Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus Reader

And you shall eat the flesh on that night, the fifteenth of Nisan, until the dividing of the night roasted with fire, without leaven, with horehound and lettuce shall you eat it.

Eat not of it while living, neither boiled in wine, or oil, or other fluids, neither boiled in water, but roasted with fire, with its head, and its feet, and its inwards.

Nor shall any be left of it till the morning; but what may remain of it in the morning you shall cover over, and in the daylight of the sixteenth day burn with fire; for you may not burn the residue of a holy oblation on the feast day.

And according to this manner you shall eat it, this time, but not in (other) generations: your loins shall be girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staves in your hands; and you shall eat in the fear of the majesty of the Lord of the world; because mercy hath been shown to you from before the Lord.

And I will be revealed in the land of Mizraim in the majesty of My glory this night, and with Me ninety thousand myriads of destroying angels; and I will slay all the firstborn in the land of Mizraim, of man and of beast, and against all the idols of the Mizraee I will execute four judgments: the molten idols shall be melted, the idols of stone be broken, the idols of clay shall he shattered, and the idols of wood be made dust, that the Mizraee may know that I am the Lord.

And the blood of the paschal oblation, (like) the matter of circumcision, shall be a bail for you, to become a sign upon the houses where you dwell; and I will look upon the worth of the blood, and will spare you; and the angel of death, to whom is given the power to destroy, shall have no dominion over you in the slaughter of the Mizraee.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread: in the dividing of the day which precedes the feast you shall put away leaven from your houses; for whosoever eateth what is leavened, from the first day of the feast until the seventh day, that man shall be destroyed from Israel.

And you shall observe the feast of the unleavened bread, because in this same day the Lord will bring out your hosts free from the land of Mizraim; and you shall observe this day in your generations, a statute for ever.

For seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses; for whosoever eateth of leaven, that man shall perish from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or home-bred in the land.

And Mosheh called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Withdraw your hands from the idols of the Mizraee, and take to you from the offspring of the flock, according to your houses, and kill the paschal lamb.

And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the earthen vessel, and upon the upper bar without and upon the two posts you shall sprinkle of the blood which is in the earthen vessel, and not a man of you must come forth from the door of his hour till the morning.

For the Glory of the Lord will be manifested in striking the Mizraee, and He will see the blood upon the lintel and upon the too posts, and the Word of the Lord will spread His protection over the door, and the destroying angel will not be permitted to enter your houses to smite.

You shall say, It is the sacrifice of mercy before the Lord, who had mercy in His Word upon the houses of the sons of Israel in Mizraim, when He destroyed the Mizraee, and spared our houses. And when the house of Israel heard this word from the mouth of Mosheh, they bowed and worshipped.

And it was in the dividing, of the night of the fifteenth, that the Word of the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Mizraim, from the firstborn son of Pharoh, who would have sat upon the throne of his kingdom, unto the firstborn sons of the kings who were captives in the dungeon as hostages under Pharoh's hand; and who, for having rejoiced at the servitude of Israel, were punished as (the Mizraee): and all the firstborn of the cattle that did the work of the Mizraee died also.

And Pharoh rose up in that night, and all the rest of his servants, and all the rest of the Mizraee; and there was a great cry, because there was no house of the Mizraee where the firstborn was not dead.

And the border of the land of Mizraim extended four hundred pharsee; but the land of Goshen, where Mosheh and the sons of Israel were, was in the midst of the land of Mizraim; and the royal palace of Pharoh was at the entrance of the land of Mizraim. But when he cried to Mosheh and to Aharon in the night of the Pascha, his voice was heard unto the land of Goshen; Pharoh crying with a voice of woe, and saying thus: Arise, Go forth from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship before the Lord, as you have said;

When Mosheh and Aharon, and the sons of Israel, heard the voice of Pharoh's weeping, they were not mindful, until he came himself, and all his servants, and all the Mizraee, and urged all the people of the house of Israel, that they might hasten to send them forth from the land; For, said they, if they prolong here one hour more, behold, we are all dead.

And the people carried their dough upon their heads, being unleavened, and what remained to them of the paschal cakes and bitter things they carried, bound up with their raiment, upon their shoulders.

And the sons of Israel moved forth from Pilusin towards Succoth, a hundred and thirty thousand, protected there by seven clouds of glory on their four sides: one above them, that neither hail nor rain might fall upon them, nor that they should be burned by the heat of the sun; one beneath them, that they might not be hurt by thorns, serpents, or scorpions; and one went before them, to make the valleys even, and the mountains low, and to prepare them a place of habitation. And they were about six hundred thousand men, journeying on foot, none riding on horses except the children five to every man;

And they divided the dough which they brought out of Mizraim, which they had carried on their heads, and it was baked for them by the heat of the sun, (into) unleavened cakes, because it had not fermented; for the Mizraee had thrust them out, neither could they delay; and it was sufficient for them to eat until the fifteenth of the month Ijar; because they had not prepared provision for the way.

And the days of the dwelling of the sons of Israel in Mizraim were thirty weeks of years, (thirty times seven years,) which is the sum of two hundred and ten years. But the number of four hundred and thirty years (had passed away since) the Lord spake to Abraham, in the hour that He spake with him on the fifteenth of Nisan, between the divided parts, until the day that they went out of Mizraim.

