Exodus 12:1-2
King James Version
12 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron
in the land of Egypt saying,
2 This month shall be unto you
the beginning of months:
it shall be the first month of the year to you.
What is Passover?
How did it begin?
Who were to celebrate it?
What were they expected to do, and be?
As with all beginnings, it can only have started as GOD willed it.
Herein is the Passover story:
Exodus 12:3-4
King James Version
3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying,
In the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every man a lamb,
according to the house of their fathers,
a lamb for an house:
4 And if the household be too little for the lamb,
let him and his neighbour next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls;
every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb.
Exodus 12:5
King James Version
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish,
a male of the first year:
ye shall take it out from the sheep,
or from the goats:
Exodus 12:6
King James Version
6 And ye shall keep it up
until the fourteenth day of the same month:
and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening.
Exodus 12:7
King James Version
7 And they shall take of the blood,
and strike it on the two side posts
and on the upper door post of the houses,
wherein they shall eat it.
Exodus 12:8
King James Version
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night,
roast with fire, and unleavened bread;
and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Exodus 12:9
King James Version
9 Eat not of it raw,
nor sodden at all with water,
but roast with fire;
his head with his legs,
and with the purtenance thereof.
Exodus 12:10
King James Version
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning;
and that which remaineth of it until the morning
ye shall burn with fire.
Exodus 12:11
King James Version
11 And thus shall ye eat it;
with your loins girded,
your shoes on your feet,
and your staff in your hand;
and ye shall eat it in haste:
it is the Lord's passover.
Exodus 12:12
King James Version
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night,
and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast;
and against all the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgment:
I am the Lord.
Exodus 12:13
King James Version
13 And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where ye are:
and when I see the blood, I will pass over you,
and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you,
when I smite the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:14
King James Version
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial;
and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord
throughout your generations;
ye shall keep it a feast
by an ordinance for ever.
Exodus 12:15
King James Version
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread;
even the first day ye shall put away leaven
out of your houses:
for whosoever eateth leavened bread
from the first day until the seventh day,
that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Exodus 12:16
King James Version
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation,
and in the seventh day
there shall be an holy convocation to you;
no manner of work shall be done in them,
save that which every man must eat,
that only may be done of you.
Exodus 12:17
King James Version
17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread;
for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies
out of the land of Egypt:
therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations
by an ordinance for ever.
Exodus 12:18-20
King James Version
18 In the first month,
on the fourteenth day of the month at even,
ye shall eat unleavened bread,
until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19 Seven days shall there be
no leaven found in your houses:
or whosoever eateth that which is leavened,
even that soul shall be cut off
from the congregation of Israel,
whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened;
in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
Exodus 12:21
King James Version
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel,
and said unto them,
Draw out and take you a lamb
according to your families,
and kill the passover.
Exodus 12:22
King James Version
22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop,
and dip it in the blood that is in the bason,
and strike the lintel and the two side posts
with the blood that is in the bason;
and none of you shall go out at the door of his house
until the morning.
Exodus 12:23
King James Version
23 For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians;
and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel,
and on the two side posts,
the Lord will pass over the door,
and will not suffer the destroyer to come in
unto your houses to smite you.
Exodus 12:24
King James Version
24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance
to thee and to thy sons for ever.
Exodus 12:25-28
King James Version
25 And it shall come to pass,
when ye be come to the land
which the Lord will give you,
according as he hath promised,
that ye shall keep this service.
26 And it shall come to pass,
when your children shall say unto you,
What mean ye by this service?
27 That ye shall say,
It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover,
who passed over the houses
of the children of Israel in Egypt,
when he smote the Egyptians,
and delivered our houses.
And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
28 And the children of Israel went away,
and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron,
so did they.
Exodus 12:29
King James Version
29 And it came to pass,
that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne
unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon;
and all the firstborn of cattle.
Exodus 12:30
King James Version
30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians;
and there was a great cry in Egypt;
for there was not a house
where there was not one dead.
Exodus 12:31-33
King James Version
31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night,
and said, Rise up,
and get you forth from among my people,
both ye and the children of Israel;
and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said.
32 Also take your flocks and your herds,
as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.
33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people,
that they might send them out of the land in haste;
for they said, We be all dead men.
