Study Desk

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.

One person could not see another, and for three days they did not move from where they were. Yet all the Israelites had light where they lived.

Moses responded, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to prepare for the Lord our God.

Pharaoh said to him, “Leave me! Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”

Now announce to the people that both men and women should ask their neighbors for silver and gold items.”

“This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.

If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat.

Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.

The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel.

You are to hold a sacred assembly on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat—you may do only that.

Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel.

“Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants.

you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” So the people knelt low and worshiped.

Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!”

The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing.

The people baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, since it had no yeast; for when they were driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared provisions for themselves.

It was a night of vigil in honor of the Lord, because he would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the Lord, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations.

Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, for the Lord brought you out of here by the strength of his hand. Nothing leavened may be eaten.