Pesach in the Torah

In every generation one is obligated to regard themself as though they personally had left Egypt

(1) The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

(2) This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

(3) Speak to the whole community of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household.

(4) But if the household is too small for a lamb, let him share one with a neighbor who dwells nearby, in proportion to the number of persons: you shall contribute for the lamb according to what each household will eat.

(5) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

(6) You shall keep watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month; and all the assembled congregation of the Israelites shall slaughter it at twilight.

(7) They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it.

(8) They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.

(9) Do not eat any of it raw, or cooked in any way with water, but roasted—head, legs, and entrails—over the fire.

(10) You shall not leave any of it over until morning; if any of it is left until morning, you shall burn it.

(11) This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to the LORD.

(12) For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt, I the LORD.

(13) And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

(14) This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time.

(15) Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

(16) You shall celebrate a sacred occasion on the first day, and a sacred occasion on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them; only what every person is to eat, that alone may be prepared for you.

(17) You shall observe the [Feast of] Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time.

(18) In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

(19) No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a citizen of the country.

(20) You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.

(21) Moses then summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, pick out lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover offering.

(22) Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. None of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

(23) For when the LORD goes through to smite the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and the LORD will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home.

(24) “You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants.

(25) And when you enter the land that the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite.

(26) And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’

(27) you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the LORD, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’” The people then bowed low in homage.

(28) And the Israelites went and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

(29) In the middle of the night the LORD struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle.

(30) And Pharaoh arose in the night, with all his courtiers and all the Egyptians—because there was a loud cry in Egypt; for there was no house where there was not someone dead.

(31) He summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Up, depart from among my people, you and the Israelites with you! Go, worship the LORD as you said!

(32) Take also your flocks and your herds, as you said, and begone! And may you bring a blessing upon me also!”

(33) The Egyptians urged the people on, impatient to have them leave the country, for they said, “We shall all be dead.”

(34) So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks upon their shoulders.

(35) The Israelites had done Moses’ bidding and borrowed from the Egyptians objects of silver and gold, and clothing.

(36) And the LORD had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people, and they let them have their request; thus they stripped the Egyptians.

(37) The Israelites journeyed from Raamses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.

(38) Moreover, a mixed multitude went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.

(39) And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had taken out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, since they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay; nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

(40) The length of time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years;

(41) at the end of the four hundred and thirtieth year, to the very day, all the ranks of the LORD departed from the land of Egypt.

(42) That was for the LORD a night of vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that same night is the LORD’s, one of vigil for all the children of Israel throughout the ages.

(43) The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: This is the law of the passover offering: No foreigner shall eat of it.

(44) But any slave a man has bought may eat of it once he has been circumcised.

(45) No bound or hired laborer shall eat of it.

(46) It shall be eaten in one house: you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house; nor shall you break a bone of it.

(47) The whole community of Israel shall offer it.

(48) If a stranger who dwells with you would offer the passover to the LORD, all his males must be circumcised; then he shall be admitted to offer it; he shall then be as a citizen of the country. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

(49) There shall be one law for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you.

(50) And all the Israelites did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

(51) That very day the LORD freed the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop.

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to the LORD,

and on the fifteenth day of that month the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days.

On the first day you shall celebrate a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.

Seven days you shall make offerings by fire to the LORD. The seventh day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

Speak to the Israelite people, saying: When any of you or of your posterity who are defiled by a corpse or are on a long journey would offer a passover sacrifice to the LORD,

they shall offer it in the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs,

and they shall not leave any of it over until morning. They shall not break a bone of it. They shall offer it in strict accord with the law of the passover sacrifice.

But if a man who is clean and not on a journey refrains from offering the passover sacrifice, that person shall be cut off from his kin, for he did not present the LORD’s offering at its set time; that man shall bear his guilt.

When, in time to come, your children ask you, “What mean the decrees, laws, and rules that the LORD our God has enjoined upon you?”

you shall say to your children, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the LORD freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand.

The LORD wrought before our eyes marvelous and destructive signs and portents in Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household;

and us He freed from there, that He might take us and give us the land that He had promised on oath to our fathers.

Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these laws, to revere the LORD our God, for our lasting good and for our survival, as is now the case.

It will be therefore to our merit before the LORD our God to observe faithfully this whole Instruction, as He has commanded us.”

Observe the month of Abib and offer a passover sacrifice to the LORD your God, for it was in the month of Abib, at night, that the LORD your God freed you from Egypt.

You shall slaughter the passover sacrifice for the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD will choose to establish His name.

You shall not eat anything leavened with it; for seven days thereafter you shall eat unleavened bread, bread of distress—for you departed from the land of Egypt hurriedly—so that you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt as long as you live.

For seven days no leaven shall be found with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh of what you slaughter on the evening of the first day shall be left until morning.

You are not permitted to slaughter the passover sacrifice in any of the settlements that the LORD your God is giving you;

but at the place where the LORD your God will choose to establish His name, there alone shall you slaughter the passover sacrifice, in the evening, at sundown, the time of day when you departed from Egypt.

You shall cook and eat it at the place that the LORD your God will choose; and in the morning you may start back on your journey home.