Exodus 12:34
King James Version
34 And the people took their dough
before it was leavened,
their kneadingtroughs being bound up
in their clothes upon their shoulders.
Exodus 12:35-36
King James Version
35 And the children of Israel
did according to the word of Moses;
and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver,
and jewels of gold, and raiment:
36 And the Lord gave the people favour
in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they lent unto them such things as they required.
And they spoiled the Egyptians.
Exodus 12:37-40
King James Version
37 And the children of Israel journeyed
from Rameses to Succoth,
about six hundred thousand on foot that were men,
beside children.
38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them;
and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough
which they brought forth out of Egypt,
for it was not leavened;
because they were thrust out of Egypt,
and could not tarry,
neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.
40 Now the sojourning
of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt,
was four hundred and thirty years.
Exodus 12:41-42
King James Version
41 And it came to pass
at the end of the four hundred and thirty years,
even the selfsame day it came to pass,
that all the hosts of the Lord
went out from the land of Egypt.
42 It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord
for bringing them out from the land of Egypt:
this is that night of the Lord to be observed
of all the children of Israel in their generations.
Exodus 12:43-49
King James Version
43 And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron,
This is the ordinance of the passover:
There shall no stranger eat thereof:
44 But every man's servant that is bought for money,
when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
46 In one house shall it be eaten;
thou shalt not carry forth
ought of the flesh abroad out of the house;
neither shall ye break a bone thereof.
47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee,
and will keep the passover to the Lord,
let all his males be circumcised,
and then let him come near and keep it;
and he shall be as one that is born in the land:
for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn,
and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
Exodus 12:50
King James Version
50 Thus did all the children of Israel;
as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron,
so did they.
Exodus 12:51
King James Version
51 And it came to pass the selfsame day,
that the Lord did bring the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt by their armies.
In SUMMARY, this was GOD's law on the Passover:
Passover was to be the first month of the year for Israel.
Every tenth of that month, a lamb will be offered by every house.
The lamb will be without blemish, a one-year-old male, taken from sheep or goats.
The lamb will be kept up to the 14th day, after which it will be killed in the evening by the whole congregation of Israel.
The lamb's blood will be struck on the two side posts, and upper post of the doorway of each house.
The people will eat the roasted flesh that night, with unleavened bread, and bitter herbs.
The lamb shall be roasted whole.
Whatever's left in the morning must be burned with fire.
This Lord's passover must be eaten in haste -- with loins girded, shoes on feet, and staff in hand.
God will pass through the land of Egypt that night and smite all firstborn, both man and beast.
He will also execute judgment on all gods of Egypt.
The blood shall be a token upon the houses where people are.
When God sees the blood, He will pass over that house, and spare them from the plague.
The Passover is to be a memorial.
It will be a feast to the Lord -- an ordinance forever.
Israel will eat unleavened bread for seven days.
Whoever eats leavened bread for seven days shall be cut of from Israel.
The first day will be for convocation.
The seventh day entails no work, save for those involved in food production or preparation.
The feast of unleavened bread shall be observed, as an ordinance forever.
On the 21st day of that month, no leaven must be found in the house; nothing leavened must be eaten.
The passover will be killed.
A bunch of hyssop will be dipped in that blood to apply it on the side posts and upper door post.
No one must go out of his house until morning.
All who have the blood on the lintel and side posts will be spared from the Lord when He passes through to smite Egypt.
This ordinance must be observed by Israel and her sons forever.
This service must be kept when the Lord brings His people to the land He promised them.
When children ask about the service, parents are to tell them it is the "sacrifice of the Lord's passover", when He spared Israel as He smote Egypt.
The Lord smote all the firstborn of Egypt -- from the Pharoah's son, to the firstborn of the captive in dungeons, to the firstborn cattle.
There was not a house in the whole of Egypt that was spared.
Only then did Pharaoh relent, and released GOD's people.
The people left, taking their unleavened dough.
The Lord gave favor to His people, and they were able to borrow all the silver, gold, and raiment they needed.
Over 600,000 Israelites journeyed 430 years.
After 430 years, all Israelites had left Egypt.
This was a "night of the Lord" to be observed in all of Israel's generations.
No stranger may eat of the Passover, unless the males are circumcised first.
That same day, the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.
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