Exodus 13: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses to set apart for himself every firstborn among the Israelites, both people and animals. Moses tells the people to remember the day they came out of Egypt, and says that when the LORD brings them into the land he swore to their fathers, they are to keep the seven days of unleavened bread in the month Abib, set apart the firstborn of their animals, buy back their firstborn sons, and tell their sons why. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the road through Philistine country but around by the wilderness road toward the Red Sea; Moses took Joseph's bones, and the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Claim by Claim

1. 13:1
   • The LORD spoke to Moses.
2. 13:2
   • The LORD commanded that every firstborn be consecrated to him.
   • The firstborn in question is whatever first opens the womb among the children of Israel.
   • This applies to both humans and animals.
   • The LORD said the firstborn belongs to him.
3. 13:3
   • Moses spoke to the people.
   • Moses told them to remember this day, on which they came out of Egypt.
   • Moses called Egypt the house of slaves.
   • Moses said the LORD brought them out of that place by strength of hand.
   • Moses said no leavened bread was to be eaten.
4. 13:4
   • Moses said they were going out on this day.
   • Moses said they were going out in the month of Abib.
5. 13:5
   • Moses said the LORD would bring them into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
   • Moses said the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give them that land.
   • Moses described the land as flowing with milk and honey.
   • Moses said that when this happened they were to keep this service in this month.
6. 13:6
   • Moses said they were to eat unleavened bread for seven days.
   • Moses said that on the seventh day there would be a feast to the LORD.
7. 13:7
   • Moses said unleavened bread was to be eaten the seven days.
   • Moses said no leavened bread was to be seen with them.
   • Moses said no leaven was to be seen with them in all their territory.
8. 13:8
   • Moses said each man was to tell his son on that day.
   • The father was to say that this is because of what the LORD did for him when he came out of Egypt.
9. 13:9
   • Moses said it would be a sign on his hand.
   • Moses said it would be a memorial between his eyes.
   • Moses said the purpose was that the law of the LORD might be in his mouth.
   • Moses said the LORD had brought him out of Egypt with a strong hand.
10. 13:10
    • Moses said they were to keep this statute at its appointed time.
    • Moses said they were to keep it year after year.
11. 13:11
    • Moses said the LORD would bring them into the land of the Canaanites.
    • Moses said the LORD had sworn this to them and to their fathers.
    • Moses said the LORD would give the land to them.
12. 13:12
    • Moses said they were to set apart to the LORD everything that first opens the womb.
    • Moses said this included every firstling of a beast that they had.
    • Moses said the males belong to the LORD.
13. 13:13
    • Moses said every firstling of a donkey was to be redeemed with a sheep or goat.
    • Moses said that if it was not redeemed, its neck was to be broken.
    • Moses said every firstborn of man among their sons was to be redeemed.
14. 13:14
    • Moses said that in time to come a son would ask his father what this is.
    • Moses said the father was to answer him.
    • The father was to say the LORD brought them out of Egypt by strength of hand.
    • The father was to call Egypt the house of slaves.
15. 13:15
    • The father was to say that Pharaoh was stubborn about letting them go.
    • The father was to say the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
    • The father was to say this extended from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of beast.
    • The father was to say that for this reason he sacrifices to the LORD all the males that first open the womb.
    • The father was to say that he redeems all the firstborn of his sons.
16. 13:16
    • Moses said it would be a sign on his hand.
    • Moses said it would be as frontlets between his eyes.
    • Moses said the LORD brought them out of Egypt by strength of hand.
17. 13:17
    • Pharaoh let the people go.
    • God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines.
    • That way was near.
    • God said the people might change their minds when they saw war.
    • God said they might then return to Egypt.
18. 13:18
    • God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Sea of Reeds.
    • The children of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.
19. 13:19
    • Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.
    • Joseph had made the children of Israel swear a solemn oath.
    • Joseph said God would surely visit them.
    • Joseph said they were to carry his bones up from there with them.
20. 13:20
    • They journeyed from Succoth.
    • They camped at Etham, at the edge of the wilderness.
21. 13:21
    • The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way.
    • The LORD went before them by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.
    • The purpose was that they could travel by day and by night.
22. 13:22
    • The pillar of cloud by day did not depart from before the people.
    • The pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1

LORD in big letters stands for God's own special name.

