BO (ENTER!)

Parashat Bo

Locusts, Darkness

10 Then Adonai said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, because I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I might show these My signs in their midst, ² and so you may tell your son and your grandchildren what I have done in Egypt, as well as My signs that I did among them, so you may know that I am Adonai.”

³ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what Adonai, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long would you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so they may serve Me. ⁴ Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your borders. ⁵ Then they will cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the ground. They will eat the remainder of what escaped—whatever is left from the hail—and eat every tree that grows for you out in the field. ⁶ Your houses will be filled, as will the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since the day they were on the earth until today!” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.

⁷ Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Send the men, so they may serve Adonai their God. Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is being destroyed?”

⁸ So Moses and Aaron were brought to Pharaoh again. “Go, serve Adonai your God,” he said. “But who will be going?”

⁹ Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our elderly, our sons and our daughters. We will go with our flocks and our herds—for we must have Adonai’s feast for Him.”

¹⁰ But he said to them, “So may Adonai be with you, if I ever do let you go, with your little ones. See clearly now! Evil is in your face. ¹¹ Not so! Go now—the men—and serve Adonai! For that’s what you were seeking.” Then they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

¹² Then Adonai said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so they may come up onto Egypt and eat every plant in the land—everything the hail has left.” ¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and Adonai brought an east wind over the land all that day and all night. When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. ¹⁴ The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and rested on the entire territory of Egypt. So dense—there was nothing like it before them, nor will there ever be again. ¹⁵ For they covered the face of the whole earth so that the land was darkened, and they ate every plant in the land and all the fruit from the trees that the hail had left. No green thing remained, not a tree or a plant of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ Then Pharaoh quickly called for Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against Adonai your God and against you. ¹⁷ Now forgive my sin, only this once, please! So pray to Adonai your God—just so He would take this death away from me!”

¹⁸ So he went out from Pharaoh and prayed to Adonai. ¹⁹ Then Adonai turned the wind from the west, very strong, and it carried off the locusts and drove them into the Sea of Reeds. Not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. ²⁰ But Adonai hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let Bnei-Yisrael go.

²¹ Then Adonai said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt—a darkness that may be felt.”

²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. ²³ They could not see one another, nor could anyone rise from his place for three days. Yet all Bnei-Yisrael had light within their dwellings.

²⁴ Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve Adonai. Only let your flocks and your herds remain. Your little ones may also go with you.”

²⁵ But Moses said, “You must also put sacrifices and burnt offerings into our hand, then we will do it for Adonai our God. ²⁶ Our cattle must also go with us—not a hoof may be left behind. We must take from them to serve Adonai our God. We ourselves will not know how we will serve Adonai until we arrive there.”

²⁷ But Adonai hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was unwilling to let them go. ²⁸ So Pharaoh said to him, “Go away from me! Take heed never to see my face again, because on the day you do, you will die!”

²⁹ “Right!” Moses said. “You said it! May I never see your face again!”

Final Plague: Death

11 Now Adonai had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether from here. ² Speak now into the ears of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and gold.” ³ Adonai gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. Indeed, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and in the eyes of the people.

⁴ So Moses said, “This is what Adonai says: At around midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, ⁵ and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die—from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the maidservant behind the mill, along with all the firstborn cattle. ^{[a] 6} There will be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, the likes of which has never been before nor will ever be again. ⁷ But not so much as a dog will growl against any of Bnei-Yisrael, neither man nor beast—so that you may know that Adonai makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel. ⁸ All these servants of yours will come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that, I will go.” Then he went out from Pharaoh hot with anger.

⁹ Adonai had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” ¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, yet Adonai hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so he did not let Bnei-Yisrael go out of his land.

