Bible in a Year.

On the thirty-fourth day, we witness the most defining event in Israel's history. Exodus 12 institutes the Passover with the sacrificial lamb, whose blood on the doorposts protects the Israelites from the tenth plague that kills all the firstborn Egyptians, forcing Pharaoh to finally free the people. Leviticus 9 describes the first official service of the priests, culminating in divine fire consuming the offering and the glory of the Lord appearing to the people. Psalm 114 poetically celebrates this moment of liberation, when the sea fled and the earth trembled before the presence of the God of Jacob.

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

2. This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first in the months of the year.

3. Speak ye to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them: On the tenth day of this month let every man take a lamb by their families and houses.

4. But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the lamb, he shall take unto him his neighbour that joineth to his house, according to the number of souls which may be enough to eat the lamb.

5. And it shall be a lamb without blemish, a male, of one year: according to which rite also you shall take a kid.

6. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month: and the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it in the evening.

7. And they shall take of the blood thereof, and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

8. And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted at the fire, and unleavened bread with wild lettuce.

9. You shall not eat thereof any thing raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted at the fire: you shall eat the head with the feet and entrails thereof.

10. Neither shall there remain any thing of it until morning. If there be any thing left, you shall burn it with fire.

11. And thus you shall eat it: you shall gird your reins, and you shall have shoes on your feet, holding staves in your hands, and you shall eat in haste: for it is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord.

12. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.

13. And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you: and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt.

14. And this day shall be for a memorial to you: and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord in your generations with an everlasting observance.

15. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread: in the first day there shall be no leaven in your houses: whosoever shall eat any thing leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall perish out of Israel.

16. The first day shall be holy and solemn, and the seventh day shall be kept with the like solemnity: you shall do no work in them, except those things that belong to eating.

17. And you shall observe the feast of the unleavened bread: for in this same day I will bring forth your army out of the land of Egypt, and you shall keep this day in your generations by a perpetual observance.

18. The first month, the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the same month in the evening.

19. Seven days there shall not be found any leaven in your houses: he that shall eat leavened bread, his soul shall perish out of the assembly of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.

20. You shall not eat any thing leavened: in all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.

21. And Moses called all the ancients of the children of Israel, and said to them: Go take a lamb by your families, and sacrifice the Phase.

22. And dip a bunch of hyssop in the blood that is at the door, and sprinkle the transom of the door therewith, and both the door cheeks: let none of you go out of the door of his house till morning.

23. For the Lord will pass through striking the Egyptians: and when he shall see the blood on the transom, and on both the posts, he will pass over the door of the house, and not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses and to hurt you.

24. Thou shalt keep this thing as a law for thee and thy children for ever.

25. And when you have entered into the land which the Lord will give you as he hath promised, you shall observe these ceremonies.

26. And when your children shall say to you: What is the meaning of this service?

27. You shall say to them: It is the victim of the passage of the Lord, when he passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, striking the Egyptians, and saving our houses. And the people bowing themselves, adored.

28. And the children of Israel going forth did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

29. And it came to pass at midnight, the Lord slew every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharao, who sat on his throne, unto the firstborn of the captive woman that was in the prison, and all the firstborn of cattle.

30. And Pharao arose in the night, and all his servants, and all Egypt: for there was not a house wherein there lay not one dead.

31. And Pharao calling Moses and Aaron, in the night, said: Arise and go forth from among my people, you and the children of Israel: go, sacrifice to the Lord as you say.

32. Your sheep and herds take along with you, as you demanded, and departing, bless me.

33. And the Egyptians pressed the people to go forth out of the land speedily, saying: We shall all die.

34. The people therefore took dough before it was leavened: and tying it in their cloaks, put it on their shoulders.

35. And the children of Israel did as Moses had commanded: and they asked of the Egyptians vessels of silver and gold, and very much raiment.

36. And the Lord gave favour to the people in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them: and they stripped the Egyptians.

37. And the children of Israel set forward from Ramesse to Socoth, being about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.

38. And a mixed multitude without number went up also with them, sheep and herds and beasts of divers kinds, exceeding many.

39. And they baked the meal, which a little before they had brought out of Egypt, in dough: and they made earth cakes unleavened: for it could not be leavened, the Egyptians pressing them to depart, and not suffering them to make any stay: neither did they think of preparing any meat.

40. And the abode of the children of Israel that they made in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

41. Which being expired, the same day all the army of the Lord went forth out of the land of Egypt.

42. This is the observable night of the Lord, when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: this night all the children of Israel must observe in their generations.

43. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the service of the Phase: No foreigner shall eat of it.

