Pesach I

Pesach

Exodus 12:1–28 (CJB)

Instructions for the Feast of Pesach 1446 BCE

¹ Adonai spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt; he said, ² “You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you. ³ Speak to all the assembly of Isra’el and say, ‘On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household—⁴ except that if the household is too small for a whole lamb or kid, then he and his next-door neighbor should share one, dividing it in proportion to the number of people eating it. ⁵ Your animal must be without defect, a male in its first year, and you may choose it from either the sheep or the goats.

⁶ “ ‘You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then the entire assembly of the community of Isra’el will slaughter it at dusk. ⁷ They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame at the entrance of the house in which they eat it. ⁸ That night, they are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire; they are to eat it with matzah and maror. ⁹ Don’t eat it raw or boiled, but roasted in the fire, with its head, the lower parts of its legs and its inner organs. ¹⁰ Let nothing of it remain till morning; if any of it does remain, burn it up completely.

¹¹ “ ‘Here is how you are to eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand; and you are to eat it hurriedly. It is Adonai’s Pesach [Passover]. ¹² For that night, I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt; I am Adonai. ¹³ The blood will serve you as a sign marking the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over [Hebrew: pasach] you—when I strike the land of Egypt, the death blow will not strike you.

¹⁴ “ ‘This will be a day for you to remember and celebrate as a festival to Adonai; from generation to generation you are to celebrate it by a perpetual regulation.

¹⁵ “ ‘For seven days you are to eat matzah—on the first day remove the leaven from your houses. For whoever eats hametz [leavened bread] from the first to the seventh day is to be cut off from Isra’el. ¹⁶ On the first and seventh days, you are to have an assembly set aside for God. On these days no work is to be done, except what each must do to prepare his food; you may do only that. ¹⁷ You are to observe the festival of matzah, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you are to observe this day from generation to generation by a perpetual regulation. ¹⁸ From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day, you are to eat matzah. ¹⁹ During those seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. Whoever eats food with hametz in it is to be cut off from the community of Isra’el—it doesn’t matter whether he is a foreigner or a citizen of the land. ²⁰ Eat nothing with hametz in it. Wherever you live, eat matzah.’ ”

(v) ²¹ Then Moshe called for all the leaders of Isra’el and said, “Select and take lambs for your families, and slaughter the Pesach lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop leaves and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame. Then, none of you is to go out the door of his house until morning. ²³ For Adonai will pass through to kill the Egyptians; but when he sees the blood on the top and on the two sides, Adonai will pass over the door and will not allow the Slaughterer to enter your houses and kill you. ²⁴ You are to observe this as a law, you and your descendants forever.

²⁵ “When you come to the land which Adonai will give you, as he has promised, you are to observe this ceremony. ²⁶ When your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this ceremony?’ ²⁷ say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Adonai’s Pesach [Passover], because [Adonai] passed over the houses of the people of Isra’el in Egypt, when he killed the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” The people of Isra’el bowed their heads and worshipped. ²⁸ Then the people of Isra’el went and did as Adonai had ordered Moshe and Aharon—that is what they did.

(vi) 

Exodus 12:29–51 (CJB)

Death of Firstborn and Deliverance from Egypt

²⁹ At midnight Adonai killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. ³⁰ Pharaoh got up in the night, he, all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was horrendous wailing in Egypt; for there wasn’t a single house without someone dead in it. ³¹ He summoned Moshe and Aharon by night and said, “Up and leave my people, both you and the people of Isra’el; and go, serve Adonai as you said. ³² Take both your flocks and your herds, as you said; and get out of here! But bless me, too.” ³³ The Egyptians pressed to send the people out of the land quickly, because they said, “Otherwise we’ll all be dead!”

³⁴ The people took their dough before it had become leavened and wrapped their kneading bowls in their clothes on their shoulders. ³⁵ The people of Isra’el had done what Moshe had said—they had asked the Egyptians to give them silver and gold jewelry and clothing; ³⁶ and Adonai had made the Egyptians so favorably disposed toward the people that they had let them have whatever they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ The people of Isra’el traveled from Ra‘amses to Sukkot, some six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting children. ³⁸ A mixed crowd also went up with them, as well as livestock in large numbers, both flocks and herds. ³⁹ They baked matzah loaves from the dough they had brought out of Egypt, since it was unleavened; because they had been driven out of Egypt without time to prepare supplies for themselves.

