10:1 1 The Lord said 2 to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, in order to display 3 these signs of mine before him, 4 10:2 and in order that in the hearing of your son and your grandson you may tell 5 how I made fools 6 of the Egyptians 7 and about 8 my signs that I displayed 9 among them, so that you may know 10 that I am the Lord.”
10:3 So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and told him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: ‘How long do you refuse 11 to humble yourself before me? 12 Release my people so that they may serve me! 10:4 But if you refuse to release my people, I am going to bring 13 locusts 14 into your territory 15 tomorrow. 10:5 They will cover 16 the surface 17 of the earth, so that you 18 will be unable to see the ground. They will eat the remainder of what escaped 19 – what is left over 20 for you – from the hail, and they will eat every tree that grows for you from the field. 10:6 They will fill your houses, the houses of your servants, and all the houses of Egypt, such as 21 neither 22 your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since they have been 23 in the land until this day!’” Then Moses 24 turned and went out from Pharaoh.
10:7 Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long 25 will this man be a menace 26 to us? Release the people so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not know 27 that Egypt is destroyed?”
10:8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. Exactly who is going with you?” 28 10:9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold 29 a pilgrim feast for the Lord.”
10:10 He said to them, “The Lord will need to be with you 30 if I release you and your dependents! 31 Watch out! 32 Trouble is right in front of you! 33 10:11 No! 34 Go, you men 35 only, and serve the Lord, for that 36 is what you want.” 37 Then Moses and Aaron 38 were driven 39 out of Pharaoh’s presence.
10:12 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for 40 the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows 41 in the ground, everything that the hail has left.” 10:13 So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord 42 brought 43 an east wind on the land all that day and all night. 44 The morning came, 45 and the east wind had brought up 46 the locusts! 10:14 The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory 47 of Egypt. It was very severe; 48 there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again. 49 10:15 They covered 50 the surface 51 of all the ground, so that the ground became dark with them, 52 and they ate all the vegetation of the ground and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green remained on the trees or on anything that grew in the fields throughout the whole land of Egypt.
10:16 53 Then Pharaoh quickly 54 summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned 55 against the Lord your God and against you! 10:17 So now, forgive my sin this time only, and pray to the Lord your God that he would only 56 take this death 57 away from me.” 10:18 Moses 58 went out 59 from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, 10:19 and the Lord turned a very strong west wind, 60 and it picked up the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. 61 Not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. 10:20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not release the Israelites.
10:21 62 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven 63 so that there may be 64 darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.” 65
10:22 So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was absolute darkness 66 throughout the land of Egypt for three days. 67 10:23 No one 68 could see 69 another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.
10:24 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord – only your flocks and herds will be detained. Even your families 70 may go with you.”
10:25 But Moses said, “Will you also 71 provide us 72 with sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may present them 73 to the Lord our God? 10:26 Our livestock must 74 also go with us! Not a hoof is to be left behind! For we must take 75 these animals 76 to serve the Lord our God. Until we arrive there, we do not know what we must use to serve the Lord.” 77
10:27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to release them. 10:28 Pharaoh said to him, “Go from me! 78 Watch out for yourself! Do not appear before me again, 79 for when 80 you see my face you will die!” 10:29 Moses said, “As you wish! 81 I will not see your face again.” 82
11:1 83 The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will release you from this place. When he releases you, 84 he will drive you out completely 85 from this place. 11:2 Instruct 86 the people that each man and each woman is to request 87 from his or her neighbor 88 items of silver and gold.” 89
11:3 (Now the Lord granted the people favor with 90 the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, respected by Pharaoh’s servants and by the Egyptian people.) 91
11:4 Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight 92 I will go throughout Egypt, 93 11:5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh 94 who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 11:6 There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, 95 nor ever will be again. 96 11:7 But against any of the Israelites not even a dog will bark 97 against either people or animals, 98 so that you may know that the Lord distinguishes 99 between Egypt and Israel.’ 11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down 100 to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow 101 you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses 102 went out from Pharaoh in great anger.
11:9 The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders 103 may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
11:10 So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not release the Israelites from his land.
