Exodus 13:9

9 It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.

Exodus 13:9 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 13:9

And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a
memorial between thine eyes
These are not the words of God or of Moses to the children of Israel, but of an lsraelitish parent to his son, telling him that this feast of unleavened bread would serve the same purpose to refresh his memory with what God did for his people of old, as the tying of a thing on the hand, or placing it before the eye, is to a person to bring anything to his remembrance, to which the allusion is; the like figurative phrases may be observed in ( Proverbs 1:9 ) ( 3:3 ) , the Jews understand this literally, and hence the use of phylacteries among them, which they bind upon their left hand, and place upon their foreheads between their eyes, of which (See Gill on Matthew 23:5), but such a practice could be of no use to answer the end next mentioned: that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth;
for surely this cannot be taken literally, but the sense is, that being instructed by the observance of the above feast, and being taught the meaning of it, they might be able to speak of it to their children, and so transmit it from age to age to their latest posterity: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt;
(See Gill on Exodus 13:3).

Exodus 13:9 In-Context

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.
8 And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, 'This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt.'
9 It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.
10 You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
11 "And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.