The Passover Lamb

12 Now Adonai spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, ² “This month will mark the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. ³ Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family one lamb for the household. ⁴ But if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor are to take one according to the number of the people. According to each person eating, you are to make your count for the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb is to be without blemish, a year old male.^[b] You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ You must watch over it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight. ^{[c] 7} They are to take the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the crossbeam of the houses where they will eat it. ⁸ They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over a fire. With matzot and bitter herbs^[d] they are to eat it. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but only roasted with fire—its head with its legs and its innards. ¹⁰ So let nothing of it remain until the morning. Whatever remains until the morning you are to burn with fire. ¹¹ Also you are to eat it this way: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in haste. It is Adonai’s Passover.

¹² “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Adonai. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are.^[e] When I see the blood, I will pass over you. So there will be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day is to be a memorial for you.^[f] You are to keep it as a feast to Adonai. Throughout your generations you are to keep it as an eternal ordinance. ¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat matzot, but on the first day you must remove hametz from your houses,^[g] for whoever eats hametz from the first day until the seventh day, that soul will be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ The first day is to be a holy assembly for you as well as the seventh day. No manner of work is to be done on those days, except what is to be eaten by every person—that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷ So you are to observe the Feast of Matzot, for on this very same day have I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you are to observe this day throughout your generations as an eternal ordinance.

¹⁸ During the first month in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, you are to eat matzot, until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. ¹⁹ For seven days no hametz is to be found in your houses, for whoever eats hametz, that soul will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an outsider or one who is born in the land. ²⁰ You are to eat no hametz; in all your houses you are to eat matzot.”

²¹ Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. ^{[h] 22} You are to take a bundle of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply it to the crossbeam and two doorposts with the blood from the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³ Adonai will pass through to strike down the Egyptians, but when He sees the blood on the crossbeam and the two doorposts, Adonai will pass over that door, and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you down. ²⁴ Also you are to observe this event as an eternal ordinance, for you and your children.

²⁵ “When you come into the land which Adonai will give you as He has promised, you are to keep this ceremony. ²⁶ Now when it happens that your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ You are to say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Adonai’s Passover, because He passed over the houses of Bnei-Yisrael in Egypt, when He struck down the Egyptians, but spared our households.’” So the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

²⁸ Then Bnei-Yisrael went and did it. They did just as Adonai had commanded Moses and Aaron. ²⁹ So it came about at midnight that Adonai struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn cattle.^[i]

³⁰ Then Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was loud wailing in Egypt. For there was not a house where someone was not dead. ³¹ So he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, go out from my people, both you and Bnei-Yisrael, go, serve Adonai as you have said. ³² Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone! But bless me, too.”

³³ Now the Egyptians urged the people, sending them out of the land quickly, for they thought, “We will all be dead!” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. ³⁵ So Bnei-Yisrael acted according to the word of Moses. They asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold, and for clothing. ³⁶ Adonai gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians and let them have what they asked for. So they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ Then Bnei-Yisrael journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot, as well as children. ³⁸ Also a mixed multitude went up with them, along with the flocks, herds and heavy livestock. ³⁹ They had baked matzot cakes from the dough that they brought out of Egypt. It had no hametz, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not delay, so they had not made provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰ Now the time that Bnei-Yisrael lived in Egypt was 430 years. ⁴¹ So it happened at the end of 430 years, to the very day, that all the armies of Adonai went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴² It was a night of watching for Adonai to bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is a night of vigil for Adonai, for all Bnei-Yisrael throughout their generations.

⁴³ Then Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover. No foreigner may eat it, ⁴⁴ but every man’s servant that is bought for money, after you have circumcised him, may eat it. ⁴⁵ Nor should a visitor or hired servant eat it. ⁴⁶ It is to be eaten inside a single house. You are not to carry the meat out of the house, nor are you to break any of its bones. ^{[j] 47} All the congregation of Israel must keep it. ⁴⁸ But if an outsider dwells with you, who would keep the Passover for Adonai, all his males must be circumcised. Then let him draw near and keep it. He will be like one who is native to the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat from it. ⁴⁹ The same Torah applies to the native as well as the outsider who dwells among you.”

