Exodus 12:21-30

Good News Translation

The First Passover

²¹ Moses called for all the leaders of Israel and said to them, “Each of you is to choose a lamb or a young goat and kill it, so that your families can celebrate Passover. ²² Take a sprig of hyssop, dip it in the bowl containing^[a] the animal's blood, and wipe the blood on the doorposts and the beam above the door of your house. Not one of you is to leave the house until morning. ^23 (A)When the Lord goes through Egypt to kill the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the beams and the doorposts and will not let the Angel of Death enter your houses and kill you. ²⁴ You and your children must obey these rules forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord has promised to give you, you must perform this ritual. ²⁶ When your children ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean?’ ²⁷ you will answer, ‘It is the sacrifice of Passover to honor the Lord, because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians, but spared us.’”

The Israelites knelt down and worshiped. ²⁸ Then they went and did what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Death of the First-Born

^29 (B)At midnight the Lord killed all the first-born sons in Egypt, from the king's son, who was heir to the throne, to the son of the prisoner in the dungeon; all the first-born of the animals were also killed. ³⁰ That night, the king, his officials, and all the other Egyptians were awakened. There was loud crying throughout Egypt, because there was not one home in which there was not a dead son.