⁴⁰ The time the people of Isra’el lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of 430 years to the day, all the divisions of Adonai left the land of Egypt. ⁴² This was a night when Adonai kept vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt, and this same night continues to be a night when Adonai keeps vigil for all the people of Isra’el through all their generations.

⁴³ Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, “This is the regulation for the Pesach lamb: no foreigner is to eat it. ⁴⁴ But if anyone has a slave he bought for money, when you have circumcised him, he may eat it. ⁴⁵ Neither a traveler nor a hired servant may eat it. ⁴⁶ It is to be eaten in one house. You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you are not to break any of its bones. ⁴⁷ The whole community of Isra’el is to keep it. ⁴⁸ If a foreigner staying with you wants to observe Adonai’s Pesach, all his males must be circumcised. Then he may take part and observe it; he will be like a citizen of the land. But no uncircumcised person is to eat it. ⁴⁹ The same teaching is to apply equally to the citizen and to the foreigner living among you.”

⁵⁰ All the people of Isra’el did just as Adonai had ordered Moshe and Aharon. ⁵¹ On that very day, Adonai brought the people of Isra’el out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.

PROPHETS

Joshua 3:1–17 (LEB)

The Israelites Cross the Jordan

3 Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove. And they came up to the Jordan, he and all the _⌊Israelites_⌋, and they spent the night there before they crossed over. ² At the end of the three days the officers passed through the midst of the camp, ³ and they commanded the people: “When you see the Levitical priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God you must set out from your place and go after it. ⁴ But there will be a distance between you and it of about two thousand cubits in measurement. Do not come near it, so that you may know the way that you must go, for you have not passed on this way _⌊before_⌋.” ⁵ And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, because tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders in your midst.” ⁶ And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over _⌊ahead of the people_⌋.” And they took up the ark of the covenant and went _⌊ahead of the people_⌋.

⁷ Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “This day I will begin exalting you _⌊in the sight_⌋ of all Israel, that they may know that I was with Moses, and I will be with you. ⁸ You will command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘At the moment that you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you will stand still in the Jordan.’ ” ⁹ And Joshua said to the _⌊Israelites_⌋, “Come here, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.” ¹⁰ Joshua said, “By this you will know that the living God is in your midst, and he will certainly drive out the Canaanites _⌊from before you_⌋, and the Hittites, Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. ¹¹ Look! The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is about to cross over ahead of you into the Jordan. ¹² So then, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, _⌊one from each tribe_⌋. ¹³ When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of Yahweh, Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off _⌊upstream_⌋, and they will stand still in one heap.

¹⁴ And it happened, when the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were _⌊ahead of the people_⌋. ¹⁵ When those carrying the ark came up to the Jordan, and the priests carrying the ark dipped their feet in the edge of the water (the Jordan was flowing over its banks during all the days of harvest), ¹⁶ the waters flowing down from above stood still; they stood up in one heap very far from Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while the waters flowing down to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, _⌊were completely cut off_⌋; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷ And the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firmly on the dry land in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation finished crossing the Jordan.

Joshua 4:1–24 (LEB)

The Israelites Make a Memorial

4 After all the nation finished crossing the Jordan, Yahweh said to Joshua, ² “Take twelve men from the people, _⌊one man from each tribe_⌋, ³ and command them, saying, ‘Take for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you, and set them up in _⌊the place where you will camp tonight_⌋.’ ” ⁴ So Joshua summoned the twelve men whom he had appointed from the _⌊Israelites_⌋, one from each tribe. ⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Cross over before the ark of Yahweh your God to the middle of the Jordan, and each one of you lift up a stone on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the _⌊Israelites_⌋, ⁶ so that this may be a reminder among you. When your children ask in the future, saying, ‘_⌊What do these stones mean to you_⌋?’ ⁷ you will say to them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off _⌊from before_⌋ the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones will be as a memorial for the _⌊Israelites_⌋ for eternity.”

⁸ Thus the _⌊Israelites_⌋ did as Joshua commanded. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan as Yahweh told Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the _⌊Israelites_⌋, and they carried them over with them to _⌊the camp_⌋, and they put them there. ⁹ Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day. ¹⁰ The priests carrying the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything that Yahweh commanded Joshua to tell the people was finished, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua. And the people hastily crossed over.

¹¹ And it happened, when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of Yahweh and the priests crossed over in front of the people. ¹² The children of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the _⌊Israelites_⌋, as Moses told them. ¹³ About forty thousand armed for fighting crossed over before the presence of Yahweh to the plains of Jericho for battle. ¹⁴ On that day Yahweh exalted Joshua _⌊in the sight_⌋ of all Israel, and they respected him as they respected Moses all the days of his life.

¹⁵ Then Yahweh said to Joshua, saying, ¹⁶ “Command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony _⌊to come up_⌋ from the Jordan.” ¹⁷ So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁸ And it happened that when the priests carrying the ark came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet _⌊touched dry land_⌋, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and flowed over all its banks as before.

¹⁹ And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. ²⁰ And those twelve stones that they took from the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. ²¹ And he said to the _⌊Israelites_⌋, “When your children ask in the future _⌊their parents_⌋, ‘_⌊What is the meaning of these stones_⌋?’ ²² you will let your children know by saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³ For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you, until you had crossed, just as Yahweh your God did to the _⌊Red Sea_⌋, which he dried up before us until we had crossed over, ²⁴ so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of Yahweh is strong, so that you may fear Yahweh your God _⌊forever_⌋.”

Joshua 5:1–7 (LEB)

The Israelites Are Circumcised

5 And it happened, when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that Yahweh dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of the _⌊Israelites_⌋ until they crossed over, their hearts melted, and _⌊there was no courage left in them_⌋ because of the presence of the _⌊Israelites_⌋.

² At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make for yourself knives of flint, and circumcise the _⌊Israelites_⌋ a second time.” ³ So Joshua made knives of flint, and he circumcised the _⌊Israelites_⌋ at the hill of the foreskins. ⁴ This is the reason why Joshua circumcised all the people: all the males who went out from Egypt, all the warriors, died in the wilderness as they went out from Egypt _⌊on the journey_⌋. ⁵ For all the people who left were circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness _⌊on the journey_⌋ after they left from Egypt were not circumcised. ⁶ For forty years the _⌊Israelites_⌋ traveled in the wilderness until all the nation, the warriors that left Egypt, perished, because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. To them Yahweh swore that they would not see the land that he swore to their ancestors to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷ And it was their children whom he raised in their place that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised _⌊on the journey_⌋.

Joshua 5:8–12 (LEB)

The Israelites Celebrate Passover in Canaan

⁸ And it happened, when all the nation had finished circumcising, they remained where they were in the camp until they recovered. ⁹ And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” Therefore, the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. ¹⁰ And the _⌊Israelites_⌋ camped at Gilgal, and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, on the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ On the next day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate from the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and roasted corn. ¹² And the manna ceased the day after, when they started eating the produce of the land, and there was no longer manna for the _⌊Israelites_⌋. They ate from the crop of the land of Canaan in that year.

GOSPELS

Matthew 26:17–25 (CJB)

Jesus’ Final Passover with the Disciples

¹⁷ On the first day for matzah, the talmidim came to Yeshua and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare your Seder?” ¹⁸ “Go into the city, to so-and-so,” he replied, “and tell him that the Rabbi says, ‘My time is near, my talmidim and I are celebrating Pesach at your house.’ ” ¹⁹ The talmidim did as Yeshua directed and prepared the Seder.

²⁰ When evening came, Yeshua reclined with the twelve talmidim; ²¹ and as they were eating, he said, “Yes, I tell you that one of you is going to betray me.” ²² They became terribly upset and began asking him, one after the other, “Lord, you don’t mean me, do you?” ²³ He answered, “The one who dips his matzah in the dish with me is the one who will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man will die just as the Tanakh says he will; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him had he never been born!” ²⁵ Y’hudah, the one who was betraying him, then asked, “Surely, Rabbi, you don’t mean me?” He answered, “The words are yours.”

Matthew 26:26–30 (CJB)

The Lord’s Supper 29 AD

²⁶ While they were eating, Yeshua took a piece of matzah, made the b’rakhah, broke it, gave it to the talmidim and said, “Take! Eat! This is my body!” ²⁷ Also he took a cup of wine, made the b’rakhah, and gave it to them, saying, “All of you, drink from it! ²⁸ For this is my blood, which ratifies the New Covenant, my blood shed on behalf of many, so that they may have their sins forgiven. ²⁹ I tell you, I will not drink this ‘fruit of the vine’ again until the day I drink new wine with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

³⁰ After singing the Hallel, they went out to the Mount of Olives.