1And Jehovah will speak to Moses, saying, 2Consecrate to me every first-born bursting open every womb among the sons of Israel, of man and of cattle: it is to me. 3And Moses will say to the people, Remember this day which ye came forth out of Egypt, out of the house of servants; for by strength of hand Jehovah brought you forth from here: and leavened shall not be eaten. 4The day ye came forth in the month of Abib. 5And it was when Jehovah shall bring thee forth to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware to thy fathers to give to thee, a land flowing with milk and honey; and do thou this service in this month. 6Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened, and in the seventh day a festival to Jehovah. 7Unleavened shall be eaten seven days: and leavened shall not be seen to thee in all thy bounds. 8And announce to thy son in this day, saying, For this Jehovah did to me in my coming out of Egypt 9And it was to thee for a sign upon thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes; so that the law of Jehovah shall be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand Jehovah brought thee forth out of Egypt. 10And watch this law according to its appointment from days to days. 11And it was when Jehovah shall bring thee to the land of the Canaanites, as he sware to thee and to thy fathers, and he gave it to thee. 12And thou madest pass over all bursting open the womb, to Jehovah; and every one bursting forth young of the quadruped which shall be to thee; the males are to Jehovah. 13And every first-born of the ass, thou shalt redeem with a sheep; and if thou shalt not redeem, thou shalt break his neck: and every first-born of man among thy sons thou shalt redeem. 14And it was when thy son shall ask thee to-morrow, saying, What this? and thou saidst to him, With strength of hand Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt from the house of servants. 15And it shall be when Pharaoh was hard to send us forth, and Jehovah will kill every first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of man to the firstborn of cattle; for this I sacrifice to Jehovah all bursting forth the womb, the males; and all the first-born of my sons I will redeem. 16And it was for a sign upon thy hand, and for bands between thine eyes: for with a strong hand Jehovah brought us forth from Egypt 17And it shall be in Pharaoh's sending forth the people, and God directed not the way of the land of the Philistines, for it is near; for God said, Lest the people shall grieve in their seeing war, and they turn back to Egypt 18And God will turn the people about the way of the desert, the sea of sedge: and the sons of Israel went up active out of the land of Egypt 19And Moses will take the bones of Joseph with him: for swearing he caused the sons of Israel to swear, saying, For reviewing, God will review you; and carry up my bones with you from here. 20And they will remove from Succoth, and they will encamp in Etham, in the extremity of the desert 21And Jehovah went before them the day in a pillar of cloud, to direct them the way; and the night in a pillar of fire to give light to them; to go the day and the night 22And the pillar of cloud will not give way, the day, and the pillar of fire, the night, before the people.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 THE FIRST-BORN SANCTIFIED. (
Exod 13:1-
Exod 13:2)
Sanctify unto me all the first-born--To "sanctify" means to "consecrate," to "set apart" from a common to a sacred use. The foundation of this duty rested on the fact that the Israelites, having had their first-born preserved by a distinguishing act of grace from the general destruction that overtook the families of the Egyptians, were bound in token of gratitude to consider them as the Lord's peculiar property (compare
Heb 12:23).
3 MEMORIAL OF THE PASSOVER. (
Exod 13:3-
Exod 13:10)
Moses said unto the people, Remember this day--The day that gave them a national existence and introduced them into the privileges of independence and freedom, deserved to live in the memories of the Hebrews and their posterity; and, considering the signal interposition of God displayed in it, to be held not only in perpetual, but devout remembrance.
house of bondage--literally, "house of slaves"--that is, a servile and degrading condition.
for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place--The emancipation of Israel would never have been obtained except it had been wrung from the Egyptian tyrant by the appalling judgments of God, as had been at the outset of his mission announced to Moses (
Exod 3:19).
There shall no leavened bread, &c.--The words are elliptical, and the meaning of the clause may be paraphrased thus:--"For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place, in such haste that there could or should be no leavened bread eaten."
4 month Abib--literally, "a green ear," and hence the month Abib is the month of green ears, corresponding to the middle of our March. It was the best season for undertaking a journey to the desert region of Sinai, especially with flocks and herds; for then the winter torrents had subsided, and the wadies were covered with an early and luxuriant verdure.
