25. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
26. When your children ask you what this ceremony means to you,
27. you must answer, ‘It’s the Passover sacrifice in the Lord’s honor. The Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he killed the Egyptians.’”Then the people knelt, bowing with their faces touching the ground.
28. The Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
29. At midnight the Lord killed every firstborn male in Egypt from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who ruled the land to the firstborn son of the prisoner in jail, and also every firstborn animal.
30. Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the ⌊other⌋ Egyptians got up during the night. There was loud crying throughout Egypt because in every house someone had died.
31. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night. He said, “You and the Israelites must leave my people at once. Go, worship the Lord as you asked.
32. Take your flocks and herds, too, as you asked. Just go! And bless me, too!”
33. The Egyptians begged the people to leave the country quickly. They said, “Soon we’ll all be dead!”
34. So the people picked up their bread dough before it had risen and carried it on their shoulders in bowls, wrapped up in their clothes.
35. The Israelites did what Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for gold and silver jewelry and for clothes.
36. The Lord made the Egyptians generous to the people, and they gave them what they asked for. So the Israelites stripped Egypt of its wealth.
37. The Israelites left Rameses to go to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, plus all the women and children.
38. Many other people also went with them, along with large numbers of sheep, goats, and cattle.
39. With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked round, flat bread. The dough hadn’t risen because they’d been thrown out of Egypt and had no time to prepare food for the trip.
40. The Israelites had been living in Egypt for 430 years.
41. After exactly 430 years all the Lord’s people left Egypt in organized family groups.
42. That night the Lord kept watch to take them out of Egypt. (All Israelites in future generations must keep watch on this night, since it is dedicated to the Lord.)