Exodus 12:29-42

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, and all the firstborn of the livestock.¹ Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt,² for there was not a house without someone dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron in the night,³ and said, ‘Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites!⁴ Go, worship the Lord, as you said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone. And bring a blessing on me too!’⁵

The Egyptians urged the people to hasten their departure from the land, for they said, ‘We shall all be dead.’
So the people took their dough before it was leavened,⁶ with their kneading-bowls wrapped up in their cloaks on their shoulders. The Israelites had done as Moses told them; they had asked the Egyptians for jewellery of silver and gold, and for clothing, and the Lord had given the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And so they plundered the Egyptians.⁷



The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men⁸ on foot, besides children. A mixed crowd⁹ also went up with them, and livestock in great numbers, both flocks and herds. They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt; it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
The time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.¹⁰ At the end of four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. That was for the Lord a night of vigil,¹¹ to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites¹² throughout their generations.



1 The completeness of the effects of the plague is emphasized.

2 The distress/suffering caused by the plague are made clear.

3 The summon is made immediately – Pharaoh's distress is great.

4 As promised, he is not just letting them go, but driving them out.

5 Sounding almost like a last gasp in a moment of profound weakness, Pharaoh asks for a blessing.

6 Makes the instructions about the remembrance of the day seem like they would have been added after, rather than commanded before.

7 Plundering the Egyptians in such circumstances feels heartbreaking.

8 An enormous number of people.

9 “mixed crowd” meaning non-Israelites?

10 A time placed on the length of their sojourn in Egypt, to give the moment historical profoundness. Also recalls the prophecy of Genesis 15:13 again.

11 Interesting anthropomorphic term – a “night of vigil” for the Lord.

12 And so a night of vigil for the Lord is recognized by a vigil for the Hebrews.

Take-home: All the years of oppression and injustice, and all the plagues beforehand, are ended in single final blow. All that God had said – that the firstborn of all would die, that the Israelites would be passed over, that Pharaoh would let them go and drive them out, that the Egyptians would allow their homes to be plundered, that the slavery would last 400 years – it all comes to pass.