The Book of
Exodus 12
51 verses≈ 10 min3 peopleBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
Tap any post to go deeper
In this chapter
Where we are
- 1–6Slaves in EgyptOppression and a deliverer
- 7–13The plaguesThe LORD against PharaohChapter 12
- 14–18Through the seaRescued and led
- 19–24At SinaiThe covenant and the law
- 25–31A place to dwellThe tabernacle planned
- 32–40Broken and renewedThe calf, mercy, the glory
The First Passover
Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture
The lamb
A lamb for each household
Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.
Shared with a neighbor
If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly.
Unblemished, a year old
Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.
Kept, then slain at twilight
You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
The blood
Blood on the doorframe
They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
The meal
With unleavened bread and bitter herbs
They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Roasted whole, nothing left
Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over.
Eaten ready to leave
This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.
On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
God
The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Exodus 12:13
Reflect
Under the blood
That night no Israelite house was safe because its family was better than the Egyptians next door. The difference was the blood on the doorframe, and God’s promise: “when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Where are you tempted to trust your own record before God? Write down what it means for you to rest on what Christ has done instead.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
The law
Seven days without leaven
Remember
A memorial forever
And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
Worship
Unleavened bread seven days
For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Leaven out of the house
On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
Rest
Two sacred assemblies
On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.
Remember
Why: the day He brought you out
So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
Worship
The fourteenth to the twenty-first
In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
No leaven, for foreigner and native
For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel.
In all your homes
You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
When the LORD passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service.
When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.
Exodus 12:28
Question
Quick question
Each household chose a lamb and kept it until the fourteenth day.
What were the Israelites to put on the doorframes of their houses?
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.
During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead.
The Exodus Begins
Pharaoh
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds as well, just as you have said, and depart! And bless me also.”
The Egyptians
And in order to send them out of the land quickly, the Egyptians urged the people on. “For otherwise,” they said, “we are all going to die!”
Stylised map · locations approximate
On the map
Out of Egypt
The Israelites “journeyed from Rameses to Succoth,” both in Egypt’s eastern delta, near Goshen where they had lived. Rameses was probably the great delta city at Qantir, and Succoth is often placed in the Wadi Tumilat, the valley leading east toward the wilderness; neither site is certain. The dashed line is one possible route.
Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.
Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions went out of the land of Egypt. Because the LORD kept a vigil that night to bring them out of the land of Egypt, this same night is to be a vigil to the LORD, to be observed by all the Israelites for the generations to come.
0:21
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
Pray
A night to remember
The text says “the LORD kept a vigil that night to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” He did not sleep while His people waited behind marked doors. Thank Him for the Lamb whose blood covers you, and for watching over you through your own long nights. Ask Him to make you ready to go wherever He leads.
Instructions for the Passover
The law
Who may eat the Passover
Who
No foreigner
And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it.
A bought servant, circumcised
But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.
Not a visitor or hired hand
A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover.
How
In one house
It must be eaten inside one house.
Not one bone broken
You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of the bones.
Who
The whole congregation
The whole congregation of Israel must celebrate it.
The foreigner who joins
If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.
One law for all
The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”
Then all the Israelites did this—they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.
Christ our Passover
Whiteboard
God told Israel, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you,” and of the lamb, “you may not break any of the bones.” The New Testament sees the whole night fulfilled in Jesus. John the Baptist called Him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29); at the cross not one of His bones was broken (John 19:36); and Paul writes that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).
You’ve experienced
Exodus 12
0 of 40 chapters read
A verse to carry with you
The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Exodus 12:13
or swipe left