Before the final plague, God told Moses and Aaron to make that month the first month of the year. Every household was to choose an unblemished year-old male lamb on the tenth day and kill it at twilight on the fourteenth. They were to roast it, eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and leave none until morning. They ate dressed for travel, with belts fastened, sandals on, and staffs in hand.
They put the lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintels of the houses where they ate. God said that he would pass through Egypt and strike the firstborn of people and animals, but would pass over houses marked by blood. The day would be a memorial, and the people were to eat unleavened bread for seven days. Anyone eating leaven during that feast would be cut off from Israel.
At midnight every firstborn in Egypt died. Pharaoh, his servants, and Egypt cried out loudly. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron at night and told the people to leave with their flocks and herds, asking for a blessing as well. Egyptians pressed them to go quickly. The Israelites carried their unleavened dough in bowls wrapped on their shoulders.
They asked Egyptians for silver, gold, and clothing, and the Egyptians gave what they asked. The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth: about six hundred thousand men besides children, with many other people and much livestock. On the very night that marked four hundred thirty years in Egypt, the Israelites came out of the land.
Moses and Aaron gave these instructions to all Israel’s elders. Each household was to kill a lamb and use a bunch of hyssop to put its blood on the doorway. No one was to leave the house until morning. When the LORD passed through Egypt, he would see the blood and not allow the destroyer to enter that house. In later years, parents were to tell children who asked that this was the sacrifice of the Passover, when the LORD passed over Israelite houses in Egypt. The people bowed and worshiped.
That night firstborn people died from Pharaoh’s house to the captive in prison, and firstborn animals died as well. There was a great cry in Egypt because no house lacked someone dead. Israel left before dough could be leavened and baked unleavened cakes from what they carried. Egypt pressed them out so urgently that they had no time to prepare provisions. The procession from Rameses toward Succoth left forced labor behind and entered the night road.
The Passover lamb was shared according to the number in a household. A small household joined with a neighbor and divided the lamb according to what each person could eat. No bone was to be broken, and what remained in the morning was burned. A foreigner or hired worker did not eat it, but a circumcised man could keep the Passover. The same rule applied to those who left Egypt and to those who later lived among them.