44. But every bought servant shall be circumcised, and so shall eat.

45. The stranger and the hireling shall not eat thereof.

46. In one house shall it be eaten, neither shall you carry forth of the flesh thereof out of the house, neither shall you break a bone thereof.

47. All the assembly of the children of Israel shall keep it.

48. And if any stranger be willing to dwell among you, and to keep the Phase of the Lord, all his males shall first be circumcised, and then shall he celebrate it according to the manner: and he shall be as he that is born in the land: but if any man be uncircumcised, he shall not eat thereof.

49. The same law shall be to him that is born in the land, and to the proselyte that sojourneth with you.

50. And all the children of Israel did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

51. And the same day the Lord brought forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their companies.

1. And when the eighth day was come, Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the ancients of Israel, and said to Aaron:

2. Take of the herd a calf for sin, and a ram for a holocaust, both without blemish, and offer them before the Lord.

3. And to the children of Israel thou shalt say: Take ye a he goat for sin, and a calf, and a lamb, both of a year old, and without blemish for a holocaust,

4. Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings: and immolate them before the Lord, offering for the sacrifice of every one of them flour tempered with oil; for to day the Lord will appear to you.

5. They brought therefore all things that Moses had commanded before the door of the tabernacle: where when all the multitude stood,

6. Moses said: This is the word, which the Lord hath commanded: do it, and his glory will appear to you.

7. And he said to Aaron: Approach to the altar, and offer sacrifice for thy sin: offer the holocaust, and pray for thyself and for the people: and when thou hast slain the people's victim, pray for them, as the Lord hath commanded.

8. And forthwith Aaron, approaching to the altar, immolated the calf for his sin:

9. And his sons brought him the blood of it: and he dipped his finger therein, and touched the horns of the altar, and poured the rest at the foot thereof.

10. And the fat, and the little kidneys, and the caul of the liver, which are for sin, he burnt upon the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses:

11. But the flesh and skins thereof he burnt with fire without the camp.

12. He immolated also the victim of holocaust: and his sons brought him the blood thereof, which he poured round about on the altar.

13. And the victim being cut into pieces, they brought to him the head and all the members, all which he burnt with fire upon the altar,

14. Having first washed the entrails and the feet with water.

15. Then offering for the sin of the people, he slew the he goat: and expiating the altar,

16. He offered the holocaust:

17. Adding in the sacrifice the libations, which are offered withal, and burning them upon the altar, besides the ceremonies of the morning holocaust.

18. He immolated also the bullock and the ram, the peace offerings of the people: and his sons brought him the blood, which he poured upon the altar round about.

19. The fat also of the bullock, and the rump of the ram, and the two little kidneys, with their fat, and the caul of the liver,

20. They put upon the breasts. And after the fat was burnt upon the altar,

21. Aaron separated their breasts, and the right shoulders, elevating them before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.

22. And stretching forth his hands to the people, he blessed them. And so the victims for sin, and the holocausts, and the peace offerings being finished, he came down.

23. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the testimony, and afterwards came forth and blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the multitude:

24. And behold a fire, coming forth from the Lord, devoured the holocaust, and the fat that was upon the altar: which when the multitude saw, they praised the Lord, falling on their faces.

1. When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people:

2. Judea made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

3. The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back.

4. The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock.

5. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou didst flee: and thou, O Jordan, that thou wast turned back?

6. Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye hills, like lambs of the flock?

7. At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob:

8. Who turned the rock into pools of water, and the stony hill into fountains of waters.

9. Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory.

10. For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake: lest the gentiles should say: Where is their God?

11. But our God is in heaven: he hath done all things whatsoever he would.

12. The idols of the gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men.

13. They have mouths and speak not: they have eyes and see not.

14. They have ears and hear not: they have noses and smell not.

15. They have hands and feel not: they have feet and walk not: neither shall they cry out through their throat.

16. Let them that make them become like unto them: and all such as trust in them.

17. The house of Israel hath hoped in the Lord: he is their helper and their protector.

18. The house of Aaron hath hoped in the Lord: he is their helper and their protector.

19. They that fear the Lord hath hoped in the Lord: he is their helper and their protector.

20. The Lord hath been mindful of us, and hath blessed us. He hath blessed the house of Israel: he hath blessed the house of Aaron.

21. He hath blessed all that fear the Lord, both little and great.

22. May the Lord add blessings upon you: upon you, and upon your children.

23. Blessed be you of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

24. The heaven of heaven is the Lord's: but the earth he has given to the children of men.

25. The dead shall not praise thee, O Lord: nor any of them that go down to hell.

26. But we that live bless the Lord: from this time now and for ever.