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Exodus 12 · a question people ask

How could God strike down the firstborn of Egypt?

In the text

The chapter doesn't soften it: "there was not a house where there was not one dead" (12:30). It also sets that night inside a longer story. Before the plagues began, the LORD gave Moses his message for Pharaoh: "Israel is my son, my firstborn" (4:22), and "Behold, I will kill your firstborn son" (4:23). Before the night itself, Moses told Pharaoh what was coming (11:4-5, 11:8). The LORD's words for that night include, "I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD" (12:12). The next chapter gives Israel's own answer for their children: "When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt" (13:15). And the protection Israel was given was the blood on the door: "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (12:13). The text doesn't answer every question a reader brings to it, and Christians still wrestle with this night.

The verses

“You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘The LORD says, Israel is my son, my firstborn, and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me;” and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’””
Exodus 4:22-23 · World English Bible
“For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 12:12-13 · World English Bible
“At midnight, the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.”
Exodus 12:29-30 · World English Bible
“When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of livestock. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that opens the womb, being males; but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’”
Exodus 13:15 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Exodus 12

Exodus 12: When I see the blood

The Passover made the month Israel left Egypt the first month of the year (12:2). The blood on the door was a sign for Israel, and the LORD passed over every house where he saw it (12:13). No angel of death is named: the LORD struck, and the destroyer was kept from the marked doors (12:23). Paul says, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place" (1 Corinthians 5:7).

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Last reviewed September 26, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions