出12:24Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.

出12:25When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.

出12:26And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?'

出12:27then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord , who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' " Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

出12:28The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

出12:29At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.

出12:30Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

出12:31During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.

出12:32Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me."

出12:33The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!"

出12:34So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.

出12:35The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.

出12:36The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

出12:37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.

出12:38Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

出12:39With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

出12:40Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.

出12:41At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord 's divisions left Egypt.

出12:42Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.

出12:43The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover: "No foreigner is to eat of it.