Dedication of the First-Born

¹The Lord said to Moses,

²“Dedicate all the first-born males to me, for every first-born male Israelite and every first-born male animal belongs to me.”

The Festival of Unleavened Bread

³Moses said to the people, “Remember this day—the day on which you left Egypt, the place where you were slaves. This is the day the Lord brought you out by his great power. No leavened bread is to be eaten.

⁴You are leaving Egypt on this day in the first month, the month of Abib.

⁵The Lord solemnly promised your ancestors to give you the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. When he brings you into that rich and fertile land, you must celebrate this festival in the first month of every year.

⁶For seven days you must eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to honor the Lord.

⁷For seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast; there must be no yeast or leavened bread anywhere in your land.

⁸When the festival begins, explain to your sons that you do all this because of what the Lord did for you when you left Egypt.

⁹This observance will be a reminder, like something tied on your hand or on your forehead; it will remind you to continue to recite and study the Law of the Lord, because the Lord brought you out of Egypt by his great power.

¹⁰Celebrate this festival at the appointed time each year.

The First-Born

¹¹“The Lord will bring you into the land of the Canaanites, which he solemnly promised to you and your ancestors. When he gives it to you,

¹²you must offer every first-born male to the Lord. Every first-born male of your animals belongs to the Lord,

¹³but you must buy back from him every first-born male donkey by offering a lamb in its place. If you do not want to buy back the donkey, break its neck. You must buy back every first-born male child of yours.

¹⁴In the future, when your son asks what this observance means, you will answer him, ‘By using great power the Lord brought us out of Egypt, the place where we were slaves.

¹⁵When the king of Egypt was stubborn and refused to let us go, the Lord killed every first-born male in the land of Egypt, both human and animal. That is why we sacrifice every first-born male animal to the Lord, but buy back our first-born sons.

¹⁶This observance will be a reminder, like something tied on our hands or on our foreheads; it will remind us that the Lord brought us out of Egypt by his great power.’”

The Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire

¹⁷When the king of Egypt let the people go, God did not take them by the road that goes up the coast to Philistia, although it was the shortest way. God thought, “I do not want the people to change their minds and return to Egypt when they see that they are going to have to fight.”

¹⁸Instead, he led them in a roundabout way through the desert toward the Red Sea. The Israelites were armed for battle.

¹⁹Moses took the body of Joseph with him, as Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly promise to do. Joseph had said, “When God rescues you, you must carry my body with you from this place.”

²⁰The Israelites left Sukkoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the desert.

²¹During the day the Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and during the night he went in front of them in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel night and day.

²²The pillar of cloud was always in front of the people during the day, and the pillar of fire at night.

Crossing the Red Sea

¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

²“Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the Red Sea, near Baal Zephon.

³The king will think that the Israelites are wandering around in the country and are closed in by the desert.

⁴I will make him stubborn, and he will pursue you, and my victory over the king and his army will bring me honor. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” The Israelites did as they were told.

⁵When the king of Egypt was told that the people had escaped, he and his officials changed their minds and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites escape, and we have lost them as our slaves!”

⁶The king got his war chariot and his army ready.

⁷He set out with all his chariots, including the six hundred finest, commanded by their officers.

⁸The Lord made the king stubborn, and he pursued the Israelites, who were leaving triumphantly.

⁹The Egyptian army, with all the horses, chariots, and drivers, pursued them and caught up with them where they were camped by the Red Sea near Pi Hahiroth and Baal Zephon.

¹⁰When the Israelites saw the king and his army marching against them, they were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help.

¹¹They said to Moses, “Weren't there any graves in Egypt? Did you have to bring us out here in the desert to die? Look what you have done by bringing us out of Egypt!

¹²Didn't we tell you before we left that this would happen? We told you to leave us alone and let us go on being slaves of the Egyptians. It would be better to be slaves there than to die here in the desert.”

¹³Moses answered, “Don't be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the Lord will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again.

¹⁴The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still.”

¹⁵The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out for help? Tell the people to move forward.

¹⁶Lift up your walking stick and hold it out over the sea. The water will divide, and the Israelites will be able to walk through the sea on dry ground.

¹⁷I will make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will go in after them, and I will gain honor by my victory over the king, his army, his chariots, and his drivers.

¹⁸When I defeat them, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”

¹⁹The angel of God, who had been in front of the army of Israel, moved and went to the rear. The pillar of cloud also moved until it was

²⁰between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud made it dark for the Egyptians, but gave light to the people of Israel, and so the armies could not come near each other all night.