12:1 104 The Lord said 105 to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 106 12:2 “This month is to be your beginning of months; it will be your first month of the year. 107 12:3 Tell the whole community of Israel, ‘In the tenth day of this month they each 108 must take a lamb 109 for themselves according to their families 110 – a lamb for each household. 111 12:4 If any household is too small 112 for a lamb, 113 the man 114 and his next-door neighbor 115 are to take 116 a lamb according to the number of people – you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat. 117 12:5 Your lamb must be 118 perfect, 119 a male, one year old; 120 you may take 121 it from the sheep or from the goats. 12:6 You must care for it 122 until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community 123 of Israel will kill it around sundown. 124 12:7 They will take some of the blood and put it on the two side posts and top of the doorframe of the houses where they will eat it. 12:8 They will eat the meat the same night; 125 they will eat it roasted over the fire with bread made without yeast 126 and with bitter herbs. 12:9 Do not eat it raw 127 or boiled in water, but roast it over the fire with its head, its legs, and its entrails. 12:10 You must leave nothing until morning, but you must burn with fire whatever remains of it until morning. 12:11 This is how you are to eat it – dressed to travel, 128 your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 129
12:12 I will pass through 130 the land of Egypt in the same 131 night, and I will attack 132 all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of humans and of animals, 133 and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. 134 I am the Lord. 12:13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, so that when I see 135 the blood I will pass over you, 136 and this plague 137 will not fall on you to destroy you 138 when I attack 139 the land of Egypt. 140
12:14 This day will become 141 a memorial 142 for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival 143 to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance. 144 12:15 For seven days 145 you must eat 146 bread made without yeast. 147 Surely 148 on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast 149 from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off 150 from Israel.
12:16 On the first day there will be a holy convocation, 151 and on the seventh day there will be a holy convocation for you. You must do no work of any kind 152 on them, only what every person will eat – that alone may be prepared for you. 12:17 So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very 153 day I brought your regiments 154 out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance. 155 12:18 In the first month, 156 from the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat bread made without yeast until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. 12:19 For seven days 157 yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person 158 will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner 159 or one born in the land. 12:20 You will not eat anything made with yeast; in all the places where you live you must eat bread made without yeast.’”
12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel, and told them, “Go and select 160 for yourselves a lamb or young goat 161 for your families, and kill the Passover animals. 162 12:22 Take a branch of hyssop, 163 dip it in the blood that is in the basin, 164 and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin. Not one of you is to go out 165 the door of his house until morning. 12:23 For the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees 166 the blood on the top of the doorframe and the two side posts, then the Lord will pass over the door, and he will not permit the destroyer 167 to enter your houses to strike you. 168 12:24 You must observe this event as an ordinance for you and for your children forever. 12:25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give to you, just as he said, you must observe 169 this ceremony. 12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 170 – 12:27 then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice 171 of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck 172 Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low 173 to the ground, 12:28 and the Israelites went away and did exactly as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 174
12:29 175 It happened 176 at midnight – the Lord attacked 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 prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 12:30 Pharaoh got up 177 in the night, 178 along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house 179 in which there was not someone dead. 12:31 Pharaoh 180 summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Get up, get out 181 from among my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested! 182 12:32 Also, take your flocks and your herds, just as you have requested, and leave. But bless me also.” 183
12:33 The Egyptians were urging 184 the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, 185 for they were saying, “We are all dead!” 12:34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, 186 with their kneading troughs bound up in their clothing on their shoulders. 12:35 Now the Israelites had done 187 as Moses told them – they had requested from the Egyptians 188 silver and gold items and clothing. 12:36 The Lord 189 gave the people favor 190 in the sight of the Egyptians, and they gave them whatever they wanted, 191 and so they plundered Egypt. 192
12:37 The Israelites journeyed 193 from Rameses 194 to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men 195 on foot, plus their dependants. 196 12:38 A mixed multitude 197 also went up with them, and flocks and herds – a very large number of cattle. 198 12:39 They baked cakes of bread without yeast using the dough they had brought from Egypt, for it was made without yeast – because they were thrust out 199 of Egypt and were not able to delay, they 200 could not prepare 201 food for themselves either.
12:40 Now the length of time the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years. 202 12:41 At the end of the 430 years, on the very day, all the regiments 203 of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. 12:42 It was a night of vigil for the Lord to bring them out from the land of Egypt, 204 and so 205 on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil 206 to the Lord for generations to come.
12:43 207 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may 208 share in eating it. 209 12:44 But everyone’s servant who is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may eat it. 12:45 A foreigner and a hired worker must not eat it. 12:46 It must be eaten in one house; you must not bring any of the meat outside the house, and you must not break a bone of it. 12:47 The whole community of Israel must observe it.
12:48 “When a foreigner lives 210 with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, 211 and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land 212 – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it. 12:49 The same law will apply 213 to the person who is native-born and to the foreigner who lives among you.”
12:50 So all the Israelites did exactly as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 214 12:51 And on this very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.