<p class="bodytext">Now these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their records:<n id="1" /> Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (The length of Levi&#8217;s life was 137 years.)p>

<p class="bodytext">The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. (The length of Kohath&#8217;s life was 133 years.)p>

<p class="bodytext">Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.p> <p class="bodytext">These are the heads of the fathers&#8217; households<n id="1" /> of Levi according to their clans.p>

<p class="bodytext">It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the <sc>Lordsc> said, &#8220;Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.&#8221;<n id="1" />

They were the men who were speaking to Pharaoh king of Egypt, in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron.p>

You are to speak<n id="1" /> everything I command you,<n id="2" /> and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh that he must release<n id="3" /> the Israelites from his land.

Then<n id="1" /> the Egyptians will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>, when I extend my hand<n id="2" /> over Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.p>

But the Lord will distinguish<n id="1" /> between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, and nothing<n id="2" /> will die of all that the Israelites have.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

And the <sc>Lordsc> did this<n id="1" /> on the next day;<n id="2" /> all<n id="3" /> the livestock of the Egyptians<n id="4" /> died, but of the Israelites&#8217; livestock not one died.

So Pharaoh&#8217;s heart remained hard,<n id="1" /> and he did not release the Israelites, as the <sc>Lordsc> had predicted through Moses.p>

Moses said, &#8220;We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold<n id="1" /> a pilgrim feast for the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;p>

No one<n id="1" /> could see<n id="2" /> another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.p>

It was a night of vigil for the <sc>Lordsc> to bring them out from the land of Egypt,<n id="1" /> and so<n id="2" /> on this night all Israel is to keep the vigil<n id="3" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> for generations to come.p>

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to Moses and Aaron, &#8220;This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may<n id="2" /> share in eating it.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">So all the Israelites did exactly as the <sc>Lordsc> commanded Moses and Aaron.<n id="1" />

And on this very day the <sc>Lordsc> brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their regiments.p>

&#8220;Set apart<n id="1" /> to me every firstborn male &#8211; the first offspring of every womb<n id="2" /> among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

Every firstling<n id="1" /> of a donkey you must redeem<n id="2" /> with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you must break its neck.<n id="3" /> Every firstborn of<n id="4" /> your sons you must redeem.p>

<n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">In the future,<n id="2" /> when your son asks you<n id="3" /> &#8216;What is this?&#8217;<n id="4" /> you are to tell him, &#8216;With a mighty hand<n id="5" /> the <sc>Lordsc> brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery.<n id="6" />

So God brought the people around by the way of the desert to the Red Sea,<n id="1" /> and the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt prepared for battle.<n id="2" />p>