Exodus 13:3-10

3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.
4 Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving.
5 When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month:
6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD.
7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.
8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.
10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.

Exodus 13:3-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 13

This chapter begins with an order to sanctify or set apart the firstborn of man and beast to the Lord, Ex 13:1,2 and the people of Israel are charged to keep the feast of unleavened bread in its season, from year to year, when they came into the land of Canaan, the reason of which they were to acquaint their children with, Ex 13:3-10 and they are also directed, when come into the land of Canaan, to set apart every firstling of a beast unto the Lord, and particularly the firstling of an ass was to be redeemed with a lamb, or its neck to be broke, and all the firstborn of men were to be redeemed also, Ex 13:11-13, and when their children inquired the reason of it, they were to be told it was on account of the Lord's slaying the firstborn of men and beast among the Egyptians, when Pharaoh would not let Israel go, and of saving the firstborn of his people, Ex 13:14-16, and it is observed, that when the children of Israel went out of Egypt, they were not led by the nearest way, the way of the land of the Philistines, but a round about way, the way of the wilderness of the Red sea, when they took the bones of Joseph with them, as he had adjured them to do, Ex 13:17-19, and the chapter is concluded with an account of their journeying from Succoth to Etham, the Lord going before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, Ex 13:20-22.

Cross References 15

  • 1. ver 14; Exodus 7:4; Leviticus 26:13; Numbers 1:1; Numbers 9:1; Numbers 22:5; Numbers 26:4; Deuteronomy 4:45; Deuteronomy 5:6; Psalms 81:10; Psalms 114:1
  • 2. S Exodus 3:20; Exodus 6:1
  • 3. S Exodus 12:8; Exodus 12:19
  • 4. S Exodus 12:2
  • 5. ver 11
  • 6. S Exodus 3:8
  • 7. S Exodus 3:8
  • 8. Exodus 12:25-26
  • 9. S Exodus 12:15-20
  • 10. ver 14; S Exodus 10:2; Psalms 78:5-6
  • 11. Isaiah 44:5
  • 12. ver 16; Deuteronomy 6:8; Deuteronomy 11:18; Proverbs 3:3; Matthew 23:5
  • 13. S Exodus 3:20
  • 14. S Exodus 12:14; Exodus 12:24-25
  • 15. Psalms 75:2; Psalms 102:13
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