for his family, one per household. 1Co 5:7Jhn 1:29Lev 1:2Lev 5:62Ch 35:7Exo 12:6Exo 4:30Exo 6:6 If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly.
Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats. Heb 9:13-141Pe 1:18-19Mal 1:14Mal 1:7-8Deu 17:1Heb 7:26Lev 22:18-24Lev 23:12 You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. 2 Lev 23:52Ch 30:15-18Num 28:16Exo 12:18Num 9:1-3Num 9:11Act 4:27Deu 16:1-6 They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes 3of the houses where they eat the lambs. Exo 12:22-23Heb 11:28Heb 9:22Eph 1:71Pe 1:2Heb 10:14Heb 10:29Heb 9:13-14
They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Exo 34:25Deu 16:7Deu 16:3-41Co 5:6-8Exo 1:14Exo 13:3Exo 13:7Exo 23:18
Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts. Exo 12:8Deu 16:7Lam 1:13 Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over. Exo 23:18Exo 34:25Exo 29:34Lev 22:30Deu 16:4-5Lev 7:15-17
This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, 4 with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. Eph 6:15Exo 12:271Co 5:71Pe 1:13Luk 12:35Deu 16:2-6Exo 12:21Exo 12:43
On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. Num 33:4Psa 82:6Exo 12:23Isa 19:1Jer 43:13Psa 82:1Zep 2:11Exo 6:2 The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Heb 11:28Exo 12:231Jn 1:7Gen 17:11Jos 2:121Th 1:10
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
(Leviticus 23:4–8; Numbers 28:16–25; Deuteronomy 16:1–8)
And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come. 2Ki 23:21Exo 12:17Exo 12:24Exo 13:9-101Co 5:7-8Lev 23:4-5Exo 12:43Deu 16:1 For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. Deu 16:3Gen 17:14Exo 23:15Exo 34:18Deu 16:8Num 28:17Num 9:131Co 5:7-8
On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do. Lev 23:7-8Num 28:18Exo 16:23Num 28:25Exo 16:29Exo 16:5Exo 20:10Exo 35:2-3
So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, 5 for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come. Exo 12:41Exo 13:3Exo 13:8Exo 7:5Num 20:16 In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. Exo 12:15Lev 23:5-8Exo 12:1-2Num 28:16-25 For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Exo 12:15Deu 16:3Exo 23:15Exo 12:48Exo 34:18Num 9:131Co 5:7-8Exo 12:43 You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb. Exo 12:32Ki 23:21Ezr 6:20Jos 5:10Mrk 14:12-16Num 9:2-52Ch 30:15-172Ch 35:5-6 Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. Heb 11:28Exo 12:7Num 19:18Psa 51:7Heb 9:1Heb 9:14Heb 9:19Lev 14:6-7
When the LORD passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. Rev 7:3Rev 9:4Heb 11:281Co 10:10Exo 12:12-13Ezk 9:62Sa 24:16Isa 37:36
And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants. Exo 12:14Gen 17:8-10 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service. Exo 3:17Exo 3:8Deu 12:8-9Deu 4:5Psa 105:44-45Deu 16:5-9Jos 5:10-12
When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ Exo 13:14-15Deu 32:7Psa 145:4Eph 6:4Isa 38:19Jos 4:21-24Jos 4:6-7Psa 78:3-6 you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Exo 4:31Exo 12:111Co 5:7Exo 12:231Ch 29:202Ch 20:182Ch 29:30Deu 16:2
Then the people bowed down and worshiped. And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. Heb 11:28
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
Now at midnight the LORD struck down 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 dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock. Psa 78:51Exo 4:23Psa 105:36Psa 135:8Exo 11:4-5Psa 136:10Exo 12:12Num 8:17
During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead. Exo 11:6Amo 5:17Jas 2:13Mat 25:6Pro 21:13
The Exodus Begins
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. Exo 6:1Exo 10:9Exo 3:19-20Exo 8:8Psa 105:38Exo 10:29Exo 11:8 Take your flocks and herds as well, just as you have said, and depart! And bless me also.” Exo 10:26Gen 27:34Exo 10:9Exo 8:28Exo 9:28Gen 27:38
And in order to send them out of the land quickly, the Egyptians urged the people on. “For otherwise,” they said, “we are all going to die!” Psa 105:38Exo 11:1Gen 20:3Num 17:12-13 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing. Exo 8:3
Furthermore, the Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing. Exo 3:21-22Exo 11:2-3Gen 15:14Psa 105:37 And the LORD gave the people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that they granted their request. In this way they plundered the Egyptians. Gen 15:14Act 7:10Exo 11:3Exo 3:21-22Psa 105:37Dan 1:9Gen 39:21Act 2:47
The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth 6with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. Exo 38:26Num 1:46Num 11:21Num 33:3Num 33:5Gen 47:11Exo 1:11Gen 12:2 And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. Num 11:4Zec 8:23
Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves. Exo 11:1Exo 6:1Exo 12:31-33
Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt 7was 430 years. Gen 15:13Act 7:6Act 13:17Gal 3:16-17Gen 12:1-3Heb 11:9 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions went out of the land of Egypt. Act 1:7Exo 7:4Hab 2:3Jhn 7:8Dan 9:24Exo 12:17Exo 12:51Exo 3:10 Because the LORD kept a vigil that night to bring them out of the land of Egypt, this same night is to be a vigil to the LORD, to be observed by all the Israelites for the generations to come. Deu 16:1-6Exo 12:14Exo 13:10
Instructions for the Passover
And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it. Exo 12:48Num 9:14Exo 12:11Eph 2:12Lev 22:10 But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him. Gen 17:12-13Gen 17:23 A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover. Lev 22:10Eph 2:12
It must be eaten inside one house. You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of the bones. Jhn 19:36Num 9:12Jhn 19:33Eph 2:19-221Co 12:12Psa 34:20
The whole congregation of Israel must celebrate it. Exo 12:6Num 9:13Exo 12:3 If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it. Num 9:14Col 3:11Gal 3:28Num 15:15-16Exo 12:19Exo 12:43Ezk 47:22Ezk 44:9 The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.” Num 15:15-16Num 15:29Lev 24:22Num 9:14Gal 3:28Col 3:11
Then all the Israelites did this—they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. Deu 12:32Deu 4:1-2Exo 12:41Exo 6:26Exo 7:4Jhn 13:17Jhn 15:14Jhn 2:5 And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions. Exo 12:41Exo 6:26