The Passover is both a single event in the history of Israel and an annual feast in remembrance of that event. Pharaoh is going to let the children of Israel go – they will be made to leave quickly as a matter of fact – but he will change his mind one more time and try to get them back.

Exodus 12

The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,

2 “This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying ‘In the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for each house.

4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, let him and his next door neighbor take it according to the number of individuals; portion for each person according to what they will eat. 

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats.

6 And keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it in the evening. 

7 They shall take some of the blood and strike it on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses, in which they eat it.

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

9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled in water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the internal organs.

10 Do not let any of it remain until morning; any that remains until the morning you shall burn with fire. 

11 This is how you are to eat it; with your garment tucked into your belt, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat in a hurry: it is the LORD’s passover.

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike 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. 

13 And the blood shall be to you a sign on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague will not come to you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 This day will become to you a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

15 Seven days you are to eat unleavened bread; the first day you shall put away leaven from your houses: whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

16 On the first day there will be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation; no kind of work will be done in them, except that every man must eat, only that may be done by you.

17 And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for on this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.

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

19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses: whoever eats leavened bread, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether a stranger or born in the land.

20 You shall eat nothing leavened; you shall eat unleavened bread in all your homes.’”

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them “Select a lamb according to your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb.

22 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 no one shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.

23 For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.

24 You will observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.

25 And when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, according to his promise, you will keep this service.

26 When your children say unto you ‘What does this service mean?’

27 Then you will say ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians and delivered our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

28 The children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. 

29 At midnight the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of livestock.

30 When Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise up, and go forth from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD as ye have said.

32 Take your flocks and your herds also, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”

33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people, that they might send them out of the land quickly; for they said, “We are all dead men.”

34 The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

35 The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed from the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing. 

36 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them such things as they required. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

37 The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside women and children.

38 And a mixed multitude also went with them; and flocks, and herds, and very much livestock.

39 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought with them from Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions. 

40 Now the time the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. 

41 At the end of the 430 years, on the very same day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.  

42 It is a night to be much observed to the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is the night the LORD is to be observed by all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

43 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat of it.

 44 But every servant that is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he shall eat it.

45 A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat.

46 In one house it will be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh out of the house; neither shall you break a bone of it.

47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

48 When a stranger comes to stay with you, and is willing to 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 born in the land: for no uncircumcised person may eat it.

49 One law shall apply to the native and to the foreigner that lives among you.

50 All the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.

51 On that same day the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.