Exodus
Chapter 12
The Passover
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt and said:
“This month is to be the beginning of all months, the first month of your year.
Speak to the community of Israel and say to them: On the tenth day of this month, let each family take a lamb for each house.
If the family is too small for a lamb, they must join with a neighbor, the nearest to the house, according to the number of persons and what each one can eat.
You will select a perfect lamb without blemishes, a male born during the present year, taken from the sheep or goats.
Then you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the month. On that evening, all the people will slaughter their lambs
and take some of the blood to put on the doorposts and on top of the doorframes of the houses where you eat.
That night, you will eat the flesh roasted at the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Do not eat the meat lightly cooked or boiled in water, but roasted entirely over the fire—the head, the legs, and the inner parts.
Do not leave any of it until morning. If any is left till morning, burn it in the fire.
This is how you will eat: with a belt around your waist, sandals on your feet, and a staff in your hand. You shall eat hastily, for it is a Passover in honor of the Lord.
On that night, I shall go through Egypt and strike every firstborn in Egypt, men and animals; and I will even bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt, I, the Lord!
The blood on your houses will be the sign that you are there. I will see the blood and pass over you, and you will escape the mortal plague when I strike Egypt.
This is a day you are to remember and celebrate in honor of the Lord. It is to be kept as a festival day for all generations forever.
The Unleavened Bread
For seven days, you are to eat unleavened bread. From the first day, you are to remove all leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first to the seventh day will no longer live in Israel.
On the first day, there will be a sacred reunion and another on the seventh. No work is to be done on these days except what is necessary for food preparation.
Celebrate the feast of unleavened bread because, on that day, I brought your armies out of Egypt. Celebrate it in future generations as an everlasting ordinance.
In the first month, from the fourteenth day in the evening to the twenty-first, you are to eat unleavened bread.
For seven days, there will be no leaven in your houses. Anyone who eats what is leavened will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether foreigner or native-born.
Nothing leavened is to be eaten; only unleavened bread is to be consumed.”
Moses’ Orders
Moses called all Israel’s elders and said:
“Select and take one animal for each family and slaughter the Passover lamb.
Take a twig of hyssop dipped in its blood and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts and the top of the doorframe: from then on, no one will go out of the door of the house before morning.
Because the Lord will pass through to strike Egypt, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and the doorposts, he will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and kill.
You and your descendants shall observe these instructions as an everlasting ordinance;
you will carry out this ceremony when you enter the land that the Lord will give you, as he promised.
And when your children ask you: ‘What does this ceremony mean?’
You will tell them: It is the sacrifice of the Passover for the Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites when he struck Egypt and spared our houses.”
When the people heard this, they bowed down and worshiped.
They went away and did what the Lord had ordered Moses and Aaron.
Death of All the Egyptians’ Firstborn and the Departure of Israel
It happened that in the middle of the night, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, heir to the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon and the firstborn of all the animals.
Pharaoh, his officials, and all the Egyptians got up in the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was no house without a death.
Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron at night, saying:
“Get up and go from among my people, you and the people of Israel. Go and worship the Lord as you have said!
Take your sheep and cattle, as you told me, and go! Provided that the blessing be for me as well.”
The Egyptians, too, pressed the people to leave the country in all haste. For they said, “If they don’t go, we are all going to die.”
So the Israelites carried away on their shoulders the dough, which had not yet risen, and their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks.
They did as Moses had instructed them and borrowed from the Egyptians articles of gold, silver, and clothes.
The Lord made the Egyptians agree to the requests of his people and give them what they asked for. In this way, they plundered the Egyptians.
The Israelites left Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred thousand on the march, counting the men only, not the children.
Many other people of all descriptions went with them, as well as sheep and cattle in droves.
With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they made cakes of unleavened bread. It had not risen, for when they were driven from Egypt, they could not delay and had not even provided themselves with food.
The Israelites had been in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.
It was at the end of these four hundred and thirty years to the very day that the armies of the Lord left Egypt.
This is the watch for the Lord who brought Israel out of Egypt. This night is for the Lord, and all the Israelites are also to keep vigil on this night, year after year, for all time.
Rite of the Passover
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron:
“These are the precepts for celebrating the Passover. No foreigner is to eat it,
except the slave who has been circumcised after being bought.
He may eat it, but neither the temporary resident nor the hired worker may.
The lamb must be eaten inside the house, and nothing shall be taken outside. Do not break any of its bones.
All the community of Israel will observe this rite.
If a guest is staying with you and wants to celebrate the Passover of the Lord, he must have all the males in his household circumcised. Then he may take part like one born in the land, but no uncircumcised man may participate.
The law is the same for the native and the stranger living with you.”
