The Exodus Begins

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

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

35 Furthermore, the Israelites acted on Moses’ word and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing. 36 And 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.

37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth [fn] with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. 38 And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

39 Since 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.

40 Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt [fn] was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions went out of the land of Egypt. 42 Because 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.