And it was at the end of thirty years from the making of this covenant, that Izhak was born; and thence until they went out of Mizraim four hundred (years), on the selfsame day it was that all the hosts of the Lord went forth made free from the land of Mizraim.

Four nights are there written in the Book of Memorials before the Lord of the world. Night the first,--when He was revealed in creating the world; the second,--when He was revealed to Abraham; the third,--when He was revealed in Mizraim, His hand killing all the firstborn of Mizraim, and His right hand saving the firstborn of Israel; the fourth,--when He will yet be revealed to liberate the people of the house of Israel from among the nations.

And all these are called Nights to be observed; for so explained Mosheh, and said thereof, It is to be observed on account of the liberation which is from the Lord, to lead forth the people of the sons of Israel from the land of Mizraim. This is that Night of preservation from the destroying angel for all the sons of Israel who were in Mizraim, and of redemption of their generations from their captivity.

And Mosheh said to the people, Remember this the day in which you went out free from Mizraim from the house of the bondage of slaves; for by great strength of hand did the Lord bring you forth from thence; and you shall not eat leaven.

And it shall be, when the Lord your God shall have brought you into the land of the Kenaanaee, and Hittaee, and Amoraee, and Hivaee, and Jebusaee, which He sware by His Word unto Abraham to give thee, a land producing milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

And thou shalt instruct thy son on that day, saying, This precept is on account of what the Word of the Lord did for me in miracles and wonders, in bringing me forth from Mizraim.

And this miracle shall be inscribed and set forth upon the tephilla of the hand, on the top of thy left (arm,) and for a memorial inscribed and set forth upon the tephilla of thy head, set between thine eyes on thy forehead; that the law of the Lord may be in thy mouth, because in strength, with a mighty hand, the Lord brought thee forth from Mizraim.

And when in future thy son shall ask thee, saying, What is this ordinance of the firstborn? thou shalt tell him: By the power of a mighty hand the Lord delivered us from Mizraim, redeeming us from the house of the servitude of slaves.

And when the Word of the Lord had hardened the heart of Pharoh (that be would) not deliver us, he killed all the firstborn in the land of Mizraim, from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of cattle; therefore do I sacrifice before the Lord every male that openeth the womb, and every firstborn of my sons I redeem with silver.

And it shall be inscribed and set forth upon thy left land, and on the tephilla between thine eyebrows; because by mighty strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Mizraim.

AND it was when Pharoh had released the people, that the Lord did not conduct them by the way of the land of the Phelishtaee though that was the near one; for the Lord said, Lest the people be affrighted in seeing their brethren who were killed in war, two hundred thousand men of strength of the tribe of Ephraim, who took shields, and lances, and weapons of war, and went down to Gath to carry off the flocks of the Phelishtaee; and because they transgressed against the statute of the Word of the Lord, and went forth from Mizraim thirty years before the (appointed) end of their servitude, they were delivered into the hand of the Phelishtaee, who slew them.

These are the dry bones which the Word of the Lord restored to life by the ministry (hand) of Yechezekel the prophet, in the vale of Dura; but which, if they (now) saw them, they would be afraid, and return into Mizraim.

But the Lord led the people round by the way of the desert of the sea of Suph; and every one of the sons of Israel, with five children, went up from the land of Mizraim.

And Mosheh carried up the ark in which were the bones of Joseph, from out of the Nilos, and took them with him; because, adjuring, he adjured the sons of Israel, saving, The Lord will surely remember you, and you shall carry up my bones with you.

And the glory of the Shekinah of the Lord went before them by day in the column of the Cloud to lead them in the way, and at night the column of the Cloud removed behind them to darken on their pursuers behind them; but to be a column of fire to enlighten them before, that they might go forward by day and by night.

Speak to the sons of Israel, that they return back, and encamp before the Mouths of Hiratha, as they lie, created after the manner (likeness) of the children of men, male and female, and their eyes open to them: it is the place of Tanes, which is between Migdol and the sea, before the idol Zephon (Typhon), that is left of all the idols of Mizraim. For the Mizraee will say, More excellent is Baal Zephon than all idols, because it is left, and not smitten; and therefore will they come to worship it, and will find that you are encamped nigh unto it, on the border of the sea.

And Pharoh said to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Israel, who had remained in Mizraim, The people of the house of Israel are bewildered in the land: the idol Zephon hath shut them in close upon the desert.

And he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of the Mizraee his servants, who were afraid of the Word of the Lord, lest they should be killed with pestilence, if not with hail: and a third mule, for drawing and following swiftly, he added to each chariot.

And the Mizraee followed after them, and came upon them as they were encamped by the sea, gathering of pearls and goodly stones, which the river Pishon had carried from the garden of Eden into the Gihon, and the Gihon had carried into the sea of Suph, and the sea of Suph had cast upon its bank. But all the chariot horses of Pharoh, and his horsemen, and his hosts (were coming) towards the Mouths of Hiratha, which are before the idol Zephon.

And Pharoh saw the idol Zephon (still) preserved, and offered oblations before it. And the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, beheld, the Mizraee were pursuing them; and they were sorely afraid, and the children of Israel prayed before the Lord.

But the wicked generation said to Mosheh, Because there were no places of burial for us in Mizraim, hast thou led us forth to die in the wilderness? What hast thou done to us, in bringing us out of Mizraim?