Every Firstborn Is Mine
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine.” 3 Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today you go out in the month Abib. 5 It shall be, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. 6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Yahweh. 7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and no leavened bread shall be seen with you. No yeast shall be seen with you, within all your borders. 8 You shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘It is because of that which Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt. 10 You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. 11 “It shall be, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanite, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and will give it to you, 12 that you shall set apart to Yahweh all that opens the womb, and every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have. The males shall be Yahweh’s. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and you shall redeem all the firstborn of man among your sons. 14 It shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall tell him, ‘By strength of hand Yahweh brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of livestock. Therefore I sacrifice to Yahweh all that opens the womb, being males; but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 It shall be for a sign on your hand, and for symbols between your eyes; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.”
The sons spared at midnight belong to God, and each generation buys them back with a sacrifice that explains itself to a child.
“Sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine.”
The claim follows directly from the night before. Every firstborn son in Israel is alive because a lamb died in his place, so his life is forfeit and has been bought; the ownership is stated as a simple consequence. What Egypt lost, Israel keeps on loan.
In practice the claim is met by exchange. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and you shall redeem all the firstborn of man among your sons Exodus 13:13. The donkey is an unclean animal and cannot be offered, so a lamb dies in its place or the animal is destroyed. The alternatives are stark on purpose, and the third clause applies the same arithmetic to children, without the second option. A son is always redeemed. Something else always dies.
So the sequence that governs the rest of Scripture is set out here in its plainest form. A life is owed. A substitute is provided. The one who owed the life goes free, and does not go free by having the debt waived.
The feast of unleavened bread is bound to the same event Exodus 13:3–10, and both institutions are given the same purpose, stated twice in nearly identical words. You shall tell your son in that day, saying, "It is because of that which Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt" Exodus 13:8. And again: when your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What is this?" that you shall tell him, "By strength of hand Yahweh brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage" Exodus 13:14.
Two questions, two answers, and both answers are narrative rather than doctrine. The child asks what the practice means and is told what happened. This is how the book expects faith to be transmitted — not by argument, and not by ceremony alone, but by a ceremony strange enough to prompt a question and a parent able to answer it with a story he tells in the first person.
It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt.
The hand is what a person does and the eyes are what a person attends to; the phrase is a figure for a life governed by the memory of a rescue, and the third clause gives the reason — so that the law is in the mouth, which is to say, spoken about. Whether the words were also to be worn literally has been answered both ways, and the passage does not settle it. What it does settle is the direction: the reminder is fastened to the working parts of a life rather than kept for holy days.
settled What this mark means