13:2

"Firstborn" here means the first offspring a mother bears, not simply the eldest of a family; the Hebrew phrase is literally "whatever opens the womb." In the ancient world the first of anything (first grain, first fruit, first young) was regarded as belonging to the deity, and the firstborn son also carried the family's inheritance and leadership. "Set apart" (KJV "sanctify") means transferred out of ordinary use and handed over to God, not made morally pure.

13:3

Leaven is a lump of fermented dough kept back from an earlier batch and mixed into the next to make it rise, the ancient equivalent of yeast. Because it takes hours to work, bread without it can be made and baked quickly, which is the point tied here to a hurried departure. "House of bondage" is a Hebrew way of saying "the place where you were slaves," not a particular building.

13:4

Abib means roughly "green ears," the month when barley ripens, March–April in our calendar. After the exile the same month was usually called Nisan.

13:5

These are the names of the peoples living in Canaan before Israel; the list is a stock formula for "the inhabitants of the land," not a precise census. "A land flowing with milk and honey" is an idiom for country rich enough to support grazing herds (milk) and wild bees or fruit syrup (honey), abundant without hard irrigation, unlike Egypt. "Swore to your fathers" refers to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

13:6

This week became the Feast of Unleavened Bread, one of the year's major festivals, held immediately after Passover and eventually spoken of as a single celebration with it.

13:7

"In all thy quarters" in 1611 English meant throughout your territory, everywhere within your borders. It is not talking about rooms of a house.

13:9

"On your hand" and "between your eyes" may be figurative, keep it as close as something tied to your wrist or worn on your face, or a literal instruction. Later Jewish practice took it literally and produced tefillin (phylacteries), small boxes containing scripture texts bound to the arm and forehead.

13:12

"Matrix" in 1611 English simply meant womb. The phrase means the first offspring a mother produces.

13:13

To "redeem" (the plain rendering says "buy back") is to pay a substitute price so that something owed to God can be kept instead of surrendered. A donkey was not an animal that could be offered in sacrifice, so a lamb takes its place; the alternative given is destroying it rather than simply keeping it. Firstborn sons were likewise bought back with a payment, never sacrificed.

13:14

What is this? means: why do we do this every year?

13:15

"Hardly" in the King James Version means with great difficulty, describing stubborn refusal. It does not mean "barely" or "scarcely," which is what the word suggests today.

13:16

KJV "frontlets" means a band or ornament worn across the forehead. The Hebrew word occurs only in this kind of phrase and its exact sense is uncertain.

13:17

The Philistines were a people settled along the southern coast of Canaan. The coastal road through their territory was the short, direct route from Egypt to Canaan, but it was also the Egyptian army's own military highway, guarded by forts, which is why taking it would mean meeting soldiers.

13:18

The Hebrew is yam suph, which literally means "sea of reeds"; "Red Sea" comes from the ancient Greek translation, and which body of water is meant has long been disputed. KJV "harnessed" translates a word that may mean drawn up in battle formation, or possibly "in fifties": that is, in organized ranks rather than as a fleeing mob.

13:19

Joseph, who had risen to power in Egypt generations earlier, made his relatives swear to carry his remains back to the family burial ground in Canaan (Genesis 50:24–25). Egyptians embalmed bodies, so the bones could still be moved centuries later. "God will surely come to you" translates a verb meaning to attend to or take notice of someone, for help or for judgment.

13:20

Succoth and Etham are the first stops on the route; neither site can now be identified with certainty. "Wilderness" here means uncultivated open country, grazing land and desert scrub, not necessarily bare sand.

13:21

"Pillar" here means a tall column, a rising shaft of cloud or fire rather than anything built. Ancient armies on the move sometimes used a raised signal such as a burning brazier on a pole so a long column of people could see which way the front was going.