²¹Moses held out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind. It blew all night and turned the sea into dry land. The water was divided,

²²and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides.

²³The Egyptians pursued them and went after them into the sea with all their horses, chariots, and drivers.

²⁴Just before dawn the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw them into a panic.

²⁵He made the wheels of their chariots get stuck, so that they moved with great difficulty. The Egyptians said, “The Lord is fighting for the Israelites against us. Let's get out of here!”

²⁶The Lord said to Moses, “Hold out your hand over the sea, and the water will come back over the Egyptians and their chariots and drivers.”

²⁷So Moses held out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the water returned to its normal level. The Egyptians tried to escape from the water, but the Lord threw them into the sea.

²⁸The water returned and covered the chariots, the drivers, and all the Egyptian army that had followed the Israelites into the sea; not one of them was left.

²⁹But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides.

³⁰On that day the Lord saved the people of Israel from the Egyptians, and the Israelites saw them lying dead on the seashore.

³¹When the Israelites saw the great power with which the Lord had defeated the Egyptians, they stood in awe of the Lord; and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

The Sin of Nadab and Abihu

¹Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan, put live coals in it, added incense, and presented it to the Lord. But this fire was not holy, because the Lord had not commanded them to present it.

²Suddenly the Lord sent fire, and it burned them to death there in the presence of the Lord.

³Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord was speaking about when he said, ‘All who serve me must respect my holiness; I will reveal my glory to my people.’” But Aaron remained silent.

⁴Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, Aaron's uncle, and said to them, “Come here and carry your cousins' bodies away from the sacred Tent and put them outside the camp.”

⁵So they came and took hold of the clothing on the corpses and carried them outside the camp, just as Moses had commanded.

⁶Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not leave your hair uncombed or tear your clothes to show that you are in mourning. If you do, you will die, and the Lord will be angry with the whole community. But all other Israelites are allowed to mourn this death caused by the fire which the Lord sent.

⁷Do not leave the entrance of the Tent or you will die, because you have been consecrated by the anointing oil of the Lord.” So they did as Moses said.

Rules for Priests

⁸The Lord said to Aaron,

⁹“You and your sons are not to enter the Tent of my presence after drinking wine or beer; if you do, you will die. This is a law to be kept by all your descendants.

¹⁰You must distinguish between what belongs to God and what is for general use, between what is ritually clean and what is unclean.

¹¹You must teach the people of Israel all the laws which I have given to you through Moses.”

¹²Moses said to Aaron and his two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left over from the food offered to the Lord, make unleavened bread with it and eat it beside the altar, because this offering is very holy.

¹³Eat it in a holy place; it is the part that belongs to you and your sons from the food offered to the Lord. That is what the Lord commanded me.

¹⁴But you and your families may eat the breast and the hind leg that are presented as the special gift and the special contribution to the Lord for the priests. You may eat them in any ritually clean place. These offerings have been given to you and your children as the part that belongs to you from the fellowship offerings of the people of Israel.

¹⁵They shall bring the hind leg and the breast at the time the fat is presented as a food offering to the Lord. These parts belong to you and your children forever, just as the Lord commanded.”

¹⁶Moses asked about the goat for the sin offering and learned that it had already been burned. This made him angry at Eleazar and Ithamar, and he demanded,

¹⁷“Why didn't you eat the sin offering in a sacred place? It is very holy, and the Lord has given it to you in order to take away the sin of the community.

¹⁸Since its blood was not brought into the sacred Tent, you should have eaten the sacrifice there, as I commanded.”

¹⁹Aaron answered, “If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved? The people presented their sin offering to the Lord today, and they brought their burnt offering, but still these terrible things have happened to me.”

²⁰When Moses heard this, he was satisfied.

Human Wickedness

¹Fools say to themselves, “There is no God.” They are all corrupt, and they have done terrible things; there is no one who does what is right.

²God looks down from heaven at people to see if there are any who are wise, any who worship him.

³But they have all turned away; they are all equally bad. Not one of them does what is right, not a single one.

⁴“Don't they know?” God asks. “Are these evildoers ignorant? They live by robbing my people, and they never pray to me.”

⁵But then they will become terrified, as they have never been before, for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people. God has rejected them, and so Israel will totally defeat them.

⁶How I pray that victory will come to Israel from Zion. How happy the people of Israel will be when God makes them prosperous again!