⁵⁰ So all Bnei-Yisrael did so. They did just as Adonai commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ It was on that very day that Adonai brought Bnei-Yisrael out of the land of Egypt as armies.

Redemption of the Firstborn

13 Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ² “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, from every womb of Bnei-Yisrael, both men and animals—this is Mine.”^[k]

³ Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by a strong hand Adonai brought you out from this place. No hametz may be eaten. ⁴ This day, in the month of Aviv, you are going out. ⁵ When Adonai brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to observe this service during this month. ⁶ For seven days you are to eat matzah, and the seventh day is to be a feast to Adonai. ⁷ Matzot is to be eaten throughout the seven days, and no hametz is to be seen among you, nor within any of your borders.

⁸ “You are to tell your son on that day saying, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I came out of Egypt. ⁹ So it will be like a sign on your hand and a reminder between your eyes, so that the Torah of Adonai may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand Adonai has brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰ You are to keep this ordinance as a moed from year to year.

¹¹ “Now when Adonai brings you into the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and your fathers and gives it you, ¹² you are to set apart to Adonai every firstborn from the womb, and every firstborn male animal you have will be Adonai’s. ¹³ Every firstborn donkey you are to redeem with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you are to break its neck. But you are to redeem every firstborn male among your sons.

¹⁴ “So when your son asks you in times to come, ‘What is this?’ say to him, ‘By a strong hand Adonai brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage, ¹⁵ and when Pharaoh refused to let us go, Adonai slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and animals. So I sacrifice to Adonai all firstborn males, but I redeem the firstborn of my sons.’ ¹⁶ So it will be like a sign on your hand and like frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand Adonai brought us out of Egypt.”

¹³ The word that Adonai spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

²⁵ Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will punish Amon of No, Pharaoh, Egypt, with her gods and her kings—even Pharaoh, and them that trust in him. ²⁶ I will hand them over to those seeking their lives, into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his servants. Yet afterwards it will be inhabited, as in the days of old.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

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¹⁴ What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! ¹⁵ For to Moses He says,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”^[a]

¹⁶ So then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who strives, but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up—to demonstrate My power in you, so My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ^{[b] 18} So then He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” ²⁰ But who in the world are you, O man, who talks back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ^{[c] 21} Does the potter have no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for common use? ²² Now what if God, willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath designed for destruction? ²³ And what if He did so to make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory?

²⁴ Even us He called—not only from the Jewish people, but also from the Gentiles— ²⁵ as He says also in Hosea,

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,

²⁹ And just as Isaiah foretold,

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A Mitzvah on Shabbat

3 Yeshua entered the synagogue again, and a man with a withered hand was there. ² Now some were carefully watching Him, to see if He would heal him on Shabbat, so that they might accuse Him. ³ He said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up here in the center.” ⁴ Then He said to them, “Is it permitted on Shabbat to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?”^[a] But they kept silent.

⁵ After looking around at them with anger, grieved by their hardness of heart, He says to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out right away with the Herodians and began plotting against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Crowds Clamor for Yeshua

⁷ Yeshua withdrew to the sea with His disciples, and a large crowd from the Galilee followed. From Judea, ⁸ and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon, a great number, hearing all He was doing, came to Him. ⁹ He told His disciples to have a small boat ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t mob Him.

¹⁰ For He had healed many, so that all those afflicted fell down before Him in order to touch Him. ¹¹ And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, would fall down before Him and cry out, “You are Ben-Elohim!” ¹² But Yeshua strictly ordered them not to make Him known.

Appointing the Twelve

¹³ Now He climbs up on the mountain and calls those He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve (whom He also named emissaries), so that they might be with Him and He might send them to proclaim the Good News, ¹⁵ and to have power to drive out demons. ¹⁶ And He appointed the Twelve: to Simon He gave the name Peter; ¹⁷ to Jacob and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, He gave the name Boanerges, which is Sons of Thunder; ¹⁸ and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Jacob the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot; ^{[b] 19} and Judah from Kriot, who also betrayed Him.

