One Place for Worship

¹These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess.

²Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.

³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

⁴You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

⁶To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

⁷There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

⁸You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.

⁹For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁰When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely,

¹¹then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;

¹⁴you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,

¹⁶but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

¹⁷Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

¹⁸Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do,

¹⁹and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

²¹If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.

²²Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

²³Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

²⁴You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

²⁵Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

²⁶But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.

²⁷Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat.

²⁸Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

A Warning against Idolatry

²⁹When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,

³⁰be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

³¹You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

³²See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

The Seventh Year

¹At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.

²This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed.

³You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.

⁴There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance,

⁵if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today.

⁶When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none.

Generosity in Lending and Giving

⁷If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to hardenyour heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

⁸Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs.

⁹Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

¹⁰Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand.

¹¹For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.

Hebrew Servants

¹²If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is soldto you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.

¹³And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.

¹⁴You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.

¹⁵Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

¹⁶But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you,

¹⁷then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.

¹⁸Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.

Firstborn Animals

¹⁹You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock.

²⁰Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose.

²¹But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

²²Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or a deer.

²³But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

The First Passover

¹Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

²“This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.

³Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lambfor his family, one per household.

⁴If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly.

⁵Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.

⁶You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

⁷They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframesof the houses where they eat the lambs.

⁸They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

⁹Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts.

¹⁰Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over.

¹¹This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel,with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.

¹²On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.

¹³The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

¹⁴And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.

¹⁵For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.

¹⁷So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread,for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.

¹⁸In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.

¹⁹For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel.

²⁰You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”

²¹Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.

²²Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.

²³When the LORD passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁴And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants.

²⁵When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service.

²⁶When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’

²⁷you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’”Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

²⁸And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn

²⁹Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.

³⁰During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead.

The Exodus Begins

³¹Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.

³²Take your flocks and herds as well, just as you have said, and depart! And bless me also.”

³³And in order to send them out of the land quickly, the Egyptians urged the people on. “For otherwise,” they said, “we are all going to die!”

³⁴So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.

³⁵Furthermore, the Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing.

³⁶And the LORD gave the people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that they granted their request. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succothwith about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.

³⁸And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

³⁹Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egyptwas 430 years.

⁴¹At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions went out of the land of Egypt.

⁴²Because the LORD kept a vigil that night to bring them out of the land of Egypt, this same night is to be a vigil to the LORD, to be observed by all the Israelites for the generations to come.

Instructions for the Passover

⁴³And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it.

⁴⁴But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.

⁴⁵A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover.

⁴⁶It must be eaten inside one house. You are not to take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of the bones.

⁴⁷The whole congregation of Israel must celebrate it.

⁴⁸If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.

⁴⁹The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”

⁵⁰Then all the Israelites did this—they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

⁵¹And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.

Give Praise, O Servants of the LORD

¹Hallelujah!Praise the name of the LORD.Give praise, O servants of the LORD,

²who stand in the house of the LORD,in the courts of the house of our God.

³Hallelujah, for the LORD is good;sing praises to His name, for it is lovely.

⁴For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own,Israel as His treasured possession.

⁵For I know that the LORD is great;our Lord is above all gods.

⁶The LORD does all that pleases Himin the heavens and on the earth,in the seas and in all their depths.

⁷He causes the clouds to risefrom the ends of the earth.He generates the lightning with the rainand brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

⁸He struck down the firstborn of Egypt,of both man and beast.

⁹He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt,against Pharaoh and all his servants.

¹⁰He struck down many nationsand slaughtered mighty kings:

¹¹Sihon king of the Amorites,Og king of Bashan,and all the kings of Canaan.

¹²He gave their land as an inheritance,as a heritage to His people Israel.

¹³Your name, O LORD, endures forever,Your renown, O LORD, through all generations.

¹⁴For the LORD will vindicate His peopleand will have compassion on His servants.

¹⁵The idols of the nations are silver and gold,made by the hands of men.

¹⁶They have mouths, but cannot speak;they have eyes, but cannot see;

¹⁷they have ears, but cannot hear;nor is there breath in their mouths.

¹⁸Those who make them become like them,as do all who trust in them.

¹⁹O house of Israel, bless the LORD;O house of Aaron, bless the LORD;

²⁰O house of Levi, bless the LORD;you who fear the LORD, bless the LORD!

²¹Blessed be the LORD from Zion—He who dwells in Jerusalem.Hallelujah!