Exodus 13:5-15

5 The Lord will lead you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites. This is the land he promised your ancestors he would give you, a fertile land. There you must celebrate this feast during the first month of every year.

6 For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there will be a feast to honor the Lord.

7 So for seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast. There must be no bread made with yeast anywhere in your land.

8 On that day you should tell your son: 'We are having this feast because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

9 This feast will help you remember, like a mark on your hand or a reminder on your forehead. This feast will remind you to speak the Lord's teachings, because the Lord used his great power to bring you out of Egypt.

10 So celebrate this feast every year at the right time.

11 "And when the Lord takes you into the land of the Canaanites, the land he promised to give you and your ancestors,

12 you must give him every firstborn male. Also every firstborn male animal must be given to the Lord.

13 Buy back every firstborn donkey by offering a lamb. But if you don't want to buy the donkey back, then break its neck. You must buy back from the Lord every firstborn of your sons.

14 "From now on when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' you will answer, 'With his great power, the Lord brought us out from Egypt, the land where we were slaves.

15 The king of Egypt was stubborn and refused to let us leave. But the Lord killed every firstborn male in Egypt, both human and animal. That is why I sacrifice every firstborn male animal to the Lord, and that is why I buy back each of my firstborn sons from the Lord.'

Exodus 13:5-15 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.