5 when the Lord shall bring thee--The passover is here instituted as a permanent festival of the Israelites. It was, however, only a prospective observance; we read of only one celebration of the passover during the protracted sojourn in the wilderness [
Num 9:5]; but on their settlement in the promised land, the season was hallowed as a sacred anniversary [
Josh 5:10], in conformity with the directions here given.
8 thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying--The establishment of this and the other sacred festivals presented the best opportunities of instructing the young in a knowledge of His gracious doings to their ancestors in Egypt.
9 it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, &c.--There is no reason to believe that the Oriental tattooing--the custom of staining the hands with the powder of Hennah, as Eastern females now do--is here referred to. Nor is it probable that either this practice or the phylacteries of the Pharisees--parchment scrolls, which were worn on their wrists and foreheads--had so early an existence. The words are to be considered only as a figurative mode of expression.
that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth, &c.--that is, that it may be the subject of frequent conversation and familiar knowledge among the people.
12 FIRSTLINGS OF BEASTS. (
Exod 13:11-
Exod 13:16)
every firstling, &c.--the injunction respecting the consecration of the first-born, as here repeated, with some additional circumstances. The firstlings of clean beasts, such as lambs, kids, and calves, if males, were to be devoted to God and employed in sacrifice. Those unclean beasts, as the ass's colt, being unfit for sacrifice, were to be redeemed (
Num 18:15).
17 JOURNEY FROM EGYPT. (
Exod 13:17-
Exod 13:21)
God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, &c.--The shortest and most direct route from Egypt to Palestine was the usual caravan road that leads by Belbeis, El-Arish, to Ascalon and Gaza. The Philistines, who then possessed the latter, would have been sure to dispute their passage, for between them and the Israelites there was a hereditary feud (
1Chr 7:21-22); and so early a commencement of hostilities would have discouraged or dismayed the unwarlike band which Moses led. Their faith was to be exercised and strengthened, and from the commencement of their travels we observe the same careful proportion of burdens and trials to their character and state, as the gracious Lord shows to His people still in that spiritual journey of which the former was typical.
18 God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, &c.--This wondrous expanse of water is a gulf of the Indian ocean. It was called in Hebrew "the weedy sea," from the forest of marine plants with which it abounds. But the name of the Red Sea is not so easily traced. Some think it was given from its contiguity to the countries of Edom ("red"); others derive it from its coral rocks; while a third class ascribe the origin of the name to an extremely red appearance of the water in some parts, caused by a numberless multitude of very small mollusca. This sea, at its northern extremity, separates into two smaller inlets--the eastern called anciently the Elanitic gulf, now the gulf of Akaba; and the western the Heroopolite gulf, now the gulf of Suez, which, there can be no doubt, extended much more to the north anciently than it does now. It was toward the latter the Israelites marched.
went up harnessed--that is, girded, equipped for a long journey. (See
Ps 105:37). The Margin renders it "five in a rank," meaning obviously five large divisions, under five presiding officers, according to the usages of all caravans; and a spectacle of such a mighty and motley multitude must have presented an imposing appearance, and its orderly progress could have been effected only by the superintending influence of God.
19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him--in fulfilment of the oath he exacted from his brethren (
Gen 50:25-
Gen 50:26). The remains of the other patriarchs (not noticed from their obscurity) were also carried out of Egypt (
Acts 7:15-
Acts 7:16); and there would be no difficulty as to the means of conveyance--a few camels bearing these precious relics would give a true picture of Oriental customs, such as is still to be seen in the immense pilgrimages to Mecca.
20 encamped in Etham--This place is supposed by the most intelligent travellers to be the modern Ajrud, where is a watering-place, and which is the third stage of the pilgrim-caravans to Mecca. "It is remarkable that either of the different routes eastward from Heliopolis, or southward from Heroopolis, equally admit of Ajrud being Etham. It is twelve miles northwest from Suez, and is literally on the edge of the desert" [Pictorial Bible].
21 the Lord went before them--by a visible token of His presence, the Shekinah, in a majestic cloud (
Ps 78:14;
Neh 9:12;
1Cor 10:1), called "the angel of God" (
Exod 14:19;
Exod 23:20-
Exod 23:23;
Ps 99:6-
Ps 99:7;
Isa 63:8-
Isa 63:9).