The First Passover

Then
Moses called for all the leaders of Israel. He said to them, "Pick out a
lamb or a young goat for your families, and kill the Passover animal. Take the branch of a hyssop plant, dip it in
the blood which is in a bowl, and put some of the blood on the top and sides of
the doorframes of your houses. No one may leave the house until morning. The Lord will go throughout Egypt to
kill the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on the top and sides of the
doorframe, he will pass over that doorway, and he will not let the destroyer
come into your home to kill you. "You
must follow these instructions. They are a permanent law for you and your
children. When you enter the land
that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. When your children ask you what this ceremony
means to you, you must answer, ''It''s
the Passover sacrifice in the Lord''s honor. The Lord passed over the houses of
the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he killed the Egyptians.''"
Then the people knelt, bowing with their faces touching the ground. The Israelites did as the LORD had commanded
Moses and Aaron.

At
midnight the Lord killed every firstborn male in Egypt from the firstborn son
of Pharaoh who ruled the land to the firstborn son of the prisoner in jail, and
also every firstborn animal. Pharaoh,
all his officials, and all the other Egyptians got up during the night. There
was loud crying throughout Egypt because in every house someone had died. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron
during the night. He said, "You and the Israelites must leave my people at
once. Go, worship the Lord as you asked. Take
your flocks and herds, too, as you asked. Just go! And bless me, too!" The Egyptians begged the people to
leave the country quickly. They said, "Soon we''ll all be dead!" So the people picked up their bread
dough before it had risen and carried it on their shoulders in bowls, wrapped
up in their clothes. The Israelites
did what Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for gold and silver
jewelry and for clothes. The Lord
made the Egyptians generous to the people, and they gave them what they asked
for. So the Israelites stripped Egypt of its wealth.