Exodus 12 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

The Passover Instituted

God Establishes the Passover

(Num. 9:1–14; Deut. 16:1–8; Ezek. 45:21–25 )

Exo 12:1Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

Exo 12:2“This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Exo 12:3“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

Exo 12:4

Exo 12:4‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.

Exo 12:5

Exo 12:5‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

Exo 12:6

Exo 12:6‘Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

Exo 12:7

Exo 12:7‘And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

Exo 12:8

Exo 12:8‘Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Exo 12:9

Exo 12:9‘Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails.

Exo 12:10

Exo 12:10‘You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.

Exo 12:11

Exo 12:11‘And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.

Exo 12:12

Exo 12:12‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

Exo 12:13

Exo 12:13‘Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Exo 12:14

Exo 12:14‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.

Exo 12:15

Exo 12:15‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

Exo 12:16

Exo 12:16‘On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you.

Exo 12:17

Exo 12:17‘So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

Exo 12:18

Exo 12:18‘In 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.

Exo 12:19

Exo 12:19‘For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.

Exo 12:20

Exo 12:20‘You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

Exo 12:21

Exo 12:21Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb.

Exo 12:22

Exo 12:22“And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, 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. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.

Exo 12:23

Exo 12:23“For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.

Exo 12:24

Exo 12:24“And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever.

Exo 12:25

Exo 12:25“It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service.

Exo 12:26

Exo 12:26“And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’

Exo 12:27

Exo 12:27“that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

Exo 12:28

Exo 12:28Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

(Ex. 11:1–10 )

Exo 12:29

Exo 12:29And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD 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.

Exo 12:30

Exo 12:30So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, 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.

The Exodus

Exo 12:31

Exo 12:31Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said.

Exo 12:32

Exo 12:32“Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”

Exo 12:33

Exo 12:33And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”

Exo 12:34

Exo 12:34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

Exo 12:35

Exo 12:35Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.

Exo 12:36

Exo 12:36And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Exo 12:37

Exo 12:37Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.

Exo 12:38

Exo 12:38A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.

Exo 12:39

Exo 12:39And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

Exo 12:40

Exo 12:40Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt[fn] was four hundred and thirty years.

Exo 12:41

Exo 12:41And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

Exo 12:42

Exo 12:42It is a night of solemn observance to the LORD for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

Passover Regulations

(Gen. 17:9–14; Ex. 12:1–13 )

Exo 12:43

Exo 12:43And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it.

Exo 12:44

Exo 12:44“But every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.

Exo 12:45

Exo 12:45“A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it.

Exo 12:46

Exo 12:46“In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.

Exo 12:47

Exo 12:47“All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

Exo 12:48

Exo 12:48“And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it.

Exo 12:49

Exo 12:49“One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.”

Exo 12:50

Exo 12:50Thus all the children of Israel did; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Exo 12:51

Exo 12:51And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(12:40)

Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint read Egypt and Canaan.

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