All the people of Israel did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron,
and that same day the Lord brought out the sons of Israel and their armies from the land of Egypt.
Commentaries
The Passover.
There is a strong argument that the date for Passover, as later established in Israel, originates from the time of Israel’s founding as God’s people, specifically just before their liberation from Egypt. This view fills the entire celebration of the feast with a sense of divine command.
The Passover ritual we observe today evolved over time. However, it is rooted in an ancient tradition of semi-nomadic shepherds. They would sacrifice an animal from their livestock on the night before leaving for new grazing lands. This departure happened at the beginning of spring, a crucial time for female animals about to give birth. In modern terms, the purpose of the sacrifice could be seen as entrusting themselves to the deities of the lands they would cross to reach safety. The ritual involved killing a chosen animal, roasting it, and eating it with bitter herbs. They would wear suitable travel clothes: a cloak, sandals, and a staff. The meal was consumed quickly, reflecting the urgency of someone leaving in a hurry. Finally, a key part of the ceremony was sprinkling the blood of the sacrificed animal on the poles supporting their tents.
In semi-desert regions where wood was limited, it became necessary to carry poles for the tents. This sprinkling resembled an exorcism, seeking divine protection for both people and animals, thereby preventing evil spirits from entering the purified tents. In this Passover ritual, the blood is sprinkled not on tent poles but on the doorjambs of the house, indicating that the people moved from living in tents to houses after settling in the land of Canaan.
Blood, the symbol of life, plays a crucial role because the “plague”—referring to the ancient evil spirits—would not touch the families whose doors were sprinkled with it. The plague would jump over those houses. This might be one of the etymological meanings of “Pesach”: jumping and walking in a jumping manner.
The Unleavened Bread.
The religious tradition of Israel eventually combined the Feast of Unleavened Bread with Passover. These two feasts did not initially start in Israel. Instead, they arose among ancient semi-nomadic tribes committed to pastoralism (as mentioned in 12:1-14) and other settled cultures focused on grain farming. These communities celebrated an ancient rite at the beginning of the new harvest, where they would discard all fermented products and eat unleavened bread while preparing new leaven for dough. The event was joyful and festive. In many villages, “harvest festivals” are still celebrated, reflecting their earliest meaning.
In Israel, the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread merged, gaining a new focus on the Lord’s act of liberation for His people. Initially, both feasts held religious significance: they protected people and livestock from evil influences and gave farmers hope that the upcoming harvest would be free from harm, such as drought, theft, or fire. In Israel, these meanings combined into one: God delivers His people from threats to their livelihood and the deadly schemes of Pharaoh.
Moses’ Orders.
The preparations for Passover and the soon-to-occur departure from the land of oppression continue. The primary focus of this passage is the command to smear the door frames with the blood of a sacrificed animal. Additionally, the people are warned not to leave their homes, as the plague will pass over that night, sparing the houses marked with blood. This event is ritually reenacted each year in every Jewish home. The youngest member of the family asks, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” (26) The response is a memorial that relives and brings to life the events of the liberation from Egypt. Christians, too, in our yearly Paschal celebration, remember the ultimate, redeeming act of Jesus, which is made present and effective among us again and again.
Death of All the Egyptian Firstborn and the Departure of Israel.
The interrupted narrative of 11:1-3 shifts to the instructions regarding the Passover. The cry of the Hebrews is highlighted, as in 3:7, where the Lord responded upon hearing the cry of the oppressed; now, the cry echoing throughout Egypt prompts only the Pharaoh’s decision to allow the Israelites to leave, or rather, to expel them, giving them everything they need for their departure (35f). This can be seen as a political solution that does not mark the end of Pharaonic oppression, which will continue. Here lies a key to understanding this story: since ancient times, the “firstborn” has symbolized the potential for life—both human and animal—to persist and grow. To kill the firstborn is to eliminate the potential for preservation and multiplication. Egypt, a symbol of oppression and death, now represents a system incapable of transmitting life; it has gradually extinguished that very possibility. That is why it must be eradicated, as it embodies not the seeds of life, but of death.
Rite of the Passover.
Here, we see some restrictions on celebrating Passover. Although these restrictions originated during Egypt’s departure, they quickly reveal that they belong to a different era when Israel was already in the land of Canaan, where it coexisted temporarily or permanently with foreigners and slaves. Throughout Israel’s development of conscience, respect for life becomes a fundamental principle. Israel linked this respect with God’s will, who commanded that every firstborn must be saved. In Canaan, Israel coexisted with other cultures and diverse religious practices, where sacrificing human firstborns was common. However, Israel opposed this practice and suggested the alternative of ransoming people, as instructed by the Lord Himself, since all life belongs to Him.