This day is the same day referred to in 12.14, 16, and 41, the actual day of departure and the first day of unleavened bread. You are to go forth uses the emphatic plural you with the plural participle, “you [are] the-ones-going-out.” This means “you are going out” (New Revised Standard Version), or “you are leaving” (New International Version), or even “Today … is the day of your exodus” (Revised English Bible).

In the month of Abib is literally “in the New-Moon of the Ripe-Grain,” and Fox translates it this way. It is the same month as in 12.2. Abib was the early name given to the month of the spring equinox, when the sun crosses the equator going north. It became the first month in the Hebrew calendar, but the name was later changed to Nisan. Even though Abib means “ripe grain,” it should be transliterated here rather than translated, unless in a particular culture the equivalent spring month or new moon has a similar name.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .