1. Thu: 2 Corinthians 1-3
  2. Fri: Ezekiel 26-27
  3. Sat: Psalms 9-16
Sunday · Week 14
The Books of the Law

Exodus 10-13

Week 14 · about 17 min
  1. Mon: Mark 4-5
  2. Tue: Isaiah 36-39
  3. Wed: 1 Samuel 13-16

The last three plagues, the first Passover, and Israel’s departure from Egypt.

When I See the Blood

And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:13 (KJV)

Locusts strip the land. Then three days of darkness, “darkness which may be felt,” while Israel’s homes have light. Then comes the final plague. Each family kills a lamb without blemish, paints its blood on the doorposts, and eats in traveling clothes with unleavened bread. God says, “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.” At midnight there’s a great cry across Egypt, and Israel leaves with silver and gold from their neighbors. A “mixed multitude” of non-Israelites goes with them. God makes Passover a yearly feast so children will ask what it means. Paul later calls Christ our Passover lamb.

Reflect: How are you helping the next generation ask what God’s works mean?

Exodus 10

1And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh: for I have made his heart and the hearts of his servants hard, so that I may let my signs be seen among them:

2And so that you may be able to give to your son and to your son's son the story of my wonders in Egypt, and the signs which I have done among them; so that you may see that I am the Lord.

3Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you be lifted up in your pride before me? let my people go so that they may give me worship.

4For if you will not let my people go, tomorrow I will send locusts into your land:

5And the face of the earth will be covered with them, so that you will not be able to see the earth: and they will be the destruction of everything which up to now has not been damaged, everything which was not crushed by the ice-storm, and every tree still living in your fields.

6And your houses will be full of them, and the houses of your servants and of all the Egyptians; it will be worse than anything your fathers have seen or their fathers, from the day when they were living on the earth till this day. And so he went out from Pharaoh.

7And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long is this man to be the cause of evil to us? let the men go so that they may give worship to the Lord their God: are you not awake to Egypt's danger?

8Then Moses and Aaron came in again before Pharaoh: and he said to them, Go and give worship to the Lord your God: but which of you are going?

9And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds; for we are to keep a feast to the Lord.

10And he said to them, May the Lord be with you, if I will let you and your little ones go! take care, for your purpose clearly is evil.

11Not so; but let your males go and give worship to the Lord, as your desire is. This he said, driving them out from before him.

12And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the land of Egypt so that the locusts may come up on the land for the destruction of every green plant in the land, even everything untouched by the ice-storm.

13And Moses' rod was stretched out over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; and in the morning the locusts came up with the east wind.

14And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, resting on every part of the land, in very great numbers; such an army of locusts had never been seen before, and never will be again.

15For all the face of the earth was covered with them, so that the land was black; and every green plant and all the fruit of the trees which was untouched by the ice-storm they took for food: not one green thing, no plant or tree, was to be seen in all the land of Egypt.

16Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, I have done evil against the Lord your God and against you.

17Let me now have forgiveness for my sin this time only, and make prayer to the Lord your God that he will take away from me this death only.

18So he went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord.

19And the Lord sent a very strong west wind, which took up the locusts, driving them into the Red Sea; not one locust was to be seen in any part of Egypt.

20But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go.

21And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out to heaven, and all the land of Egypt will be dark, so that men will be feeling their way about in the dark.

22And when Moses' hand was stretched out, dark night came over all the land of Egypt for three days;

23They were not able to see one another, and no one got up from his place for three days: but where the children of Israel were living it was light.

24Then Pharaoh sent for Moses, and said, Go and give worship to the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept here: your little ones may go with you.

25But Moses said, You will have to let us take burned offerings to put before the Lord our God.

26So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place.

27But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not let them go.

28And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me, take care that you come not again before me; for the day when you see my face again will be your last.

29And Moses said, You say truly; I will not see your face again.

Exodus 11

1And the Lord said to Moses, I will send one more punishment on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let you go; and when he does let you go, he will not keep one of you back, but will send you out by force.

2So go now and give orders to the people that every man and every woman is to get from his or her neighbour ornaments of silver and of gold.

3And the Lord gave the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians. For the man Moses was highly honoured in the land of Egypt, by Pharaoh's servants and the people.

4And Moses said, This is what the Lord says: About the middle of the night I will go out through Egypt:

5And death will come to every mother's first male child in all the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power, to the child of the servant-girl crushing the grain; and the first births of all the cattle.

6And there will be a great cry through all the land of Egypt, such as never has been or will be again.

7But against the children of Israel, man or beast, not so much as the tongue of a dog will be moved: so that you may see how the Lord makes a division between Israel and the Egyptians.

8And all these your servants will come to me, going down on their faces before me and saying, Go out, and all your people with you: and after that I will go out. And he went away from Pharaoh burning with wrath.

9And the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not give ear to you, so that my wonders may be increased in the land of Egypt.

10All these wonders Moses and Aaron did before Pharaoh: but the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Exodus 12

1And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

2Let this month be to you the first of months, the first month of the year.

3Say to all the children of Israel when they are come together, In the tenth day of this month every man is to take a lamb, by the number of their fathers' families, a lamb for every family:

4And if the lamb is more than enough for the family, let that family and its nearest neighbour have a lamb between them, taking into account the number of persons and how much food is needed for every man.

5Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year: you may take it from among the sheep or the goats:

6Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark.

7Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken.

8And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb, cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants.

9Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water, but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its inside parts.

10Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is not used is to be burned with fire.

11And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it quickly: it is the Lord's Passover.

12For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord.

13And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt.

14And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as an order for ever.

15For seven days let your food be unleavened bread; from the first day no leaven is to be seen in your houses: whoever takes bread with leaven in it, from the first till the seventh day, will be cut off from Israel.

16And on the first day there is to be a holy meeting and on the seventh day a holy meeting; no sort of work may be done on those days but only to make ready what is necessary for everyone's food.

17So keep the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very day I have taken your armies out of the land of Egypt: this day, then, is to be kept through all your generations by an order for ever.

18In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day, let your food be unleavened bread till the evening of the twenty-first day of the month.

19For seven days no leaven is to be seen in your houses: for whoever takes bread which is leavened will be cut off from the people of Israel, if he is from another country or if he is an Israelite by birth.

20Take nothing which has leaven in it; wherever you are living let your food be unleavened cakes.

21Then Moses sent for the chiefs of Israel, and said to them, See that lambs are marked out for yourselves and your families, and let the Passover lamb be put to death.

22And take some hyssop and put it in the blood in the basin, touching the two sides and the top of the doorway with the blood from the basin; and let not one of you go out of his house till the morning.

23For the Lord will go through the land, sending death on the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the two sides and the top of the door, the Lord will go over your door and will not let death come in for your destruction.

24And you are to keep this as an order to you and to your sons for ever.

25And when you come into the land which the Lord will make yours, as he gave his word, you are to keep this act of worship.

26And when your children say to you, What is the reason of this act of worship?

27Then you will say, This is the offering of the Lord's Passover; for he went over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he sent death on the Egyptians, and kept our families safe. And the people gave worship with bent heads.

28And the children of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had given orders to Moses and Aaron, so they did.

29And in the middle of the night the Lord sent death on every first male child in the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power to the child of the prisoner in the prison; and the first births of all the cattle.

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

31And he sent for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get up and go out from among my people, you and the children of Israel; go and give worship to the Lord as you have said.

32And take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone; and give me your blessing.

33And the Egyptians were forcing the people on, to get them out of the land quickly; for they said, We are all dead men.

34And the people took their bread-paste before it was leavened, putting their basins in their clothing on their backs.

35And the children of Israel had done as Moses had said; and they got from the Egyptians ornaments of silver and of gold, and clothing:

36And the Lord had given the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians so that they gave them whatever was requested. So they took away all their goods from the Egyptians.

37And the children of Israel made the journey from Rameses to Succoth; there were about six hundred thousand men on foot, as well as children.

38And a mixed band of people went with them; and flocks and herds in great numbers.

39And they made unleavened cakes from the paste which they had taken out of Egypt; it was not leavened, for they had been sent out of Egypt so quickly, that they had no time to make any food ready.

40Now the children of Israel had been living in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

41And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.

42It is a watch-night before the Lord who took them out of the land of Egypt: this same night is a watch-night to the Lord for all the children of Israel, through all their generations.

43And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the law of the Passover: no man who is not an Israelite is to take of it:

44But every man's servant, whom he has got for money, may take of it, when he has had circumcision.

45A man from a strange country living among you, and a servant working for payment, may not take part in it.

46It is to be taken in one house; not a bit of the flesh is to be taken out of the house, and no bone of it may be broken.

47All Israel is to keep the feast.

48And if a man from another country is living with you, and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all the males of his family undergo circumcision, and then let him come near and keep it; for he will then be as one of your people; but no one without circumcision may keep it.

49The law is the same for him who is an Israelite by birth and for the man from a strange country who is living with you.

50So the children of Israel did as the Lord gave orders to Moses and Aaron.

51And on that very day the Lord took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

Exodus 13

1And the Lord said to Moses,

2Let the first male child of every mother among the children of Israel be kept holy for me, even the first male birth among man or beast; for it is mine.

3And Moses said to the people, Let this day, on which you came out of Egypt, out of your prison-house, be kept for ever in memory; for by the strength of his hand the Lord has taken you out from this place; let no leavened bread be used.

4On this day, in the month Abib, you are going out.

5And it will be that, when the Lord takes you into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, the land which he made an oath to your fathers that he would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you will do this act of worship in this month.

6For seven days let your food be unleavened cakes; and on the seventh day there is to be a feast to the Lord.

7Unleavened cakes are to be your food through all the seven days; let no leavened bread be seen among you, or any leaven, in any part of your land.

8And you will say to your son in that day, It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.

9And this will be for a sign to you on your hand and for a mark on your brow, so that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth: for with a strong hand the Lord took you out of Egypt.

10So let this order be kept, at the right time, from year to year.

11And when the Lord takes you into the land of Canaan, as he made his oath to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you,

12You are to put on one side for the Lord every mother's first male child, the first-fruit of her body, and the first young one of every beast; every male is holy to the Lord.

13And for the young of an ass you may give a lamb in payment, or if you will not make payment for it, its neck is to be broken; but for all the first sons among your children, let payment be made.

14And when your son says to you in time to come, What is the reason for this? say to him, By the strength of his hand the Lord took us out of Egypt, out of the prison-house:

15And when Pharaoh made his heart hard and would not let us go, the Lord sent death on all the first sons in Egypt, of man and of beast: and so every first male who comes to birth is offered to the Lord; but for all the first of my sons I give a price.

16And this will be for a sign on your hand and for a mark on your brow: for by the strength of his hand the Lord took us out of Egypt.

17Now after Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not take them through the land of the Philistines, though that was near: for God said, If the people see war, they may have a change of heart and go back to Egypt.

18But God took the people round by the waste land near the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up in fighting order out of the land of Egypt.

19And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly keep you in mind; and you are to take my bones away with you.

20Then they went on their journey from Succoth, and put up their tents in Etham at the edge of the waste land.

21And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, guiding them on their way; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light: so that they were able to go on day and night:

22The pillar of cloud went ever before them by day, and the pillar of fire by night.

Bible in Basic English (BBE). Bible in Basic English (BBE), public domain in the United States.