Binding the Strong Man

²⁰ Then He comes into a house, and again a crowd gathers so they couldn’t even eat. ²¹ When His family heard about this, they went out to take hold of Him; for they were saying, “He’s out of His mind!”

²² The Torah scholars who came down from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by beelzebul,” and, “By the ruler of demons He drives out demons.”

²³ He called them and began speaking to them in parables: “How can satan drive out satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ And if satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but his end has come.

²⁷ “But no one can enter a strong man’s house to ransack his property, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he will thoroughly plunder his house. ²⁸ Amen, I tell you, all things will be forgiven the sons of men, the sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹ but whoever slanders^[c] the Ruach ha-Kodesh never has release, but is guilty of an eternal sin!” ³⁰ For they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

A Spiritual Family Begins

³¹ Then His mother and brothers come. Standing outside, they sent word to Him, summoning Him. ³² A crowd was sitting around Him, and they tell Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” ³³ Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” ³⁴ Looking at those sitting in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Storytelling Opens Hearts

4 Again Yeshua began to teach by the sea. A large crowd gathered around Him, so He got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the crowd was by the sea on the land. ² He began teaching them many things by parables, and in His teaching, He said to them: ³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to spread some seed. ⁴ It happened that as he sowed, some fell beside the road; and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵ “Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it didn’t have much soil. It sprang up immediately, because the soil wasn’t deep. ⁶ But when the sun came up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

⁷ “Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

⁸ “And others fell into the good soil and were producing fruit, springing up and increasing. They yielded a crop, producing thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

¹⁰ When Yeshua was alone, those around Him with the Twelve started asking Him about the parables. ¹¹ And He told them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those who are outside, everything is in parables,^[d] so that

¹³ He said to them, “Don’t you grasp this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ These are the ones beside the road where the word is sown. Whenever they hear, satan comes quickly and takes away the word that has been sown in them.

¹⁶ “These are the ones sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves but last only a short while. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away.

¹⁸ “And others are the ones sown among the thorns. They have heard the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of the world, the seduction of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²⁰ “And those are the ones sown on the good soil. They hear the word and accept it and produce fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

Reaping What You Sow

²¹ He also was saying to them, “Is a lamp put under a basket or a bed? No, shouldn’t it be placed on a lampstand? ²² For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, nor anything kept secret except that it would come to light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴ Then He continued, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you; and more will be added to you. ²⁵ For whoever has, to him more will be given. And whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

What Is the Kingdom of God Like?

²⁶ And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like when a man spreads seed on the soil ²⁷ and falls asleep at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He himself doesn’t know how. ²⁸ Automatically, the earth brings forth a crop—first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the grain is ready, at once he sends in the sickle, for the harvest has come.”

³⁰ Yeshua also said, “How should we picture the kingdom of God? Or by what story shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed when it’s planted in the ground. Though the smallest of all seeds in the earth, ³² yet when planted it grows up and becomes the largest of all the herbs. It puts forth big branches, so the birds of the air can nest in its shade.”^[f]

³³ With many such parables He used to tell them the word, as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ But apart from a parable, He wasn’t speaking to them. Yet when they were alone, to His own disciples He would explain everything.

Power Over Nature

³⁵ Now on that same day in the evening, He says to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side.” ³⁶ After leaving the crowd, they take Him along in the boat, just as He was. And other boats were with Him.

³⁷ A great windstorm arises, and the waves were rushing into the boat. The boat was beginning to fill up. ³⁸ But Yeshua was in the back of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They wake Him up and say to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?”

³⁹ So He woke up and rebuked the wind. And He said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind stopped, and it became totally calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Even now you have no faith?”

⁴¹ They were struck with awe and said to one another, “Who is this? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!”