Exodus 12:14-13:16
14 This day shall be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. Throughout your generations you must celebrate it as a permanent regulation. 15 For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you must be sure to remove all yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day will be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you are to have a holy convocation; also on the seventh day there is to be a holy convocation. You shall not do any work, except to prepare what everybody needs to eat. That is all you may do.
17 You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your divisions out from the land of Egypt. You shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent regulation. 18 In the first month, you shall eat unleavened bread from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. 19 No yeast is to be found in your houses for seven days, for whoever eats something leavened must be cut off from the Israelite community, whether a foreigner or native-born of the land. 20 You shall not eat anything leavened. You shall eat unleavened bread in every place you live.
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take lambs for yourselves according to your family size, and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 You shall take a bundle of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and paint the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you are to go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
24 “You shall observe these instructions as a perpetual regulation for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you just as he said he would, you shall observe this ceremony. 26 So when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Passover to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. When he struck the Egyptians, he spared our houses.’”
The people bowed down and worshipped. 28 The Israelites went and did all this. They did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
The Exodus
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, even all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 During the night Pharaoh got up—he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians—and there was a loud outcry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not someone dead. 31 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron that night and said, “Get up, get away from my people! Both you and the Israelites, go, serve the Lord, as you have said! 32 Take also your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go! But also bless me!”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to leave the land quickly, for the Egyptians said, “We are all going to die!” 34 The Israelites took their dough before it was leavened. They carried their kneading bowls, which were wrapped in their clothing, on their shoulders. 35 The Israelites did just as Moses had said, and they asked the Egyptians for articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let the Israelites have what they asked for. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites set out from Rameses to Sukkoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides their families. 38 A mixed group of non-Israelites also went up along with them, as well as a large amount of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 The Israelites baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, for it had not been leavened, because they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay. They also had not prepared any provisions for themselves.
40 The amount of time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. 41 At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the very day, all of the Lord’s divisions went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It was a night that the Lord kept vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is dedicated to the Lord. All the Israelites are to keep vigil throughout their generations.
Passover Restrictions
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the regulation concerning the Passover: No foreigner may eat it. 44 But any slave whom you have purchased may eat it if you circumcise him. 45 A temporary resident or a hired servant may not eat it. 46 It must be eaten inside one house. You are not to carry any of the meat outside of the house. Do not break any of its bones. 47 The whole community of Israel shall do this. 48 If a resident alien among you wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, every male in his household must be circumcised. Then he may take part in it. He will be treated like a native-born of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. 49 The same law will apply to the native-born and to the alien who resides among you.” 50 So that is what all the Israelites did. They did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 That same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, lined up by their divisions.
Instructions for Remembering the Passover
13 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Set apart all the firstborn for me, the firstborn of every mother[a] among the Israelites, both people and animals. The firstborn belongs to me.”
3 Then Moses said this to the people:
Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, where you were slaves.[b] For by the strength of his hand the Lord brought you out from there. Nothing with leaven[c] may be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving. 5 So when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—the land he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to perform this ceremony during this month: 6 Seven days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord. 7 Unleavened bread must be eaten throughout the seven days. No leavened bread is to be seen among you. No yeast is to be seen among you, anywhere in your entire territory. 8 On that day you are to explain this to your son, “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.” 9 This will serve as a sign for you on your wrist and a reminder on your forehead[d] so that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a mighty hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. 10 You must keep this regulation at its appointed time from year to year.
11 When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites—just as he swore to you and to your fathers—and gives it to you, 12 then you must dedicate the firstborn of every mother to the Lord. Every firstborn of your livestock, the ones that are males, will belong to the Lord. 13 Every firstborn donkey you are to redeem with a lamb. But if you do not want to redeem it, then you are to break its neck. However, you must redeem all the firstborn among your sons.
14 In the future, when your son asks you, “What is this about?” you will say to him, “By the strength of his hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, where we were slaves. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, the firstborn of people and animals. That is why I sacrifice to the Lord the firstborn of every mother, the males, but I redeem every firstborn of my sons.” 16 It will serve as a sign on your wrist and a symbol on your forehead. For by the strength of his hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.
Footnotes:
- Exodus 13:2 Literally the opener of every womb. Jewish tradition, however, focuses more on the firstborn sons of fathers. This verse seems to be a general statement of a principle, for which details are given later. It is not clear how the principle was to be applied to flocks.
- Exodus 13:3 Literally the house of slaves
- Exodus 13:3 Yeast is the most common kind of leaven, but the terms are not synonymous. Yeast is an organism. Leaven is any agent that causes bread to rise. Leaven in the Bible was frequently a clump of fermented dough that had been reserved.
- Exodus 13:9 Since the ceremony could not be literally worn on the wrist or forehead, this seems to mean that the ceremony would be a visual aid in the same way that objects worn on the wrist or forehead would be (Deuteronomy 6:8).
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Matthew 20:29-21:22
Jesus Heals Two Blind Men
29 As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30 There were two blind men sitting by the road. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 31 The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be quiet. But they shouted even louder, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”
32 Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?”
33 They told him, “Lord, open our eyes.”
34 Jesus was moved with compassion and touched their eyes. Immediately they regained their sight, and they followed him.
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem
21 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 telling them, “Go to the village ahead of you. Immediately you will find a donkey tied there along with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 Tell the daughter of Zion: Look, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.[a]
6 The disciples went and did just as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their outer clothing on them, and he sat on it. 8 A very large crowd spread their outer clothing on the road. Others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them out on the road. 9 The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed kept shouting,
Hosanna[b] to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord![c]
Hosanna in the highest!
10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, asking, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds were saying, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Jesus Cleanses His Father’s House
12 Jesus entered the temple courts[d] and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[e] but you are making it a den of robbers!”[f]
14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the experts in the law saw the wonders he performed and heard the children calling out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant. 16 They said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?”
“Yes,” Jesus told them, “Have you never read,
From the lips of little children and nursing babies
you have prepared praise?”[g]
17 He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
The Withered Fig Tree
18 As he returned to the city early in the morning, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “May there never be fruit from you again!”
Immediately the fig tree withered away. 20 When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”
21 Jesus answered them, “Amen I tell you: If you have faith, and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it would be done. 22 Whatever you ask for in prayer, as you believe, you will receive.”
Footnotes:
- Matthew 21:5 Isaiah 62:11; Zechariah 9:9
- Matthew 21:9 The Greek here simply transliterates the Hebrew Hosanna, which means save us now.
- Matthew 21:9 Psalm 118:25-26
- Matthew 21:12 Some witnesses to the text add of God.
- Matthew 21:13 Isaiah 56:7
- Matthew 21:13 Jeremiah 7:11
- Matthew 21:16 Psalm 8:2
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Psalm 25:16-22
16 Turn toward me and be gracious to me,
because I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The distress of my heart increases.[a]
Bring me out of my anguish.
18 See my affliction and my trouble,
and take away all my sins.
19 See my enemies—
how they have increased,
and how violently they hate me!
20 Guard my life and rescue me.
Do not let me be put to shame,
for I have taken refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because I wait for you.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, from all its distress!
Footnotes:
- Psalm 25:17 Or, following an alternate reading of the Hebrew, relieve the distress of my heart
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 6:12-15
Dishonesty Leads to Disaster
12 A worthless, wicked scoundrel,
who goes around with a corrupt mouth,
13 who winks with his eye, signals with his foot,
and gestures with his fingers,
14 who plots evil with a deceitful heart—
he always spreads conflict.
15 Therefore his disaster will come upon him suddenly.
All at once he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.