Exodus 12:14-28
The Passover deliverance must become Israel's enduring memorial, forming a people who remember the blood-marked rescue, remove leaven, teach their children, worship the Lord, and obey His word.
14 This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh. You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.
15 “ ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, only that may be done by you.
17 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.
19 There shall be no yeast found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner, or one who is born in the land.
20 You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, “Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover.
22 You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23 For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.
24 You shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.
25 It shall happen when you have come to the land which Yahweh will give you, as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.
26 It will happen, when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’
27 that you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahweh’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.’ ” The people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28 The children of Israel went and did so; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
The Passover deliverance must become Israel's enduring memorial, forming a people who remember the blood-marked rescue, remove leaven, teach their children, worship the LORD, and obey his word.
Exodus 12:14-28 commands Israel to remember the Passover deliverance as a permanent covenant memorial and to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a consecrated pattern of worship, household instruction, and obedient response. The passage moves from the LORD's festival commands to Moses' instruction of the elders and concludes with Israel bowing in worship and doing exactly as the LORD commanded.
Exodus 12:14-28 stands between the first Passover instructions of Exodus 12:1-13 and the death of Egypt's firstborn in Exodus 12:29-36. The first unit explains the selected lamb, blood sign, and meal for the night of judgment. This unit expands the event into an enduring ordinance, then returns to Moses' instruction to the elders and Israel's obedient response.
The instructions are given while Israel remains in Egypt but stands on the edge of deliverance. The LORD has announced the final plague, given the Passover lamb instructions, and now establishes the memorial calendar and household teaching pattern that will preserve the meaning of the exodus after the night of judgment has passed.
Passover, Judgment, and the Exodus from Egypt
The LORD redeems His people from Egypt through judgment and blood, establishing Passover as the lasting memorial of His saving distinction and covenant deliverance.